For the second straight season, a talented Arizona team received all it could handle during its trip to Eugene.
And for the second straight season, Oregon came up just short.
Arizona (15-4 overall, 7-1 Pacific-10 Conference) used an 11-1 run over the game’s final 4:38 to pull out a 70-66 win over Oregon in front of 3,633 fans at McArthur Court Thursday.
Oregon (10-8, 2-6) led by as many as six down the stretch, but the Wildcats grabbed the lead for good when a rebound basket by center Shawntinice Polk put Arizona ahead 66-65 with 43 seconds remaining.
The basket was Polk’s only field goal of the second half. Hampered all night by double teams and foul trouble, last season’s Pac-10 Freshman of the Year was held to seven points on 3 of 8 shooting in 23 minutes.
“They were running people at me all night,” Polk said. “But the thing I don’t understand is people think that if they shut me down, they shut the Arizona team down. As you can tell, I sat out most of the game and we still pulled out the victory.”
The Ducks had plenty of chances down the stretch to put the game away, but missed free throws and hesitant offensive play led to their doom. Oregon shot 2 of 7 from the line and was held without a field goal during the game’s final five minutes. The Ducks had to battle through the Arizona press late in the game, leaving them with roughly 15 seconds on the shot clock when they finally started looking to shoot.
“We were all trying to move the ball and get good shots, but then again, we were kind of back on our heels,” Oregon guard Chelsea Wagner said. “We weren’t attacking the basket to get those shots. We were being very passive.”
When Oregon faltered, the Wildcats were quick to pounce on the opportunity. Forward Natalie Jones connected on all six of her free throw attempts, including four in the final 16 seconds. Jones also connected on several game-icing free throws at the end of last year’s 71-66 win over the Ducks at McArthur Court.
Arizona guard Dee-Dee Wheeler picked up the slack offensively while Polk was being swarmed by Oregon defenders. Wheeler scored 22 points on 9 of 13 shooting, including a three-pointer from the left corner with 2:14 remaining to pull Arizona within one.
“Dee-Dee Wheeler really kept us in this game,” Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini said. “She did a great job.”
Despite the loss, Oregon can take some positives away from Thursday’s game. The 66 points were the most for the Ducks since they scored 68 at Santa Clara Dec. 16. Oregon also held its own in the paint after being one of the worst rebounding teams in the conference of late. The Wildcats held a slim 33-32 advantage on the boards and weren’t able to push the Ducks around.
Oregon had three players finish with double-digit point totals, led by Wagner’s 17. Playing with a torn lateral meniscus in her left knee, Wagner knocked down 5 of 11 three-point attempts and made several hustle plays defensively.
Andrea Bills scored 16 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. Eleanor Haring added 14 points on 7 of 13 shooting and Corrie Mizusawa dished out a game-high 10 assists.
CoCoa Sanford scored nine points and Aimee Grzyb added eight for the Wildcats.