Arizona’s Josh Green and Christian Koloko each missed a pair of potential game-winning free throws, Green near the end of regulation and Koloko with 1.4 seconds left in overtime, allowing Oregon to hang on for a 73-72 win over the Wildcats at McKale Center on Saturday.
It was the Ducks’ fifth straight win over Arizona, and second straight in overtime, while knocking the Wildcats down with them into a second-place tie in the Pac-12. Oregon, UCLA, Arizona and Colorado each have five losses, while ASU is alone in first place at 10-4 with two weeks to go.
After Green missed his free throws with 5.6 seconds left and the game tied at 64 in regulation, Koloko missed two with 1.4 seconds left and the Ducks ahead 73-72. It was a surprise appearance at the line for Koloko, who had received a full-court inbounds pass from Jemarl Baker with 1.8 seconds left, but was fouled by Oregon’s Payton Pritchard as he went up.
UA coach Sean Miller said after the game that it wasn’t Koloko’s place to be in that spot in the first place but he was in for a defensive purposes on the previous play, and because the clock did not stop, Koloko could not be subbed out.
“This loss doesn’t fall on Christian,” Miller said. “He had six rebounds in 10 minutes and did a really good job in a lot of areas.”
Green and Koloko weren’t the Wildcats’ only errant free-throw shooters, however: Arizona hit just 10 of 21 overall from the line, with Zeke Nnaji 7 for 10 and Mannion 1 for 3.
While Miller noted how difficult it is to beat a team as good as Oregon while making only 10 of 21 free throws, what appeared to bother him more was the Wildcats’ failure to secure the defensive rebound after Oregon’s Payton Pritchard missed a 3-pointer on the Ducks’ previous possession.
Shakur Juiston managed to get a hand on it and tapped it out to Oregon wing Will Richardson, who then drove inside and dished under the basket to Juiston, who made what turned out to be the game-winner with 1.8 seconds left.
Arizona had also allowed Oregon to get two straight offensive rebounds on a possession earlier in overtime, leading to two free throws from Juiston that gave the Ducks a 69-67 lead with 2:29 left.
In addition, with 18 seconds left, Nnaji blocked Pritchard's layup but couldn't secure the ball before it fell out of bounds.
“When you have the ball in your hands on a defensive rebound, or a shot hits the rim, and you’re up four, you’re up two, there’s a minute-30 left, there’s 45 seconds left… you go up above the rim, you get it, you land and then they foul you,” Miller said. “The ball doesn't go off your hands, the guy doesn't run around you, you don't forget to block out, you don't let the guy run and get it.
“Those are the plays that I think really drive you crazy because that's just absolute toughness and effort. I wish we were better in that area, we're not. And that's why we have the number of losses that we do.”
After Juiston’s shot made it 74-73, the Wildcats had 1.8 seconds to pull off a stunner – and they nearly did after Baker fired his inbounds pass across the court and Koloko picked it up under the basket, then drew a surprise foul from Pritchard, who brushed him as he went up. Just a 40% free throw shooter (6 of 15) entering the game, Koloko put up two shots that bounced off the rim.
Pritchard then grabbed the ball in celebration, just as he did after he took Nico Mannion’s final inbounds pass in Oregon’s overtime win over Arizona in Eugene on Jan. 9, clearly the Ducks’ hero this time.
Pritchard scored a career-high 38 points, all during regulation, on 12 for 27 shooting while hitting 6 of 14 3-pointers. In overtime, Juiston, a grad transfer from UNLV, scored all nine of the Ducks’ points.
The loss dropped Arizona to 19-8 overall and 9-5 in the Pac-12, where the Wildcats are now a game behind ASU, which gained sole possession of first place Saturday after beating Oregon State while UCLA beat Colorado and Oregon beat Arizona.
The Ducks improved to 21-7 and 10-5 but will play their final three games at home and hold a tiebreaking edge over the Wildcats for Pac-12 Tournament seeding because they have now beaten UA twice.
Dylan Smith led Arizona with 18 points while hitting 4 of 8 3s. Zeke Nnaji had 13 points and six rebounds, while Mannion had 13 points and eight assists but also six turnovers.
