No. 7 UCLA pulls away in 2nd half to beat Oregon 70-63

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Jaime Jaquez Jr. slams home big dunk

Jaime Jaquez Jr. grabs the steal and finishes with a huge slam dunk for UCLA.

Feb 12, 2023, 06:32 am

EUGENE, Ore. -- — Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 7 UCLA won in Eugene for the first time since 2019 with a 70-63 victory over Oregon on Saturday night.

UCLA (21-4, 12-2 Pac-12) has won four straight after losing conference games to Arizona and rival USC at the end of January.

“We were just talking to the guys — it’s our last year here, we’re going to go down swinging," said Jaquez, who scored 18 points in the second half. “It’s our last time in this arena, we hadn’t won here and we didn’t get one at USC, so we definitely needed to get one here.”

UCLA sits atop the Pac-12 standings ahead of No. 4 Arizona, which fell 88-79 at Stanford earlier in the day.

Jaquez dunked to put the Bruins up 66-48 with just over five minutes left, but Keeshawn Barthelemy hit a 3-pointer with 3:15 to go that narrowed the gap to 66-54. Tyger Campbell answered with a 3 for the Bruins.

Quincy Guerrier's 3-pointer got Oregon within 69-63 with 17 seconds left, but the Ducks couldn't catch up.

Jermaine Couisnard had 19 points for the Ducks (15-11, 9-6), who won the previous three meetings in Eugene.

The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Ducks, whose chances of an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament got considerably slimmer. Oregon beat visiting USC 78-60 on Thursday.

UCLA came into the game knowing the Ducks were hungry, Bruins coach Mick Cronin said.

“It was like the candles were lit for the party today. And it’s hard to win those types of games. You’ve got to understand what you’re up against,” Cronin said. “I told you guys, this is a great challenge for us."

UCLA was coming off a 62-47 victory at Oregon State on Thursday, led by freshman guard Amari Bailey with 24 points.

Bailey appeared to injure his right foot or ankle late in the first half against the Ducks and limped straight to the locker room, but returned to start the second half.

Oregon took an early 8-0 lead after N'Faly Dante's dunk that brought the home crowd to its feet. But the Bruins closed the gap and took a 12-10 lead on a pair of free throws from Jaquez.

Barthelemy's 3-pointer with 5:52 left in the first half gave the Ducks a 25-21 lead and they stretched it to 31-23 on Rivaldo Soares' layup. The Bruins closed the half with a 7-2 run to cut the gap to 33-30 at the break.

Campbell's layup gave UCLA a 34-33 lead early in the second half as the Bruins went on a 15-4 run. Jaquez hit consecutive 3-pointers to give UCLA a 53-41 lead midway through the half as the Ducks went cold.

“We were just really sloppy. We missed some good looks early, and they just pounded us on the boards,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “Second-chance points, they had two at halftime, they had 16 in the second half.”

BIG PICTURE

UCLA: The Bruins downed Oregon 65-56 in December. ... UCLA has held opponents under 70 points four times this season. ... The Bruins have won 20-plus games for the third straight season. ... It was Jaquez's seventh career double-double with at least 20 points.

Oregon: Will Richardson has played in 141 games for the Ducks, four shy of the school record. ... Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, the company's vice president for design and special projects, was at the game.

UP NEXT

UCLA: The Bruins host Stanford on Thursday.

Oregon: The Ducks visit Washington on Wednesday.

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