EUGENE, Ore. β Once Oregon opened the scoring in its 85-58 pummeling of Arizona on Saturday, some sort of chalk powder floated above the Pit Crew student section and onto the Matthew Knight Arena floor.
It took several minutes to clean up. More than enough time for the Arizona Wildcats to get out.
You know, get out of the building, fire up the charter plane and get out of town before anybody gets hurt.
Of course, the Wildcats didnβt leave. And they did get hurt, when the Ducksβ players blew up a powder keg of their own.
Oregon hit 16 3-pointers, making 10 of their first 13 and finishing with a blistering 64.0 percentage, demoralizing UAβs initially stable defense and, eventually, the UAβs offense as well.
βThey played great,β UA guard Rawle Alkins said. βItβs tough to say anything when theyβre hitting the shots the way they were.β
The Wildcatsβ 27-point margin of defeat is the second-worst of the Sean Miller Era, trailing only the 30-point loss that BYU handed them during the infamous Jimmer Game of 2009-10, when BYU sharpshooter Jimmer Fredette dropped 49 points on Millerβs first UA team. Arizona hadnβt lost by as many as 20 since the 2010-11 season, when UCLA and BYU both beat the eventual Elite Eight-participant Wildcats by 22.
There was nothing about this game that suggested such a blowout was possible. Arizona came in with momentum, 15 straight wins, a No. 5 ranking and a rΓ©sumΓ© to date that suggested the Wildcats were the favorites to win the Pac-12, even though Oregon was.
The Ducks, meanwhile, barely edged Arizona State by a point just two days ago, and their rotation of seven players appeared to have little margin for error.
None of that mattered. Everyone in yellow was a Jimmer this time except, ironically, the guy who entered the game as Oregonβs top 3-point shooter in conference play, Dylan Ennis.
Ennis didnβt even take a single 3-pointer, nor did he need to. The grad transfer from Villanova instead had four assists, setting up his trigger-happy teammates all over the court.
The Ducks had 26 assists for their 30 made shots, and five players hit at least one three-pointer each. Whatβs more, in a particularly cruel twist for the Wildcats, a former UA commit led the way: Tyler Dorsey was a perfect 6 for 6 from 3-point range while scoring 23 points.
Oregon standout Dillon Brooks was 4 for 7, while former Tempe Corona del Sol High School guard Casey Benson came off the bench to hit 3 of 4 3-pointers; rangy big man Chris Boucher popped in a couple, too.
βIt was getting ridiculous,β Brooks said. βBut guys feed off each other. One guyβs hot, another guy gets hot. In this game it was like five, six, seven guys that got hot.β
In all, a full 54 percent of Oregonβs shots were taken from behind the arc, and its 48 points off 3s accounted for 56 percent of the Ducksβ scoring.
βI can only speak for me, but they surprised me,β Alkins said. βI havenβt seen a lot of Oregon this season, but I thought they were an aggressive team attacking the rim. But if you see the stat sheet all their points came from 3s.β
Many of the two-point shots were dunks or easy layups the Ducks found while breaking through an increasingly demoralized UA defense.
Miller said he thought the Wildcatsβ defense was solid in the first half, even as Oregon shot 59 percent, and it certainly was in comparison to the second half. After Oregon took a 38-18 lead while hitting 10 of 14 3s in the first half, the Ducks shot a blistering 70.8 percent after halftime.
βI thought our defense in the first half was very organized,β Miller said. βI credit them for making every shot. In the second half, we had more breakdowns and nine turnovers, but when youβre losing the way we were losing, you can have the greatest attitude in the world but youβre playing uphill and the game doesnβt feel right.
βIn the second half, as much as you talk about one play at a time, you know the score of the game and you know youβre on the road.β
The game was already so far gone midway through the second half that when Alkins hit a 3-pointer with 11:12 left, the Ducks still had a 34-point lead. Ducks fans congratulated Alkins with a smattering of sarcastic cheers.
The freshman wing kept going anyway. He led the Wildcats in scoring with 16 points, all of them coming in the second half.
βI never gave up,β Alkins said. βI still thought with four minutes left, we had a chance to win.β
Allonzo Trier added another nine points in the second half after going 1 for 6 off the bench in the first half, but the Wildcats never got the Lauri Markkanen they have grown used to.
Arizonaβs Finnish freshman put together two below-average games in Oregon despite never being in serious foul trouble. He scored just four points on 1-for-5 shooting Saturday, by far his lowest output of the season.
On Thursday at Oregon State, Markkanen was 1 for 6 from the field, totaling eight points.
βWe as a coaching staff have to do a better job of allowing him to get better shots, especially against zone defenses,β Miller said. βThatβs a lesson I have coming out of this, moving through this next four or five days. Regardless of what defense they play against us, we have to get him good looks.β
That was only one of many lessons Miller is hoping he and his players learn. After the game, both Alkins and Miller spoke often about the need to look forward and consider the big picture that still has both the UA and Oregon tied atop the Pac-12 at 10-1, with identical overall records of 21-3.
While Oregon now holds the Pac-12 Tournament tiebreaker β and likely an edge in NCAA Tournament seeding β the Ducks still have to play at the Los Angeles schools, while the UAβs only remaining road games are at WSU, Washington and ASU.
βWe canβt let anything from this game linger into the future,β Miller said. βIf anything, we have to make it a positive.β
