EUGENE — Shortly after Oregon’s loss to Colorado on Saturday in Boulder, players and coaches stressed the need to refocus.
They said they needed to play harder and that they didn’t give their best effort in facing a team that ranked near the bottom of the Pac-12 Conference.
In short, the message from the Ducks was that every day mattered and they needed to approach every game equally.
The next morning, Oregon’s official Twitter account posted a message encouraging fans to wear yellow this Saturday for the Ducks’ game against Arizona.
It wasn’t unexpected that Oregon wanted to hype the UO/UA contest, a game that will go a long ways in deciding the Pac-12 regular season crown, but it left out one key element: The Ducks had a game on Thursday night, too, against another Pac-12 basement dweller in Arizona State.
For a half on Thursday, it looked like the Ducks may have been looking a little too far ahead themselves before rebounding for a 71-70 win over the Sun Devils.
After shooting 35 percent in the first half, sinking 1 of 10 three-point attempts and trailing 28-25 at the half, the Ducks regrouped to extend the team’s home winning streak to 39 games. The win set up what is likely to be the most-anticipated game of the Pac-12 season as the 10-0 in conference Wildcats will meet the 9-1 Ducks in Eugene for the only meeting of the season between the two teams.
To get there, the Ducks had to reset from what was their fourth-straight poor half of basketball.
Thankfully, Dillon Brooks was more than willing to help.
Aside from a Jordan Bell dunk and a couple of Chris Boucher blocks, the near-sold out Matthew Knight Arena had little to make noise for as the two teams combined to miss 42 shots in the first half.
But after struggling from the three-point line early, the Ducks drained three out of the first four attempts in the second half — including back-to-back threes from Payton Pritchard and Dylan Ennis — to take the lead and, after ASU kept Oregon fans quiet into the final minutes by retaking a 60-59 lead with three minutes to play, Brooks took over.
Brooks ignited a 12-6 Oregon run on his own, draining a pair of three-pointers, a step-back jumper and four free throws to finish with a game-high 27 points a game after finishing with nine points and six turnovers against Colorado.
*This story will be updated.
— Tyson Alger
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