Ducks Fade Late, Lose 5th in Row

Oregon lost another seemingly winnable game this afternoon against a seemingly vulnerable UCLA Bruin squad. The Ducks again had a below-average offensive game but managed to knot the score 55 - 55 with 3:23 remaining on an Endyia Rogers 3-pointer. Oregon had trailed the entire 4th quarter by as many as 7 but rallied to make a game of it. The offense collapsed at that point, however, and the Bruins outscored the Ducks 12 - 2 over the remaining minutes to take the 67 - 57 victory. It was another game in which Oregon’s scoring defense was decent, but it was their opponent that made the plays down the stretch that made the difference.

BOX SCORE

Oregon again started a game reasonably well, outscoring UCLA 16 - 14 in the first quarter. The Ducks overcame a 6 - 2 deficit by tightening up on defense and holding the Bruins scoreless for almost 4 minutes while scoring 8 points themselves for a 10 - 6 lead. UCLA scored 5 quick points and retook the lead and the teams battled back-and-forth for the rest of the quarter. Kennedy Basham’s jumper with 46 seconds left gave Oregon the lead at the horn.

The Ducks offense then tailed off a bit and the team scored just 24 points over the next 20 minutes while the Bruins were scoring 33. Oregon again struggled on offense over long periods of time, scoring only 4 points in the first 5 minutes of the second quarter. At the same time, however, the Ducks were making it tough on the Bruins offense, and incredibly Oregon still led 20 - 18 after a Grace VanSlooten jumper at 4:53.

Neither team could get much of anything going and the game was tied at 28 - 28 at halftime, a pretty low-scoring game given the talent level.

In the third, the teams again had trouble scoring the basketball - it was 30 - 30 after 3 minutes and 32 - 32 after 4 and a half minutes. The Bruins finally broke out of the pattern with two 3-pointers by Emily Bessoir and one by Gabriela Jaquez. Oregon could answer only with a Phillippina Kyei jumper, and the Ducks trailed 41 - 35 with 3:16 left in the third. The Bruins moved out to a 7-point lead they would hold through the end of the quarter.

Oregon worked hard in the 4th quarter, outscoring the Bruins 15 - 8 to forge the 55-all tie. But the Ducks couldn’t buy a basket down the stretch, gave up a couple of easy ones and the Bruins pulled away for the home win.

For the game, Rogers led the Ducks with 19 points on 7 - 11 shooting. VanSlooten and Chance Gray added 13 points each, although Gray needed 18 shots to do it. Basham’s early jumper were Oregon’s only points off the bench. Kyei again had a strong game underneath, grabbing 13 rebounds. Oregon had 14 turnovers. The Ducks again shot poorly, making just 37.3% from the field overall and going 3 - 13 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Oregon (14-11 overall, 5-9 Pac-12) is on the road next week to face the Washington schools.