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Like so many times before, Oregon gave Aaron Brooks the ball in the final seconds, asking him to win the game. Only this time, Brooks didn’t get a shot off.
Instead, he was called for an offensive foul on Arizona’s Mustafa Shakur. Shakur inbounded to Chase Budinger, who was fouled quickly by Oregon’s Maarty Leunen. Budinger connected on both free-throws to make the score 77-74 and seal the victory for the Wildcats.
“The game did not come down to that last play,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “I thought we did a poor job of communicating defensively.”
With this loss, Oregon has dropped four of its last six games and falls into a tie for fifth place with Arizona. The loss also puts what was once considered a sure NCAA Tournament berth in serious jeopardy, especially with the Ducks traveling this week to the Bay Area, where no one on Oregon’s roster has won.
Brooks, Oregon’s leading scorer, had one of his worst offensive games this season, scoring six points on 2-of-14 shooting and 0-of-6 from the three-point line. He did, however, manage to collect a team-high 10 rebounds.
“It was definitely an off-game for Aaron,” Kent said. “He had a lot of wide-open shots.
“He’s been so, so good all year long. We needed his scoring, obviously.”
Kent stressed that despite Oregon having several shots to seal the win, a single error cost them in the end.
“We had our chance to put them away and we didn’t do that three or four times in the ballgame,” Kent said.
The Ducks led for the majority of the game, but the Wildcats still hung around.
Arizona was led by the freshman Budinger, who recorded a double-double and led all scorers with 30 points. The last time the two teams met, Budinger was a non-factor, scoring four points in the Wildcats’ 79-77 loss.
“Down (in Tucson) he was a fatigued freshman that had hit the wall,” Kent said. “The good players figure out how to climb over that wall and get going again. He’s figured that out.”
Junior guard Bryce Taylor, who led Oregon with 18 points, said that each player on the Arizona roster presented a difficult matchup.
“Player by player, they’re probably the best team we’ll play,” Taylor said. “If you look at their starters, everyone’s projected to be an NBA player.”
Now the Ducks travel to face Cal and Stanford.
“We’ve never won there,” junior guard Malik Hairston said. “We have to go down there confident and we have to bounce back (from this game). We have to be more defensive-minded because it sets our offense up.”
Of note, Kent said he believes he tore his rotator cuff while either calling for a timeout or in celebration after Tajuan Porter buried a three pointer that gave Oregon a 74-73 lead with 26 seconds remaining. He said he’ll have an MRI on Monday.
“It doesn’t really mean anything if it is torn,” said Kent, who already had rotator cuff surgery on his other arm during the offseason. “I’m not going to do anything about it until after the season ends.”
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