It’s a saying that echoes around locker rooms throughout sports, but it was coined by former USC and Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll: “Can you win the game in the first quarter? No. Can you win the game in the second quarter? No. Can you win the game in the third quarter? No. But can you win the game in the fourth quarter? Yes.” 

For the Oregon Ducks (15-7, 7-4 Pac-12), the fourth quarter was where it mattered most — and where they couldn’t make it happen. The Ducks lost out to the UCLA Bruins (11-11, 6-5 Pac-12) to drop to 1-1 on their SoCal road trip and deal a hefty blow to their NCAA tournament hopes. 
It was an awkward game  from the start. Oregon arrived late to Pauley Pavilion after finding itself stuck a mile from the arena in the presidential motorcade traveling through Westwood. After a half-hour delay, the game was underway, but the Ducks may have well still been on the bus.

The first half could be cleanly divided in half: Three turnovers in the first five minutes allowed the Bruins to race into the lead, and 12 minutes into the game, UCLA led 23-5 and was manhandling the Ducks. Oregon couldn’t get Jackson Shelstad, who had 20 points against USC on Thursday night, into the game. He’d finish with 10 points, but was nowhere to be found in that first half.

Then, suddenly, it all seemed to click for Dana Altman’s team. After the 14-year head coach was seen chewing his players out during a timeout, the Ducks went on a series of runs that saw them end the half with the lead. From that 12 minute mark, Oregon outscored UCLA 29-10. Despite Shelstad still without a point, three consecutive three pointers from Jadrian Tracey, who led the team in points at the half with 13, powered Oregon into the break. 

This was the game for the Ducks to prove that they could finally turn around a deficit. For a time, it looked like they would. 

Then buckets began to fall once again for the Bruins. A 9-0 UCLA run lasting nearly four minutes finally ended when a ball was unintentionally tipped in the Ducks’ basket, and Oregon was once again struggling to find its feet as the opposition began to build a lead. At that point, UCLA was 11-14 from the field, and the Ducks, despite shooting around 50%, couldn’t stop their matchups.

But as Carroll preaches, the game wasn’t yet over. By the five minute mark, thanks to a 12-1 run, the game was tied. Significantly, UCLA center Adem Bona was sitting on the bench with four fouls. The Turkish center, who had been the Bruins’ best hope at stopping N’Faly Dante, would have to wait until the game’s final moments. 

Fouls piling up became the Ducks’ biggest foe for those minutes — any foul would result in free throws for the Bruins. As the commentary team quipped, Oregon would ‘have to play perfect defense’. By the four minute mark, both Dante and Tracey had three fouls. A dagger three from Dylan Andrews off a ball screen could not be matched by Shelstad, and the Bruins, all of a sudden, had an eight point lead with under two minutes to play.

With the game on the line, it wasn’t Bona but Andrews, finishing a stellar 21-point, seven assist night, who sealed the game for the Bruins with a steal-turned-drawn foul. That eight-point advantage would be all that was needed. Oregon dropped to second place in the Pac-12 while UCLA added its fifth victory in the last six games.

For the Ducks, it’s bitter disappointment. A chance to sweep the Los Angeles schools on the season was undone by a streaky performance that epitomized their season. Runs where they shut out their opposition were matched by snakebitten series of their own. The bench, which for so many of their wins this season was key, had no answers. 

They now enter the end-season stretch with a prayer rather than a claim to a slot in the tournament — and with several key players out, it’ll be a question of how many games they can finish, not just how many they can start.