After 'fool's gold' of a first half, Arizona Wildcats fall apart in 26-point loss at Oregon

EUGENE, Ore. — Arizona fumbled away one of its most trusted attributes Saturday, and never could find a sustainable replacement.

En route to their worst loss of the season, 73-47 at Oregon, the Wildcats threw up bunch of 3-pointers to help compensate for their uncharacteristic 12 first-half turnovers.

That wasn’t a long-term fix, the way UA coach Sean Miller saw it.

“We were hot from three and in a way it was kind of fool’s gold,” Miller said. “That’s not who we are.”

No, it’s not. Arizona is only the sixth-best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-12 in conference games, and the Wildcats take the fifth-fewest 3s as a percentage of total shots of any conference team.

So things reverted back to normal in the second half. Well, actually they became worse for the Wildcats.

A lot worse.

Arizona made just 1 of 12 3-pointers in the second half while shooting 19.2 percent overall, and gave up not one but two 12-0 runs to Oregon in the second half while going without a single point for almost seven minutes at a time.

There was a lot to blame in the second half.

Maybe confidence. Maybe Oregon’s zone defense. Maybe, Miller said, a lack of good ball movement.

It’s to be able to “to move the ball, throw it inside, make the extra pass, which we’ve been very good at,” Miller said. “Some of that is Oregon’s defense and some of that is you know when things aren’t going well, it’s just not easy just to stay true to what we’re doing.”

It also was hard for the Wildcats when they did get the ball inside, because Ira Lee was pretty much the only guy left in there toward the end.

Center Chase Jeter didn’t play in the second half after playing six minutes in the first half with his bruised knee. Miller said Jeter did not suffer anything more than a bruised knee but said he “didn’t think he could go.”

The Wildcats also effectively lost power forward Ryan Luther, who played 23 minutes while collecting four fouls, including a pivotal technical allowed Oregon to fuel one of its 12-0 runs.

Luther fouled Oregon’s Kenny Wooten and appeared to say either say something that didn’t go over so well, and/or his gesture was too much.

“I think he said ‘Oh, shucks’ with his fist,” Miller said. “That’s the sportsmanship rule and it was a great call. ... But that didn’t lose the game.”

However, it did give the Ducks even more momentum to fuel their blowout win that captured a season sweep of the Wildcats, and their sixth win over UA in the past eight matchups.

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The game was tied 31-31 at halftime and UA trailed just 36-35 with 18 minutes left before Luther’s personal and technical fouls. The Ducks took advantage by getting three immediate points — Payton Pritchard hit both technical free throws while Wooten hit 1 of 2 — and the Ducks used it to continue a what became a 12-0 run that gave them a 45-35 lead.

Oregon later went on another 12-0 run to take a 62-42 lead at the final media timeout, with 3:47 to go, while UA went without scoring for seven minutes, leading to a celebratory senior-night postgame celebration and a quiet exit for the Wildcats.

“I just feel they played harder than us and I’ve got to give them credit,” guard Brandon Williams said. “We’ve just got to be ready. They were the better team, the stronger, more physical team. We’ve just got to be ready next time.”

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There might actually be a next time, too. Oregon is one many Pac-12 teams the Wildcats could see in their first game at the Pac-12 Tournament, depending on how the last week of games in the conference plays out.

The loss dropped Arizona to 17-13 overall and 8-9 in the Pac-12, with only a home game against ASU on Saturday remaining in the regular season.

Oregon improved to 17-12 and 8-8.

While Louis King led the Ducks with 14 points and seven rebounds, Dylan Smith had 14 points and Brandon Williams had 12.

But Smith missed all seven shots he took in the second half, after scoring all of his 14 points before halftime, when he shot 5 of 7 and hit 3 of 5 3-pointers.

Both teams shot less than 40 percent for the half but UA’s turnovers helped the Ducks take 13 more shots at the basket in the first half.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 9-0 lead while Oregon missed its first seven shots, but the Ducks quickly made up for it by turning the Wildcats over repeatedly in the rest of the half.

Pritchard started the trend by picking off a bad pass from Justin Coleman and taking it in for a layup that cut it to 9-2.

Later, Arizona and Oregon were tied at 14 with 11 minutes left in the half before the Ducks rattled off 11 straight points to go ahead 25-14, thanks in part to five UA turnovers during the run.

But Smith hit a 3-pointer and made a three-point play in the final three minutes to tie the game at 28, while Devonaire Doutrive hit a 3-pointer to give UA a 31-28 lead entering the final minute.

Oregon’s Paul White hit a 3-pointer to tie it back up at 31 with 41 seconds to go and both teams failed to score on their final possessions of the half.

Just a few minutes into the second half, and all that was a distant memory.

“I mean, they beat us 42-16 in the second half,” Miller said. “Their defense continued to be good and as they subbed in, their depth really wore us down. They overwhelmed us.”