If you can’t beat ’em…
Beat ’em up.
That was Arizona’s philosophy Saturday afternoon in Tucson, where the No. 1 Wildcats played physical defense on Oregon star Luke Ridnour in the second half and eventually beat up the Ducks, 88-80, in front of 14,589 fans at the McKale Center.
The Wildcats converted on Oregon’s only sloppy stretch of the game, a four-minute run midway through the second half that lifted the Wildcats to the win. A hounded Ridnour missed shots and couldn’t generate any offense for his teammates during the critical stretch.
“They beat the crap out of Ridnour out there,” Kent told KUGN-AM after the game.
By Sunday, Kent had settled down and said bumping and shoving are things Ridnour “will have to get used to.”
“Both (Arizona games) were very physical basketball games,” Kent said. “Their game plan in both of these games was similar to Washington’s game plan, which was to bump (Ridnour) everywhere he goes without the ball so he has a hard time cutting, and crowd him when he has the ball to take away his drives.
“But as physical as the games were, he still scored points and carried us at times in those games and didn’t lose his cool. Which I wouldn’t blame him if he did.”
The loss leaves Oregon with 20 wins on the regular season, which should still put the Ducks in the NCAA Tournament, though a win Saturday in the opening round of the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament would strengthen Oregon’s position. And Saturday’s loss didn’t do much to hurt Oregon’s March Madness seed, because the Ducks were able to hang with Arizona for most of the contest.
Oregon (20-9, 10-8 Pac-10) held the lead as late as 9:30 into the second half. But Arizona (25-2, 17-1) went on a run — as top-ranked teams tend to do — to effectively put Oregon away. The Wildcats’ run was 17-2 before Oregon’s Ian Crosswhite hit two free throws to make the score 69-58 in Arizona’s favor with 6:29 left. Wildcats Salim Stoudamire and Jason Gardner hit their free throws down the stretch to keep Oregon from getting any closer than the final margin of eight points.
“We did everything right in this game, I thought,” Kent said. “We had four guys in double figures; we out-rebounded them; I thought it was a great defensive effort on our part. But the game got away.”
Before Arizona’s run, the Ducks had the Wildcats on the proverbial ropes behind Ridnour’s leadership.
The junior guard broke Oregon’s single-season assists record with his third assist of the game, which gave him 185 on the season. He fouled out, but ended the game with seven assists and a team-high 26 points.
On Arizona’s Senior Night, Gardner, a senior who has played the most minutes of any Wildcat ever, spearheaded the Arizona attack. He bested Ridnour with 27 points, and several of those points came in the key 17-2 run. His long three with 11:10 remaining was the second basket in the run, tied the game at 54, and tipped off the crowd that the Wildcats were ready to streak. The crowd responded accordingly, and two minutes later, Gardner fed Hassan Adams for a fast-break dunk that gave Arizona the perma-lead and sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Gardner left with Luke Walton late in the game to a standing ovation from the crowd. Walton scored eight points and led the Wildcats with six assists. Senior Rick Anderson also left to an ovation before Gardner and Walton. Anderson finished the game with four points and eight rebounds.
Ridnour, Crosswhite, Luke Jackson and James Davis were the four Ducks in double figures. Jackson had 12 points, Davis 11 and Crosswhite 10. Jackson led the team with 14 rebounds.
The Ducks will now head to the Pac-10 Tournament, and they will need to beat a team they lost to on Thursday — Arizona State. The Ducks and Sun Devils will square off this Thursday in Los Angeles in the first round of the conference tourney. Kent said he’s confident in his team’s ability to win a game he said the Ducks need to win.
“If we had played this way Thursday, we would have had that big win already out of the way,” Kent said of Thursday’s 91-77 loss in Tempe.
This Thursday’s game will tip off at approximately 3:30 p.m. All the games in the Pac-10 Tournament will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net.