In reality, it’s not like the Oregon Ducks played poorly on Thursday night against the Arizona Wildcats.
The final score, a TK-TK Arizona victory, may paint the picture of a lopsided win in which we saw the bad version of the Ducks. However, were it not from the absolutely stellar play from Arizona’s Azoulas Tebulis — who scored TK points in the game — then Oregon might have had a real shot at winning in the desert.
Instead, it was another loss for the Ducks, but not one that is too detrimental to Oregon’s postseason hopes. With some big games remaining on the schedule, Dana Altman’s squad is still in a position to make some noise late in the season. Here’s how everything went down on Thursday.
Final Score: Arizona 91, Oregon 76
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Keys to the game
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Oregon jumped out to a quick 5-0 start to the game, but Arizona quickly turned around and went on a 21-2 run to take control of the game early on.
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The Ducks did a good job of weathering the storm, and a couple of nice 3FG from Keeshawn Barthelemy and Jermaine Couisnard made it a six-point game, 23-17, before N’Faly Dante picked up his second foul on an easy Arizona and-one. Things quickly got worse, with Dante picking up his third foul with 8 minutes left in the half.
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Things went downhill quickly for Oregon. Ąžuolas Tubelis had 27 points in the first half on 10-for-14 shooting, while both Dante and Nate Bittle went into the break with 3 fouls a piece. The Ducks were unable to find production from anywhere on the offensive side of the ball in the first half, and the Wildcats capitalized on all of the home momentum that they could.
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The second half went pretty much the same way that the first half did, with Arizona continuing to be strong offensively while the Ducks struggled to find an answer for Tebulis. Altman rolled the dice by playing both Dante and Bittle out of the break, and Bittle picked up his fourth foul less than 2 minutes into the half.
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Will Richardson tried hard to keep the Ducks in the game, scoring a number of baskets early in the half and eventually cutting the lead to 10, but Arizona continued to pile on and pushed it back up to 20 with 12 minutes left in the game.
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Before the game was completely put out of reach, the Ducks mounted a 7-0 run with around 5 minutes to play that made it an 11-point game. However, Arizona was able to shore things up and close out the victory.
Players of the Game
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Arizona Wildcats
Oregon Ducks
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Will Richardson: 22 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds
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Rivaldo Soares: 13 points, 3 rebounds
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N’Faly Dante: 13 points, 5 rebounds
What’s Next?
The Ducks continue their desert road trip on Saturday night with a game against the Arizona State Sun Devils. The last time these two teams met, Arizona State won by 17 points in Matthew Knight Arena.
