One must give Oregon credit.
When the Ducks miss, they miss big.
Oregon went long on three-point attempts, but came up short in
an 86-75 loss to Arizona State in front of a sold-out McArthur
Court on Saturday night.
The Ducks attempted a school record 38 three-pointers and
connected on 14.
“We didn’t make enough three’s,” Oregon forward Luke Jackson
said. “We thought they might zone us because they did it before
up here. We just didn’t handle it very well.”
Oregon (12-9 overall, 7-7 Pacific-10 Conference) didn’t handle
it at all. That led to the Ducks’ third loss at Mac Court this
season — the most in a single season since 2000-01 — and second
in a row in Eugene,
The discrepancies on the statistics sheet were big between the
two teams. Arizona State corralled 40 rebounds to Oregon’s 27.
The Ducks committed 27 fouls — 18 in the second half — which led
to 36 Arizona State free throw attempts.

The Sun Devils made 26. Ike Diogu had 13 attempts, hitting on
nine. He made three more than the Ducks even attempted.
In other words, it was a cold night in Eugene.
“With everything at stake on the line, I expected us to play
sharper basketball,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
“Ultimately, (the Sun Devils) wanted it more than we did and
played key basketball at key times.”
As much of a step forward the Ducks took against Arizona in a
loss Thursday, they took an even further step backward Saturday.
The presence of Aaron Brooks in the first half did little to
corral offensive jitters. Despite jumping out with nine points —
on three three-pointers — in the first two minutes, the Ducks
acquiesced to Arizona State down the stretch.
The Sun Devils (10-14, 4-11) came back and took a one-point lead
five minutes in. Four minutes later, Arizona State started a
stretch run that kept Oregon scoreless for five minutes.
All the while jumping out to a four-point lead that it never
relinquished.
“I thought our team did a good job of managing the game,”
Arizona State head coach Rob Evans said. “They showed patience.
When you do that, you give your club a chance to win ball
games.”
While the Sun Devils showed patience, the Ducks did not. En
route to the 38 three-point attempts, Oregon showed little poise
down low. The Ducks’ big men — Ian Crosswhite, Mitch Platt, Jay
Anderson and Matt Short — combined for 21 points and 10
rebounds.

Diogu had 12 rebounds all on his own.
“They hit some big shots, killed us on the boards and had a lot
of second-chance points,” Kent said.
Jackson had 16 points two days after a career-high 42 against
Arizona. He shot 6 of 13 from the floor and was a key piece of
the offensive puzzle that Arizona State focused on during the
entire game.
The Sun Devils didn’t disappoint. Jackson scored just seven
points in the second half.
“We knew where he was,” Evans said. “We were going to make sure
we knew where he and (James) Davis were.”
“For me, every game is just so important,” Jackson said. “It’s
hard not to put everything I have into every game.”
Davis picked up some of the slack left by Jackson, scoring 18
points on the strength of 6 of 15 shooting from beyond the
three-point line. The 15 attempts tied a school-record.
“This was a big game,” Davis said. “We let a lot of
opportunities get away from us. They’re trying to fight their
butt off to get to the Pac-10 (Tournament).”
Now comes the hard part. With California losing to Southern
California on Saturday, the Ducks remain in a tie for fourth
place in the Pac-10 with the Golden Bears.
But unlike most years, a fourth place finish in the conference
will not suffice when aiming for the NCAA Tournament.
The consensus is that the Ducks need to win their last four
games — including road contests against Stanford and California
— and win the Pac-10 Tournament to get a bid.
That will be tough, to say the least.
“We’ve just got to fight,” Davis said. “We haven’t been playing
with a sense of urgency. We have to have more fire when we’re
out there. We’ve got to play for ourselves and our pride.”