Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb saw the now-famous shot of Sabrina Ionescu’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer pop up again and again on social media this week. That was because Ionescu’s shot drew comparisons to Dillon Brooks’ game-winner at Cal on Wednesday.
Her players saw it, too.

“We played off it,” Gottlieb said. “We played off the number of times we saw the clip the last couple days because of the men’s game. It was uncanny.

“To me, it was like, ‘Hey guys. Watch it as many times as you can.’ That’s just basketball — trying to get your kids hyped up.”

Neither team needed a SportsCenter-worthy buzzer beater on Friday as the Ducks never led in their 55-49 loss to Cal. Oregon’s second consecutive loss, Friday provided the Ducks (18-11, 8-9) another winnable game to improve their NCAA Tournament resume.

The Ducks entered the game tied for fifth in the conference standings. ASU won, so the Ducks are now alone in sixth place.

“This one hurts. It really does,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “We needed this game. I thought we prepared well. I thought our kids were juiced. I was hoping that we had learned from last week, but obviously we didn’t.”

Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard each had 11 points for the Ducks. Hebard added eight rebounds, but the Ducks were out-rebounded by Cal, 40-26. That was disappointing to Graves.

“We knew rebounding was going to be one of the keys — if not the No. 1 key — and it proved right,” Graves said.

The Ducks had a shot to tie the game in their final possession with 10 seconds left, but Lexi Bando’s 3-pointer missed the mark. Oregon then fouled Cal, which made its two free throws to put the game out of reach.

Sierra Campisano recorded a layup to tie the game at 49 with 3:36 left, but the Ducks missed their final seven shots of regulation.

Both teams combined for 12 points during a low-scoring second quarter.

“Defensively, obviously we stopped them to six points but offensively we hadn’t settled down yet,” said Jacinta Vandenberg, who played 19 minutes. “We still weren’t in our groove.”

Cal outscored Oregon 19-16 during the third quarter. Both teams scored 13 points during the fourth quarter.

Cal was happy it held the Ducks to 49 points.

“To hold a really good scoring team like Oregon to 49 points, that was the story of the game,” Gottlieb said. “Mostly we wanted to be disruptive on defense. They’re really good. If you let them feel comfortable in their offense, they’re going to pick you apart.”

Oregon finished the game at 37 percent shooting. Cal shot 38 percent.

Cal’s Asha Thomas scored 15 points, including five 3-pointers. Kristine Anigwe had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

“They’re not a great 3-point shooting team, but they made enough tonight,” Graves said.

The Ducks conclude their regular season schedule when they host No. 8 Stanford on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Cardinal lost to Oregon State on Friday night in a battle of the conference’s two top teams.

“Our kids are going to be down, but they’ve got to find a way to get back up,” Graves said. “That’s the nature of the beast, unfortunately. … Our kids are going to be ready. It’s senior day. They’re going to be jacked up.”

Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne