The Oregon Ducks stepped on the gas and never let off in an 85-58 drubbing of the No. 5 Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team in Matthew Knight Arena on Saturday.
The Ducks started the game as on fire as you could get, hitting their first 10 of 13 3-point shots and jumping out to a 27-point lead at one point in the first half. Oregon shot 16 for 22 overall and seemingly couldn’t miss no matter how they were guarded.
Tyler Dorsey and Casey Benson were a combined seven for seven from three for Oregon in the first half, Dorsey made all six of his attempts for the game. Dillon Brooks also chipped in 18 points and was the second leading scorer behind Dorsey who finished with 23.
“They shot like an NBA team, they shot really well,” said freshman guard Rawle Alkins. “It’s tough to say anything when they’re hitting shots the way they were. You got Dillon Brooks, Dorsey, Benson, I don’t even think [Dylan] Ennis scored this game. Ennis was supposed to be their leading 3-point shooter and he didn’t even score a bucket on us and they still blew us out.”
For Arizona, the game could not have gone any worse. The Wildcats had just 11 points with four minutes remaining in the first half and struggled from the field, shooting just under 26 percent. The Wildcats hit two 3’s in the first half and struggled to find any rhythm due to the length and shot blocking ability of the Ducks, the nation’s number one team in blocked shots. The Ducks swatted seven UA attempts away and kept Arizona on edge and staggering for most of the afternoon.
One bright spot for Arizona offensively was the play of Rawle Alkins. The freshman from Brooklyn didn’t let the score dictate his effort as he contributed a team-high 16 points on 7-11 shooting.
“Sometimes you have to give credit to your opponent and realize it wasn’t lack of effort, it wasn’t lack of preparation,” said Arizona head coach Sean Miller. “They had some answers, they are an excellent team. I think we played an excellent team, I hope it’s their best, if they have another level above that that’s a bad thing for every team in the country, they played great and we didn’t have any answers today.”
The Wildcats drop to 21-3 on the year, 10-1 in the Pac-12 and Oregon improves to the same record. If the season were to end today Oregon would be the regular season champions due to having the tie-breaker with Arizona, however, there are seven games left for both schools. On Wednesday, Arizona returns to McKale to face Stanford while Oregon travels to Los Angeles to take on UCLA on Thursday. The Pac-12 race is far from over.
“This game is over with, we’re done with it,” Alkins said. “We leave this trip in Oregon and go back to Tucson tonight and from there it’s just a bounce back game against Stanford.”
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