'This one's gonna hurt': Oregon basketball falls to Arizona in March Madness second round
SEATTLE – Missed opportunities – and free throws – hindered Oregon on Sunday night.
They'll haunt the Ducks for a while, as well.
"This one's going to hurt for a long time," said Oregon coach Dana Altman 20 minutes after the buzzer sounded on No. 5 Oregon's season-ending 87-83 loss to No. 4 Arizona in the second round of the men's NCAA Tournament at Climate Pledge Arena.
In a game that came down to the final seconds, Jackson Shelstad had 25 points, TJ Bamba 17 points, Nate Bittle 16 points and 11 rebounds and Kwame Evans Jr. six points and 10 rebounds.
But the Ducks also gave up a 15-point lead in the first half, were outrebounded 44-37 and shot a season-low 55% from the free-throw line as they made just 12 of 22 attempts.
And yet, it was still a two-point game after a jumper by Shelstad cut the Ducks’ deficit to 72-70 with 4:34 to play. But the Wildcats was able to answer every Oregon challenge in the final minutes.
Caleb Love scored seven straight for Arizona after Shelstad’s jumper, on two 3-pointers and a thunderous dunk to make it 80-73 with 2:01 to play.
But the Ducks weren't done.
Oregon scored five straight on a 3-pointer by Keeshawn Barthelemy and a score inside by Bittle that made it 80-78 with 49 seconds left.
The Ducks forced a turnover on the inbounds play after Bittle’s score, but Bamba missed the potential score-tying drive with 32 seconds on the clock.
"I was good at finishing at the rim today," Bamba said. "I just tried to make a play and unfortunately it didn't go in."
From there, Arizona scored seven of its final eight points from the free-throw line in the last 21 seconds as the Ducks kept fouling to stop the clock.
Oregon couldn't maintain its hot start
The Ducks led 19-4 in the opening five minutes as Bittle, Shelstad and Brandon Angel hit 3-pointers, and an aggressive effort on defense led to seven points off turnovers.
The Wildcats stormed back and during one eight-minute stretch in the first half outscored the Ducks 21-7 to take a 32-31 lead – their first of the game – on a layup by Jaden Bradley with 4:48 left. By halftime, Arizona was ahead 42-38.
"When we got on that run in the first half, they started crashing the boards, we were up and then it flipped pretty quickly there on the rebounds," Bittle said. "They got a couple offensive rebound put-backs and stuff and started attacking us. We weren't building our wall, getting back in transition defense. They got some transition buckets."
Three minutes into the second half, it was Oregon which trailed by double digits – 54-43 – a deficit it could never completely overcome.
"Losses like this hurt a lot," Shelstad said. "It's going to hurt for a while. We were right there last year and this year and just a couple different plays or free throws, anything, rebounds could have went a different way. So it's going to sting for a little bit."
Oregon baffled by bad night at the free-throw line
The Ducks made 76.4% from the free-throw line this season before Sunday's performance.
It was the fourth-best percentage in the Big Ten and Oregon's best in 11 seasons.
But against the Wildcats, the Ducks struggled.
Bamba was 4 for 7 from the line, Evans was 2 for 5, Bittle was 1 for 3 and Shelstad was 4 for 6, including an intentional miss at the end of the game.
"It was super frustrating," Bamba said. "It was hard to see. A lot of guys, we put in a lot of work. We work on our free throws, including myself. It just sucks that it had to happen today."
It was just as confounding to Altman, whose team had been so reliable from the foul line all season.
"I was talking to the guys here," Altman said, "and we have played 30-some games and it's the first one this year that we lost at the line. We've been a good free-throw shooting team. We've hit clutch free throws all year ... but I've always told the guys it's a game of very few possessions in most cases and tonight that was true. We had our opportunities, came out great, but didn't play the way that we needed to play to win the game."
Chris Hansen covers University of Oregon football, men’s basketball, track and field, cross country and softball for The Register-Guard. You can reach him at chansen@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @chansen_RG
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon vs. Arizona in March Madness: Ducks lose in NCAA second round
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