EUGENE, Ore. — Neither Oregon nor Arizona may be the same this season after years of a compelling rivalry, but one thing hasn’t changed: The Ducks still know how to beat the Wildcats.
Final score this time: Oregon 73, Arizona 47, the Wildcats' worst this season in scoring margin.
In Saturday's edition, Oregon completed a series sweep of UA by getting the Wildcats to turn the ball over 12 times in the first half and then holding the Wildcats to 19.2 percent shooting in the second half.
The loss dropped Arizona to 17-13 overall and 8-9 in the Pac-12, with only a March 9 home game against ASU remaining in the regular season.
MORE: After 'fool's gold' of a first half, Arizona Wildcats fall apart in 26-point loss at Oregon
Oregon improved to 17-12 and 8-8. Louis King led the Ducks with 14 points and seven rebounds while Dylan Smith had 14 points for UA and Brandon Williams had 12.
The game was tied 31-31 at halftime and UA trailed just 36-35 with 18 minutes left before Ryan Luther was called for a technical after being hit with a shooting foul against Oregon’s Kenny Wooten. 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 turned it into a 9-0 run that gave them a 45-35 lead.
Oregon later went on an 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.
In the first half, Arizona committed 12 first-half turnovers but still managed to tie Oregon 31-31 at halftime Saturday by making 7 of 12 3-pointers.
Smith led the Wildcats with 14 points in the half on 5-for-7 shooting while making 3 of 4 from 3-point range.
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.
