No deficit seems insurmountable this season for the No. 15 Oregon Ducks.
The same can be said for their opponents.
The Ducks have made multiple comebacks this season, including significant ones in five of their Pacific-10 Conference victories. But lately, a lead is something the Ducks can’t hold.
Oregon led 33-21 at halftime against Arizona State only to see that evaporate into a 42-42 tie with 9:30 remaining in the second half before the Ducks held on for a four-point victory last Thursday.
Then on Saturday against Arizona, the Ducks held a 38-28 lead at halftime but less than two minutes into the second half that lead was cut to 40-38.
“When we had our chance to put them away, we didn’t do that three or four times in the ball game” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said following the Arizona game. “When you have slippage whether it’s a breakdown in transition, a lack of communication in the half court, someone forgetting to block out, good teams are going to make you pay.”
The Wildcats eventually tied the game at 66 with 3:54 to go in the half and built that up to a 73-66 lead with 2:02 to play before hanging on for the 77-74 victory.
“I think we just came out and played stupid in the beginning of those two halves,” said senior point guard Aaron Brooks, who particularly struggled with 11 total points against the Arizona schools. “We were careless with the ball, making dumb mistakes, giving up a lot of transition buckets, and that’s something we definitely have to change down the road.”
The Ducks held and relinquished halftime leads in conference play this season against USC and UCLA and built a 15-point second-half lead against Arizona State in Tempe before the Sun Devils trimmed the margin to three points late in the game.
“It’s just coming out of halftime prepared and wanting to keep the throttle going,” forward Maarty Leunen said. “When you’re down, you always have that urgency to fight back. We’ve got to match their intensity.”
Kent believes Oregon’s ability to manage leads starts at the defensive end and with rebounding.
“If you look at that, it may explain why some leads whittled away because you didn’t do some of these things in that area,” Kent said. “Some of it is defensively. Some of it is teams shot the ball really well against you and it had nothing to do with your defense. Coming out of the locker room against Arizona, there were some defensive mistakes…and as soon as you make those mistakes, you pay.”
Kent’s Status
Kent’s MRI on Monday confirmed what he initially assumed was a tear of two tendons in his left rotator cuff. Kent suffered the injury in the Arizona game after freshman point guard Tajuan Porter connected on a go-ahead three pointer with 22 seconds remaining. Kent said the injury occurred while attempting to raise his hands to call a timeout after the shot and when he accidentally bumped into assistant coach Mark Hudson.
“Immediately I knew something was wrong because of the pain,” Kent said. “I couldn’t get the pain to stop until I could sit down and finally put the arm on my chest.”
Kent, who previously had rotator cuff surgery for the same injury on his opposite arm following a bicycle accident, said he is “not going to do anything with it until after the season.”
Notes
The Oregon-Washington State game at McArthur Court on Feb. 22 was selected by FSN for a national telecast and is now scheduled to start at 8 p.m.
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