Oregon outlasts Arizona in overtime in Pac-12 semifinals
This split-personality style of basketball isn’t strictly the domain of Arizona’s.
After a brilliant first half Friday, Oregon did everything it could to self-destruct in the second half of the Pacific-12 Conference tournament semifinals at the MGM Grand Garden. But Arizona wouldn’t accept the Ducks’ generosity and seize the opportunity to advance to the championship game.
It took five minutes longer than it planned on, but Oregon regrouped and eventually put Arizona away, winning 95-89 in overtime before a frenzied announced sellout crowd of 12,916. The top-seeded Ducks (27-6) will face Utah, an 82-78 overtime winner over California in the other semifinal, at 7:15 p.m. today for the Pac-12 title and the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The fourth-seeded Wildcats (25-8) will have to settle for an at-large berth.
“Well, we really made that tough on ourselves,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said.
The Ducks were 6 of 16 in the second half from the free-throw line. And when Chris Boucher inbounded the ball with seven-tenths of a second remaining, it was stolen in the backcourt by Arizona’s Mark Tollefsen, who was subsequently fouled by Dillon Brooks as he attempted a shot that would have won the game for the Wildcats.
“I think the best thing to have done in that situation was call timeout and regroup,” Brooks said of the play that nearly sank his team. “As a veteran, I should’ve realized that and called timeout.
“We could’ve thrown the ball to midcourt. That was an option. But I should’ve called time and had coach set something up for us.”
Tollefsen, an 83 percent shooter at the foul line, missed the first. But he made the second to force overtime.
“Fortunately he missed one for us,” Oregon’s Tyler Dorsey said. “We were able to regroup.”
Boucher said: “I don’t know what happened. But my teammates are tough, and I am happy that they picked me up.”
Which they did. Their redemption came at the line, where they had been horrific for 40 minutes. But Oregon was 12 of 16 in overtime.
Arizona was burned by Oregon’s quickness in the first half and trailed 44-29 at halftime. Oregon then stretched its lead to 55-38 4:19 into the second half.
But the Wildcats then began to rally. Oregon’s misses helped, but Arizona shot better, defended better and whittled away at the deficit.
Gabe York, who finished with 21 points, started making 3-pointers, and one of them pulled Arizona within 77-76. Then came the Tollefsen steal and foul, and he had control of his team’s fate.
“I think playing back-to-back may have gotten to some of the guys,” Brooks said. “It would have been an excruciating loss, but we found a way, and I think it’ll make us a tougher team for going through what we did.”
Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj
