Brooks Bails Out No. 6 Oregon With Buzzer-Beating Three, 68-65

BERKELEY, Calif. — Dillon Brooks drilled a three with .02 seconds on the clock to lift No. 6 Oregon (25-4, 14-2) over California (18-9, 9-6) at Haas Pavilion on Wednesday, 68-65.

The game-winner capped a 22-point performance and completed an improbably comeback, as the Ducks overcame a 16-point, second-half deficit to win their fourth straight.

The Golden Bears, who are still looking to solidify their stance in the Big Dance, entered their meeting with the Ducks with the tenth-best shooting percentage defense in the country.

Cal coupled stellar defense with the three-ball to hold UO to its worst first-half performance in the Dana Altman era. Jabari Bird (20p, 9r) highlighted an early 15-2 run with a pair of threes before Grant Mullins (11p, 4a) capped the surge with another trey, 20-7. Mullins later hit another triple to send the Bears into intermission with a 30-16 advantage.

The Ducks gave the Golden Bears a taste of their own medicine in the second half, buckling down on defense and using the three-ball to get ahead.

Brooks came out hot, scoring the first seven points for the Ducks, before handing the torch to Chris Boucher, who scored all 18 of his points in the period.

Brooks picked up his fourth foul about midway through the half, but continued to play without hesitation, scoring seven points as part of UO’s 19-6 run to end the period. The Ducks sparked the late-game burst with a trifecta of threes from Boucher, Dylan Ennis and Payton Prichard to pull within one, 59-58.

UO took the lead twice on Boucher’s layup and Brooks’ fadeaway J before Ivan Rabb (10p, 12r) tipped in a basket to knot the game at 65-all with nine seconds to play, setting up Brooks’ dramatic game-winner.

Oregon travels an hour south to take on Stanford (13-13, 5-9) on Saturday, Feb 25. Tipoff is timed for 1 p.m. PT, viewable on the Pac-12 Networks.