In a late-night matchup between the No. 4 and No. 11 teams in the nation, it came down to who got their sleep the night before. And who had the deeper bench.
Turns out that was Arizona.
The Wildcats outrebounded Oregon 50-28, pulling away in the final minutes of the second half and pulling out the 81-72 victory in front of 9,087 fans at McArthur Court. The game, which tipped off at 9 p.m. to fit a television schedule, was tied at 70 with 2:14 remaining, but Arizona used fresh legs down the stretch to win the Pacific-10 Conference opener for both teams.
The loss snapped Oregon’s home winning streak at 23 — tying the Mac Court record.
“We lost our composure,” Oregon guard

Andre Joseph said. “They out-toughed us tonight.”
The Wildcats scored 27 second-chance points in the contest as they kept the Ducks out of thepainton Arizona’s side of the floor.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent likened it to the Ducks’ Elite Eight loss to Kansas last season,whenthe Jayhawks out-rebounded Oregon, 63-34.
“I felt like I was in the Kansas game all over again,” Kent said. “(The Wildcats) were fired up.They became the aggressor in the game.”
Joseph, who scored 11 points for the Ducks, was one of Oregon’s bright spots in the loss. He hadthree blocks in 24 minutes and played inspired defense on Arizona senior guard Jason Gardner.
“I wanted to prove to coach that I can play the big game — that I deserve to be out there,”Josephsaid.
Luke Jackson led the Ducks with 20 points. Gardner scored 21 to lead Arizona. Oregon guard LukeRidnour had a sub-par effort, scoring 16 points but turning the ball over eight times.
Gardner hit one of two Arizona three-pointers with less than three minutes left that opened uptheclose game. With Oregon’s James Davis almost hanging on him, Gardner made a trey with 2:13 leftthat made it 73-70 in favor of Arizona. Seconds later, senior forward Rick Anderson hit a threeand the Wildcats never looked back.
The loss moved Oregon to 9-2 on the season, while Arizona moved to 8-1. Oregon will play ArizonaState on Saturday, while Arizona takes on Oregon State.
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