This was the recipe Oregon wanted.

A battle of attrition. A red-hot start to the conference tournament. An opponent that they went wire-to-wire with earlier in the season.

It didn’t matter for the Ducks (22-12). Michigan (25-5) was the better team for all 40 minutes of Friday’s 80-58 loss to No. 8 Michigan at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Katie Fiso and Ehis Etute had 22 and 16 points for the Ducks, respectively, but no other Oregon player finished in double-digits.

“We are a pretty young team, but at the end of the day, what matters is winning,” Etute said. “Our age doesn’t really matter. What we took away from this is that we have a lot of areas to grow in. We kind of saw where we lacked and what we were lacking, and we know what we’re supposed to work on in the offseason and also before the tournament. And we’ll see if that translates.”

Put simply, Oregon ran out of juice in its third game in as many nights against a far more seasoned opponent.

“We knew it was going to be a mental battle more, and a physical battle coming into this game,” Fiso said. “You know, we played two games already, this being our third; we did our best, doing recovery, treatment, stuff like that, to prepare for this game. Like Coach said, you know, just got to play through that fatigue.”

The Wolverines finished with a 44-31 rebound advantage and, led by Syla Swords’ 17 points, had four players score 10 or more. On offense, Fiso and Etute got theirs, but weren’t as impactful on the defensive end and understandably had tired legs.

“I think we played with them for a while, played okay in the first half,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “Certainly our first-shot defense was pretty good, but we gave them too many second-chance points. And then that second half, I think we just ran out of gas. You know, we were three games in three days — not making that an excuse, but that’s real, though, and we just didn’t have as much left in the tank.”

Oregon is a sure-fire NCAA Tournament team, and if anything, improved its bid with two conference wins, including Thursday’s over a ranked Maryland team. Still, secondary scoring and 3-point shooting is going to be a necessity for an Oregon team that shot just 3 of 19 from range.

“We are a pretty young team, but at the end of the day, what matters is winning,” Etute said. “Our age doesn’t really matter. What we took away from this is that we have a lot of areas to grow in. We kind of saw where we lacked and what we were lacking, and we know what we’re supposed to work on in the offseason and also before the tournament. And we’ll see if that translates.”

Oregon awaits its destination in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday, March 15.