A Will Richardson 30-foot jumper with 3 minutes to play pushed the Oregon lead to 10, silencing the crowd at Huntsman Center.
Gabe Madsen made three 3-pointers in the first 3 minutes of play to claim an early lead for the Utes. Oregon responded, asserting its pace and style of play for the majority of the game. They shot 50% from distance to win 80-77, surviving a late game Utah run and taking the second leg of their two game road trip Saturday night.
“We just gotta find a way to grind it out,” junior guard Will Richardson said. “We fought through the run, we stayed together as a team and we came out victorious so it’s definitely a good win.”
Richardson carried the majority of the load for the Ducks on the offensive end. The 6-foot-5 preseason Bob Cousy award finalist struggled to score at the start of this season, but since the new year has been increasingly productive, notching a career high 26 points against Utah on New Year’s Day and 25 points in Saturday’s victory on 10 of 18 field goal shooting, going 5 of 7 from deep. Richardson also led the Ducks with five assists.
Oregon took a 12 point lead into the intermission. Despite leading by 10 points with 2:41 to play, they struggled to close the game out as late game turnovers against the full-court-press gave Utah an opportunity to erase the lead in the final minute of play.
“I hope we learn from this, our guards have to do a better job,” coach Dana Altman said. “Very disappointed because we did some very good things in the game, and we should’ve been up more.”
Off an Eric Williams Jr. inbounding turnover, Utah guard Rollie Worster’s layup cut the Oregon lead to three with 1:06 to play.
After trading baskets, still up 3, De’Vion Harmon traveled giving Utah the ball back with a chance to tie and 30 seconds remaining.
To seal the game, up 1, Eric Williams Jr. who finished the night with a team high 10 rebounds broke the Utah press, finding Jacob Young behind the defense for a layup to push the lead from 1 back to 3.
“I don’t know if we would be that fortunate if we put ourselves in that position again,” Altman said. “We just gotta be much tougher.”
If it weren’t for the costly late game turnovers, the Ducks would have cruised to an easy victory. Twice this season, the Ducks have nearly blown close leads on the road, which is worrying despite the fact that they seem to be playing better basketball down the stretch each game.
The Ducks (15-7) will look to play a more complete game when they return home to host Stanford on Feb. 10.
