Oregon men's basketball's long win-streak vs. Utah ends in close game
For the first time in a long time, Oregon came up empty handed in its Pac-12 men’s basketball mountain roadtrip.
In an entertaining game that included 15 lead changes and nine ties, the Ducks couldn’t capitalize on scoring chances in the final seconds against Utah Sunday afternoon, losing 80-77 in the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
Oregon (13-5, 5-2 Pac-12) had won 11 straight against Utah (14-5, 5-3), and 20 of its last 21 in the series. That included eight straight road wins. The Utes' last win against the Ducks came on Dec. 29, 2017 in Matthew Knight Arena.
The Ducks left for their road trip last week on a six-game winning streak. But along with Thursday’s loss to Colorado in Boulder, they’ve now lost back-to-back games for just the second time this season.
Two-man game on offense for the Ducks
Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard scored 26 on 9-of-15 shooting with a career-high seven 3-pointers on 10 attempts.
N’Faly Dante, in his best performance since returning from knee surgery three games ago, had 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting, with 10 rebounds and a team-high six assists.
“He played an unbelievable game,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said during his postgame radio interview on KUJZ-FM. “He was so focused and so prepared.”
Both players had chances in the final seconds to either put Oregon in the lead or tie the score but couldn’t convert.
With Oregon trailing 76-75, Couisnard missed his layup attempt on a drive to the basket with 12 seconds to play. Dante grabbed the rebound but missed an uncontested put-back.
Utah went up 78-75 with 8.3 seconds left on a pair of free throws by Cole Bajema.
Oregon’s Keeshawn Barthelemy was fouled with 5 seconds to play, made his first attempt to make it 78-76, then intentionally missed his second attempt. Dante got the rebound and was fouled, sending him to the line with 1.4 seconds on the clock and a chance to tie the score.
Dante missed his first free-throw attempt, then tried to intentionally miss his second as well, but instead banked in the shot to make it 78-77.
Oregon quickly fouled on the inbounds play and Bajema made two more free throws with 1.2 seconds to play to seal the victory.
Deivon Smith nearly had a triple-double for the Utes, with 24 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
It was the first loss for the Ducks this season in their five games decided by five points or less. It was also their fifth loss this season in the six games that they’ve given up at least 80 points.
“I’m not the smartest guy around, but we’re 1-5 when we give up 80,” Altman said. “Our defensive performance has got to improve.”
Oregon led 33-32 at halftime but Utah scored 48 in the second half on 17-of-25 shooting (68.0%).
“You can’t give up 48 points in a half,” Altman said. “Just really disappointed with some of our focus.”
Oregon went with a different starting lineup
Altman made a change to the starting lineup Sunday, replacing freshman forward Kwame Evans Jr. with Jadrian Tracey, two players who had been trending in different directions the last couple of games.
It didn’t have much of an effect.
Tracey, who had 14-point performances off the bench in back-to-back games, got into foul trouble and ended up finishing with no points on 0-for-3 shooting before fouling out after playing just 19 minutes.
Evans had made 16 straight starts but was coming off consecutive games where he had a combined five points and six rebounds. He finished with two points and two rebounds in 11 minutes on Sunday.
What's next for the Ducks
The Ducks return to Matthew Knight Arena against Arizona State (11-7, 5-2) at 6 p.m. Thursday and Arizona (14-4, 5-2) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The Ducks, Wildcats and Sun Devils are tied for first place in the Pac-12 standings.
Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Pac-12 men's basketball: Oregon Ducks fall to Utah Utes in close game