In regulation, the game was tied at 64 with 5.6 seconds left when Josh Green drove inside for a layup attempt but was fouled by Francis Okoro. Green suffered a hard fall after the collision that briefly shook Green up and had him grabbing his head, but he did not show any signs of a concussion and remained in the game to shoot the free throws, then missed both of them.
“All he had to say was his head hurt and we would have taken him out,” Miller said. “I think he felt like he was fine. Didn’t work out.”
Yet the Wildcats still had a fluke chance to win the game again after Juiston threw the ball out of bounds, giving the Wildcats the ball back on their side of the court for an inbound pass kwith a second left. But Mannion couldn’t find anyone open to pass to and Juiston stole it as time ran out, sending the game to overtime.
The Wildcats earlier had a chance to put the game away when they led 64-62. They tried to find a shot in the final minutes, eventually getting a short jumper from Dylan Smith that missed. Nnaji appeared to collect the rebound in a crowd but officials ruled it a jump ball.
Since Oregon held the possession arrow, that gave the Ducks a chance to tie it up instead. Pritchard drove inside, and after Green was called for reaching with 15 seconds left, Pritchard hit both ends of the ensuing one-and-one to tie the game at 64.
Arizona had carried a 64-60 lead into the final two minutes after Stone Gettings scored inside and Pritchard hit a pair of free throws with 3:01 left. But neither team scored in the next two minutes, with Green getting called for a travel after getting a defensive rebound with a minute left. Pritchard was fouled as he drove inside just afterward with 52.9 seconds left, hitting both free throws to cut Arizona’s lead to 64-62.
Earlier in the second half, Pritchard hit his sixth 3 of the game, pushing him three points over his previous career-high of 29,when he hit a 3-pointer with 4:56 to cut UA’s lead to 61-58. Entering the final media timeout at 3:52, Mannion hit 1 of 2 free throws to give UA a four-point lead.
Against Oregon’s constantly switching defense, Nnaji and the Wildcats had trouble inside in regulation, though they again received an extended boost off the bench from Koloko, their freshman 7-footer. With six minutes left in regulation, Nnaji had just 10 points on 2 for 7 shooting while missing 3 of 7 free throws he took; Koloko had six rebounds, a block and a steal to that point.
Trailing 36-33 at halftime, Arizona pulled ahead 40-38 on a 3-pointer from Smith just over two minutes into the second half while the Wildcats went inside to get a layup from Green, two free throws from Nnaji and a rebound dunk from Koloko, who slammed in a miss from Smith.
In the first half, Pritchard scored 20 points while hitting 4 of 8 3-pointers to give the Ducks a 36-33 halftime lead.
Pritchard hit his fourth 3 with 37 seconds left to break a 36-36 tie and both teams failed to score on their final possessions of the first half. At halftime, he was already just nine points shy of his career-high of 29 points, which he hit three times, most recently against ASU on Jan. 11 in Eugene.
Arizona hit 6 of 13 from 3 in the first half but made only 5 of 15 two-pointers while struggling to get the ball inside against Oregon's varying defenses. The Ducks shot 46.2% and hit 8 of 18 3s, with Anthony Mathis adding 3 of 5 he took off the bench.
Despite missing eight of their first nine shots,and falling behind 7-3 early thanks to seven points from Pritchard out of the gate, the Wildcats stayed within a possession of the Ducks for most of the first half. Gettings scored inside to tie the game at 10, and after Pritchard hit his second 3 just before the shot-clock buzzer to make it 13-10, Arizona received a free throw from Dylan Smith and a 3 from Max Hazzard to take a 14-13 lead.
Arizona worked the ball inside a few times to Nnaji during the middle of the first half, though Nnaji hit just 2 of 4 free throws off fouls drawn over that stretch while giving UA a 21-20 lead, but the Ducks took a 28-24 lead with five minutes left after Mathis hit two straight 3 pointers from the right wing.
Oregon was playing its ninth straight game without center N’Faly Dante, the Ducks’ highly touted freshman big man who has been nursing a knee injury but took warmups before Saturday’s game.
Check out photos from Saturday's game here:
