Good enough simply isn’t enough against a team like Arizona.
The No. 9 ranked Arizona Wildcats (15-5, 6-3 Pac-12) traveled to Eugene for the second game of their two-game Oregon road trip. The Wildcats lost on a buzzer beater to Oregon State on Thursday, while the Ducks (14-6, 6-3 Pac-12) won big over Arizona State.
In the first sellout of Matthew Knight Arena since 2018, Arizona showed its class and expertise, silencing Oregon en route to a nine-point win.
The Wildcats started the game hot, getting the ball to their top performers Caleb Love and Oumar Ballo, who scored Arizona’s first eight points. The Ducks didn’t get any defensive rebounds for the first three minutes of the game, while Arizona hauled in three offensive boards in that period.
Arizona took an 11-0 run to a 12-point lead early in the first, as it couldn’t miss while Oregon had trouble covering.
“They jumped on us early there, we made a nice comeback…but [we made] too many mistakes to beat a good team,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said.
Even with a fully healthy N’Faly Dante, Oregon’s interior defense lacked its edge, while the offense struggled to find open shots or attack the rim. It was clear that Dante hadn’t seen a team with multiple seven-footers in a while, and he struggled to make his presence felt in the first.
Oregon turned the ball over much more than Arizona did in the first half, 12 compared to the Cats’ 4. As it got more into the game, the offense started to flow a lot more and the Ducks were able to find their shots.
Love continued to be Arizona’s answer through his elite scoring, defense and playmaking. He scored 20 of his career-high 36 in the first frame. He also scored in timely ways, often silencing the Oregon crowd on the precipice of a run.
The Cats ended the first half extremely positively, taking their biggest lead of the game at the time, taking a 45-31 lead with just over a minute left. Oregon was able to climb back slightly and make it 45-38 after an incredible half-court heave by Jermaine Couisnard.
Arizona came out firing in the second half behind excellence on both sides of the ball from Love. The Cats quickly jumped out to a 13-point lead.
Oregon responded with two tough layups from Couisnard and a steal from Dante. Shortly after, Keeshawn Barthelemy took an extremely hard foul and landed awkwardly on his leg. The stretcher was brought out, as Barthelemy was unable to place any weight on his leg. He was carried off the floor and would not return.
“He’s at the hospital getting tests right now, so we’ll know [the severity of the injury] for sure in the next few days,” Altman said
The injury and subsequent break sucked a lot of air from the arena, and a deep Love three really silenced the crowd. With Barthelemy’s injury, Oregon lost its best perimeter defender, which was made worse by the excellence of Arizona’s guards.
Arizona took a 15-point lead after Love’s fifth made three of the game just under halfway through the second half.
The Ducks offense stagnated. At the halfway point of the second half, only two players had scored in the half.
Oregon was able to remain within shouting distance mostly due to the amount of fouls the Wildcats committed. Even though they were taking a lot of free-throws, they only gave the Ducks small spurts of momentum that were hard to sustain.
The Ducks couldn’t find an answer defensively and fell behind farther and farther as the game went on.
“The bottom line is, we gotta guard better,” Altman said, “All their players are skilled and know their role…still, defensively we gotta get better.”
Other than Couisnard’s 20 and Dante’s 19, Oregon saw little offensive production outside of Oquendo’s 13 points, which came in garbage time for the most part. The Ducks need to find a way to play a complete game if they want to grab statement wins like this would have been.
“We made too many mistakes,” Altman said, “Defensively, offensively, coaching to beat a good team.”
Arizona showed Oregon what it means to be a national powerhouse and the alpha dogs of the conference.
There were many times where it looked like the Ducks were going to be able to make it a close game, but the Wildcats’ composure shined through as they pulled away every time.
Even with a tremendous crowd and some promising spurts of positive basketball, the Ducks fell to the Cats 87-78.
The Ducks travel to Los Angeles for a two-game road trip on Thursday and hope to get a season sweep of USC and UCLA
“Basketball season is a long season, a lot of ups and downs. This is a big down, so they’ll have to fight back…gotta find a way to bounce back,” Altman said.
