University of Oregon
27-6
Arizona
25-8
| Team | 1 | 2 | OT 1 | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | 29 | 48 | 12 | 89 |
| Oregon | 44 | 33 | 18 | 95 |
Pushed To OT, Ducks Dig Deep To Reach Pac-12 Final
03/12/16 | Men's Basketball, @GoDucksMoseley
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Photos: Eric Evans
LAS VEGAS — On Thursday, Washington punched Oregon in the mouth to open their Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinal. On Friday, it was Arizona landing some haymakers just before the bell.
And yes, to extend the boxing metaphor, the Ducks were guilty of dropping their hands, most notably in the case of missed free throws in the second half of Friday's semifinal. But it in the end it was the UO men who were still left standing, to face second-seeded Utah in Saturday's tournament final (7:15 p.m., FS1).
“I'm very proud of the toughness of this team,” UO coach Dana Altman told the Ducks in the postgame locker room, moments after they'd completed a 95-89 overtime victory over the Wildcats, avenging a loss in last season's tournament final. “Very proud. And I probably haven't said that enough this year.”
In the opening minutes Friday in the MGM Grand's Garden Arena, few would have predicted the wild finish. Oregon led 10-2 after a blocked shot and then a basket at the other end by Elgin Cook. The Wildcats hung around until five minutes before halftime, when the Ducks scored 13 straight, capping a 15-2 run with a Kendall Small drive-and-dish to Dillon Brooks for a dunk and a 44-29 lead at the break.
It was 64-50 a few minutes into the second half when the game changed. Arizona found some cracks in the Oregon defense; the Ducks, meanwhile, kept fighting their way to the free-throw line, and kept missing. They went 6-of-16 in the second half — the last two misses by Chris Boucher, who let the frustration linger on the defensive end, where he threw an inbounds pass away that Arizona stole to set up an overtime-forcing free throw.
But that toughness Altman said he hasn't lauded enough this season rose to the surface. The Ducks went 12-of-16 from the free-throw line in the overtime period. No single individual was tougher than Dwayne Benjamin, who played just five minutes in the second half due to injury, returned in overtime and on the ensuing offensive possession knocked down a three-pointer.
Moments later, freshman Tyler Dorsey, who made 4-of-6 three-pointers in the game, stepped to the free-throw line. Oregon led 89-83, with ample time left for an Arizona rally. Dorsey had watched his teammates miss free throw after free throw since halftime.
And yet, as the freshman stepped to the line, he had the faint hint of a smile on his face. “I knew I was going to step up and knock 'em down,” said Dorsey, who indeed made both. “We should have finished it in regulation, but we stayed tough and fought through it.”
As the Ducks look ahead to Saturday's final, they do so with confidence in their own resolve. Washington jumped out to a double-digit lead in the opening minutes Thursday, and looked to bully the Ducks beyond the scoreboard by staring them down after each made basket and blocked shot. Oregon didn't flinch, and didn't lose its composure, fighting back to lead by as many as 11 before winning 83-77.
Arizona tested the UO men too, scoring seven points in the final 26 seconds of regulation to force overtime. Momentum was squarely with the Wildcats. But in the UO huddle, sophomore Casey Benson was telling the Ducks the game was theirs for the taking — and he believed it, he swore afterward.
“It's something we've developed with experience,” Benson said. “You just kind of get that confidence from being in these positions before. And being positive, being encouraging, at the end of the day that's contagious.”
Contagious, too, was the spirit Benjamin displayed in returning from his injury. His three-pointer in overtime “took our energy level through the roof,” Cook said; on the next possession, Brooks hit another three, for an 86-80 lead that the Wildcats couldn't cut to less than four the rest of the way.
“I put my team before myself,” Benjamin said simply of his display of fortitude. “Anything I can do, I'm going to do for them.”
No less than Arizona coach Sean Miller made a point postgame of noting the Ducks' team-first approach.
“To me, they're so good because of how together they are,” Miller said. “… Their whole becomes greater, and that's the ultimate compliment in the game of basketball.”
Miller said, too, that the best team won Friday, although a different outcome seemed very possible late in regulation. Oregon led by one and needed simply to inbound the ball under Arizona's basket to run out the clock; Cook was the designated inbounder, but Boucher grabbed the ball to throw it in, and it was stolen to set up the overtime-forcing free throw.
At that point, a UO win seemed very much in doubt. “Usually when a team has a game like that and they let it slip, they don't win,” Altman told his team afterward. “It takes a tremendous amount of discipline, of resiliency, to come back and win it. So I'm proud of that.”
Altman did his best as well to lift the spirits of Boucher, who was taking his late-game mistake hard. He sat low in his folding chair afterward, his shoulders slumped. But Altman's message — that the Ducks wouldn't be where they are now without Boucher's positive contributions over the course of the season — lifted him back up.
“To hear coach say that, I'm forgetting about it,” Boucher said. “I know next game I'll be ready for anything. It's done. We won. Tomorrow's another game. I won't even think about it. I'll be ready for tomorrow.”
So count Boucher as one more Duck who, despite Friday's second-half wobble, displayed resiliency in the end.
Altman said he doesn't tell them enough how proud he is of their toughness. But Cook said he doesn't have to.
“We just come out and play how he wants us to play,” Cook said. “And we don't need to be complimented on playing the right way.”
