BERKELEY, Calif. — A 19-point first half lead had evaporated. A Haas Pavilion crowd of 12,000 had been recharged.
And the Oregon men’s basketball team found itself once again in a tight game on the road.
This time, the opponent was California, and this time, the Ducks were playing to hold onto their share of first place.
The requisite 40 minutes of basketball came and went with both failing to win. A tension-filled five-minute overtime session ensued, but even that didn’t prove to be enough.
But in the final five minutes of the 50-minute contest, the Ducks couldn’t keep up with the Golden Bears and dropped an entertaining 107-103 double-overtime loss Saturday night that takes them from the top spot in the Pacific-10 standings.
Two nights after losing at Stanford, 90-87, in overtime, the Ducks again couldn’t come out on top in a hostile environment, which now makes all seven of their losses away from home.
Oregon knew how important it was to at least split on this road trip, with many of its critics pointing to the discrepancy in its record– the Ducks are 13-0 at McArthur Court and 4-7 away from home.
All seven of the defeats away from the friendly confines of Mac Court have been decided by seven points or less. And the Ducks’ wins on the road have all been by eight points or more.
After Saturday’s latest setback, the Ducks admitted frustration with their road performances and especially the overtime setbacks from this weekend. But they also insisted that when the tension mounts, the minutes dwindle and the roar of the crowd isn’t for them, they stay loose and maintain their confidence.
“Our team does a really good job with zoning the crowd out,” said Luke Jackson, who scored a career-high 29 points. “We took both these teams into overtime. That proves we could beat them.”
Point guard Luke Ridnour added that the team doesn’t doubt its abilities after the two losses.
“These were two great chances for us, but unfortunately we didn’t get some breaks.”
Down the hall from the two Lukes, slumped against a wall in the basement of Haas Pavilion, was Freddie Jones. The Oregon senior wanted to make sure that none of the blame for this road trip went toward his teammates.
Jones may have scored a combined 59 points over the weekend, but the only number he cared about was zero — the number of wins his team captured in the Bay Area.
“I take full responsibility,” said Jones, who scored 23 points against the Bears. “I had a chance to help my team win two games. I’m sorry for my teammates that they had to go through this.”
Jones was upset with himself that he didn’t end this game in regulation with one swooping shot. With less than 10 seconds to play in the second half, Jones rebounded a Shantay Legans’s miss and took off. On a two-on-one fast break, Jones kept it himself and just missed a tough, one-handed floater in the lane.
“I should have hit that shot,” Jones said. “I thought I was close enough; I thought it was in.”
Cal head coach Ben Braun was on the other side of the court watching Jones’s drive and thinking thoughts that were “unprintable,” Braun said.
Jones’s shot missed. In the first overtime, he missed a free throw with 22.8 seconds remaining that would have put his team on top, and missed a jumper at the buzzer kept the score knotted at 89. Both missed opportunities weighed heavily on his mind.
“I put that on my shoulders,” Jones said.
But Jones left both Stanford and Cal players gushing over his ability. He followed up his career-high 36 points on Thursday with 23 on Saturday, unlike last season’s Arizona trip where he dropped 36 one night and just four the next.
What it comes down to for the Ducks are the bare facts: In close games on the road, they have lost. Oregon knows those aren’t the results that deliver teams Pac-10 Conference titles.
There are still two more Pac-10 road games on the schedule for the Ducks, but those come Feb. 28 and March 2 at the Los Angeles schools to close out the regular season. Until then, Oregon returns home to face the three lowest-ranked teams in the Pac-10 (Oregon State, Washington State and Washington).
“The schedule turns in our favor,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
Jones, for one, doesn’t plan on wasting the opportunity to capture three wins in his final three games at the Pit and to keep his team in the Pac-10 race.
“We’re still in the hunt,” Jones said. “We aren’t out of it one bit. We’re going back to a great crowd that will help get us motivated.”
And leaving a road that has included too many bumps.
E-mail assistant sports editor Jeff Smith at [email protected].