Arizona comes right to the edge of winning another game as Oregon holds on 70-68

How many last-second league games can the Wildcats play in a row?

Apparently, four and counting.

This time, it was a come-from-behind rally that came up just short as Oregon held on to win 70-68 in Eugene at Matthew Knight arena on Sunday afternoon.

Arizona is now 10-7 overall and 2-3 in the Pac-12 after dropping both games on the Oregon trip.

With ice storms hitting the Pacific Northwest, this game, as well as the one in Corvallis between Oregon State and Arizona State, were played in front of no fans. Only family and friends of the teams were allowed to attend. Oregon’s notice went out to all fans on Sunday morning.

“That was a factor (playing in an empty arena); it’s not an excuse at all,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. “We were already flat and I think that makes you more flat. That wasn’t the excuse. I think it was our effort and our energy, which is a controllable, which isn’t easy when there are no fans — it reminded me of COVID. It was just weird. It felt weird, but you got to play and I think that (Oregon) came out and played it harder and wanted it a little bit more.”

Fighting from behind all game, the Wildcats came back from eight points down with under four minutes left behind stellar pressure defense and the hot hand of freshman Jada Williams. Williams, who finished with a career-high 23 points (9 of 14), knocked down a trio of 3-pointers from the corner down the stretch, including the final one in the game’s final seconds for the final points.

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With a little shy of two seconds left, Oregon couldn’t get the in-bounds pass in to just hang on. Freshman Skylar Jones picked a steal and tipped it to Kailyn Gilbert, who let one fly, just missing the basket.

UA’s defense was strong all day disrupting the Ducks and forcing 27 turnovers — well above their 14.4 per game this season. The challenge for the Wildcats was once again rebounds and letting Oregon get 16 points off second-chance baskets. On Friday night, not getting a rebound off a missed 3-pointer allowed Oregon State to get three chances and make one to push the game into overtime, where the Beavers eventually won in double OT.

Oregon doubled-up on the rebounding, 38-19.

Esmery Martinez and Breya Cunningham got into foul trouble early, forcing Barnes to tag team not to have both posts on the court at the same time. They were trying to match up against two big posts in 6-foot-8-inch Phillipina Kyei and 6-foot-3-inch Grace VanSlooten. It wasn’t until the second half when Grace VanSlooten turned in the bulk of her scoring (15 of 19 points).

Helena Pueyo was involved in every aspect of the game, finishing with 11 points, 7 assists, 7 steals and 1 block in 39 minutes of play. Pueyo has now logged 173 minutes of action in the last four games that includes three overtimes. She has not played in only two minutes of all four games.

She said it

“We had 19 (rebounds) they had like 38. You’re not going to win games like that. They shot 53%; we shot 50%. Then the rebounds are difference in the game. We turned them over. It’s just the rebounds. They had 12 offensive rebounds. I think 16 second chance points. We take away three of those we win the game. We’re fighting so much each possession … they’re always going to say score (more). We’re averaging 70-some points. More than we had last year and we had shooters last year. It’s the boxing out. And I don’t know if it’s our lack of depth inside. It hurts us when one person gets in foul trouble because then we don’t have that. It hurts us when Esmery (is not) on the floor because she can play the defense the way we want to. It really hurts us.” — Barnes on the loss