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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon's second amazing comeback in three
days sent the Pac-10 race into even further disarray, and made
Arizona that much more desperate to get Loren Woods back.
Frederick Jones scored a career-high 27 points, and Oregon
outscored Arizona 15-1 in the final 4:46 Saturday, handing the third-ranked
Wildcats their second straight upset loss, 86-81.
|  | | Oregon celebrates as the Ducks take the lead late in the second half. |
"It was just one of those grooves you get in," said Jones, who
scored 16 second-half points to help the Ducks come back from 17
points down.
Oregon was coming off a wild 76-74 win over Arizona State on
Thursday night in which the Ducks scored six points in the final
five seconds and won it with Darius Wright's buzzer-beating heave.
"We think we got lucky the other night, but tonight we just
stuck with it," said Wright, who scored 15 points on 12 of 12 free
throws. "It was our defensive intensity. Everybody stepped up and
rotated correctly."
Alex Scales, who scored a career-high 31 points Thursday night,
had 20 and hit two straight 3-pointers to begin the monumental
comeback for the Ducks (21-7, 12-5 Pac-10).
Michael Wright scored a career-high 28 for Arizona (24-6, 13-3),
but was held scoreless in the final 6½ minutes as the Wildcats
missed a chance to grab a share of the Pac-10 lead after Stanford
lost to UCLA in overtime.
"We played 30 minutes of great basketball. Unfortunately, the
game is 40 minutes long," said Arizona coach Lute Olson, whose
team lost 70-69 at Oregon State on a 3-pointer at the buzzer
Thursday night. "Oregon is the kind of team that is not going to
quit. We had to play 40 minutes of tough basketball, and we kind of
wilted."
Arizona, which played just seven players without 7-foot-1 center
Woods, who's out with an injured back until the NCAA tournament,
had just one field goal in the last 11:15. A mid-range jumper and a
free throw by Gilbert Arenas put the Wildcats ahead 80-71 with 4:46
left.
The Ducks chipped at the lead, and Jones dished to Scales for a
layup that tied it at 80 with 1:10 left. Wright stole the ball from
Arizona's Luke Walton and hit two free throws for an 82-80 lead,
and two more from the line made it 84-81.
Arizona had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but Jason
Gardner's leaning, desperate 3-pointer was off, and Jones rebounded
with 2.6 seconds left. His free throws sealed it at 86-81.
"We had our lead, and we just tried to take time off the clock
instead of shooting the ball. That hurt us," said Gardner, who had
22 points despite feeling ill. "We got too patient instead of
going at them."
Arenas added 15 for the Wildcats, who were swept in Oregon for
the first time since 1989-90. They had won 16 of their last 17
against the Ducks.
The Ducks clinched no worse than third in the Pac-10 by reaching
21 regular-season wins for the first time since 1944-45, when the
team was 28-15.
The last time Oregon beat such a highly ranked team was Jan. 5,
1995, when it defeated No. 2 and eventual national champion UCLA
82-72.
That also was the last year the Ducks went to the NCAA
Tournament, a feat they're virtually assured of this season.
"What a fantastic victory," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "To
have that kind of success against the No. 3 team in the nation,
that will have some effect on the pairings. This will help us going
into the postseason."
Oregon shot 24 of 25 from the line (96 percent), breaking the
school record of 95 percent set in a win over Rice in December
1977.
The Ducks nearly blew it with two stretches of poor shooting and
abysmal ball-handling, and the latter drought appeared to be fatal.
After pulling to 55-51, Oregon committed four turnovers and
didn't score a point for more than two minutes. The Wildcats ran
off 13 quick points, and a driving layup by Arenas put his team up
68-51.
But Arizona would get just two baskets after that -- a fallaway
bank shot by Wright and Arenas' jumper.
The Ducks took a 36-28 lead on a dunk by Jones, but didn't hit a
field goal in the last 5:10 of the first half. On its nine
possessions during that stretch, all the Ducks got were two field
goals after a technical foul was called on Arizona's Richard
Jefferson, who shoved a group of fans during an altercation after
he tumbled out of bounds going for a loose ball.
The Ducks had four turnovers and missed all three of their shots
during the bad stretch, and Gardner scored five points during a
16-2 run, including a leaning 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left that
made it 44-38 at the half.
The Ducks had their fast break going early and got a big lift
when A.D. Smith entered the game four minutes in. Smith wasn't
expected to play until the postseason, but he wore a plastic mask
to protect the left cheekbone he broke in a victory at Southern
California last week.
Smith was in primarily to help guard Wright, but Smith hit two
layups, and a 3-pointer by Jones gave Oregon an early 22-15 lead.
Jones, a sophomore, had his previous career high of 23 last
season at Washington State.
Wright, also a sophomore, surpassed his high of 24 against New
Mexico State last November.
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