Oregon Ducks beat Arizona Wildcats, 87-68, for sixth straight time in Eugene

EUGENE, Ore. — When the Arizona Wildcats entered Matthew Knight Arena on Saturday, many of the signs were pointing in their favor.

Before their 87-68 loss at Oregon, the Wildcats were coming off a soul-renewing win at Oregon State on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Ducks were flirting with .500 basketball after a homecourt loss to Arizona State on the same evening.

The Wildcats also needed a win over the Ducks to keep pace in the Pac-12 race and pull off their first Oregon-OSU sweep in 14 years.

But there was also that part about having to go into Matthew Knight Arena, where the Wildcats have now lost six straight games to a team that, this time, may have actually had even more motivation.

“When you play a team like that that’s fighting for a statement win, you’ve got to match their energy,” UA guard Courtney Ramey said. “For the first seven or eight minutes we kind of did, but they kept fighting, kept swinging, and we didn’t match it.”

The difference was evident in the box score. Oregon held the Wildcats to just 37.5% shooting, outrebounded them 42-32 and scored 19 points off 16 Arizona turnovers.

"Beat them in every category," Oregon coach Dana Altman said.

In short, the Ducks looked much more like the team that was picked to finish third in the league race than the one that hobbled through the first half of the season with injuries and poor performances.

“It’s hard to win on the road in college basketball, and we’re playing a team that has a great coach, that has a lot of talent and has been struggling,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “They played their (butt) off. They were more desperate.”

The loss dropped Arizona to 15-3, 4-3 in the Pac-12, with potentially season-defining home games next week against USC and UCLA at McKale Center. Oregon improved to 10-8 and is now tied with Arizona at 4-3 in league play.

"I’m not sure they played poorly," Altman said of UA. "We just played really good."

The Wildcats did have flashes of life early in each half. As he did in the first half, Ramey hit a pair of early 3-pointers in the second half to help the Wildcats pull back into a 43-43 tie after trailing by six at halftime.

But the Ducks pulled ahead by 10 with 16:30 still left in the game and went ahead 66-52 by the time N’Faly Dante converted a three-point play with 9:47 left.

“It was big for us to tie it up,” Ramey said. “But I just think we didn’t keep our feet on their necks. We got some turnovers, but it’s something we can all get better from.”

Making matters worse for Arizona at the time was that guard Kerr Kriisa picked up his fourth foul with 12:21 to go, forcing freshman Kylan Boswell to log heavy minutes. The Wildcats fell behind by 20, 81-61, after Jermaine Couisnard stole the ball from Azuolas Tubelis, leading to a layup from Quincy Guerrier.

“Obviously, it impacts us a lot,” Lloyd said of Kriisa’s foul trouble. “He’s a calming force for us, and he’s a great shooter and a great facilitator. You take him out, and that makes it a little harder for us.”

Couisnard led Oregon with 27 points while hitting 6 of 9 3-poitners. Dante had 22 points and 10 rebounds. Boswell led the Wildcats with 15 points while making 3 of 6 3-pointers.

In the first half, Oregon held Arizona to just 41.9% shooting to take a 43-37 lead into the break.

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After Arizona jumped out to a 16-9 lead, getting two 3-pointers over the first five minutes from Ramey, the Ducks quickly pulled back into a close game for the rest of the first half.

After only 55 seconds, the Ducks had their crowd fully energized, too. That's when Dante picked up a halfcourt pass from Kriisa, then raced to the basket and dunked over UA's chatty Estonian point guard.

"Felt great," Dante said, later saying Kriisa had "just been talking crap and stuff."

Couisnard, a transfer from South Carolina who missed the first 14 games of the season with a knee injury, hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Oregon its first lead, 21-19, with 11:04 left in the first half.

While Boswell hit two 3-pointers in the middle of the first half, Cousinard countered with a three-point play and came back for another basket and 3-pointer to cut Arizona’s lead to 32-31.

Kriisa picked up his third foul with 4:43 left in the half and was replaced by Adama Bal, but Bal soon ran into trouble. He had the ball stripped by Oregon’s Keeshawn Barthelemy, leading to a layup from Oregon’s Will Richardson.

After a UA miss, Barthelemy returned for a 3-pointer that gave Oregon a 40-33 lead with 3:16 left.

After suffering the blowout loss to ASU on Thursday, Altman followed through on indications he would change his lineup or rotation. He went with center Nate Bittle over forward Quincy Guerrier, which also gave the Ducks a more comparable matchup with Oumar Ballo and Tubelis.

"Just a different ballclub," Altman said. "We were bad Thursday and, I don’t want to take anything away from Arizona State, but we were different tonight."

Photos: No. 9 Arizona Wildcats fall to Oregon Ducks, Pac-12 basketball

Oregon 87, No. 9 Arizona 68

ARIZONA (15-2)

A.Tubelis 5-11 4-5 14, Ballo 5-10 0-1 10, Kriisa 2-10 3-3 9, Larsson 1-2 2-2 4, Ramey 4-12 0-0 12, Boswell 6-11 0-0 15, Henderson 0-3 2-2 2, T.Tubelis 0-2 0-0 0, Anderson 1-2 0-0 2, Veesaar 0-1 0-0 0, Bal 0-0 0-0 0, Borovicanin 0-0 0-0 0, Lang 0-0 0-0 0, Mains 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-64 11-13 68.

OREGON (9-8)

Bittle 4-7 0-0 10, Dante 9-11 4-4 22, Couisnard 9-14 3-5 27, Richardson 6-15 0-0 14, Soares 1-2 1-1 3, Guerrier 1-4 0-0 2, Barthelemy 2-5 0-0 5, Rigsby 0-2 0-0 0, Ware 2-4 0-0 4, Reichle 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Wur 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-64 8-10 87.

Halftime: Oregon 43-37. 3-Point Goals: Arizona 9-25 (Ramey 4-8, Boswell 3-6, Kriisa 2-9, Henderson 0-1, Larsson 0-1), Oregon 11-32 (Couisnard 6-9, Bittle 2-4, Richardson 2-9, Barthelemy 1-3, Rigsby 0-1, Soares 0-1, Ware 0-2, Guerrier 0-3). Rebounds: Arizona 30 (Ballo 7), Oregon 38 (Dante 10). Assists: Arizona 14 (Kriisa, Ramey 4), Oregon 18 (Richardson, Barthelemy 5). Total Fouls: Arizona 15, Oregon 15.

Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter: @brucepascoe

Photos: No. 9 Arizona Wildcats fall to Oregon Ducks, Pac-12 basketball