The Arizona Wildcats were unable to continue their win streak as the fall to the Oregon Ducks on the road 73-47.
Tale of two halves. This game had it all, in the first half that is and then the second half happened. The Arizona Wildcats had the lead, then loss the lead, then tied it back up – that sums up the first half. In the second half, the Wildcats only made 16 points, couldn’t make anything and would lose to the Oregon Ducks 73-47.
The one bright spot of this game, was the play of Dylan Smith in the first half who had 14 points and was 3-4 from three. Devonaire Doutrive also knocked down a couple threes in the first half. The Wildcats would finish the first half with 21 of their 31 points from beyond the arc. Chase Jeter didn’t start the game due to a bruised knee and Brandon Williams came off the bench as well.
In the first half, the Wildcats jumped out early 11-2 lead with three pointers falling and the Ducks not able to knock anything down. Turnovers and some poor decision making contributed to the Wildcats suddenly down 10 points with about 6 minutes to play in the half. Williams found himself in early foul trouble as well, plus Jeter only played 6 minutes and didn’t score. He didn’t play a single minute in the second half as he was having a lot of trouble moving around the court.
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The Wildcats did have 12 turnovers to the Ducks 1 in the first 20 minutes of play, but somehow were tied at 31. The combination of winning the battle on the glass and Ducks shooting only 34% from the field led to the score. Heading into the locker room, this team must have felt they had a chance to pull off the sweep.
Unfortunately though in the second half the Wildcats were outscored 42-16, that’s not good. Yes, the Ducks defense was good, but it was more of the same old Wildcats missing layups, not making wide open threes and missed free throws. They were 19% from the field and 8% from three.
The second half was all Ducks as the Wildcats only took the lead within the first minute of play. After that, they just couldn’t make a shot. Whether it was a lack of focus or poor decision making, this team wasn’t able to sustain any sort of offense from anyone to come back in this one.
Eventhough this team loss, a couple players stood out in their effort. Ira Lee and Williams. Says a lot about each of these two when things are going their way for the team. This play by Williams shows is ability to absorb the contact for the and one!
@TheeBWill showing he isn't afraid of a little contact #BearDown pic.twitter.com/BrlM0CwGYb
— ZonaZealotsFS (@ZonaZealots) March 3, 2019
To really put things in perspective, in the second half Williams had 10 points, Justin Coleman had 4 and Jake Desjardins had 2 points – that’s it. That type of offense won’t make Coach Sean MIller happy. It’s one thing to lose by a couple points or lose by a lot, but with only three players scoring a total of 16 points in the second half – that just can’t happen. They did take much better care of the ball with only 3 turnovers, but that didn’t even lead to any points off of turnovers.
This team is now 17-13 overall and 8-9 in Pac-12 conference play. They have one game left against the Arizona State Sun Devils at McKale Center, next Saturday at 2pm MST on CBS. If they can win avenge the previous loss against the Sun Devils, they can finish the Pac-12 at .500.
Heading into this season expectations were low for this team. They have had their struggles this year, but let’s not forget anything can happen in college basketball. This team still has a shot to make the big dance by winning the Pac-12 tournament. Let’s not give up on this team yet. Bear Down, Arizona!