Ducks beat Wildcats in Pac-10 regular-season finale

Special to the Green Valley News

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) _ Two weeks ago, Oregon's NCAA Tournament hopes were dealt a serious blow after it lost its third consecutive game to fall to 6-9 in the Pacicic-10 Conference.

That made the final three games essentially must-win for the Ducks, who have four returning starters from last season's final eight NCAA run.

Oregon bolstered its chances at a return trip to the NCAA Tournament with a 78-69 win over Arizona on Saturday in the final game of the regular season before 9,087 at McArthur Court.

"This game was huge," said Ducks sophomore forward Joevan Catron, who had 10 points and 12 rebounds. "We're trying to get to the NCAA Tournament and this was a big win to get our confidence back up and get momentum for the (Pac-10) tournament."

Sophomore guard Tajuan Porter had 24 points and senior guard Bryce Taylor added 14 for the Ducks, who had five players score in double-figures. Seniors Malik Hairston and Maarty Leunen each scored 12 points and Leunen had a game-high 15 rebounds.

The Ducks (18-12, 9-9 Pacific-10 Conference) won their third game in a row to finish the season tied for fifth in the conference and earn a first-round bye in the conference tournament.

"We definitely still have more work to do," Hairston said. "We're hoping this is just the beginning."

Arizona (18-13, 8-10), hoping to reach the NCAA Tournament for the 24th consecutive season, finishes in seventh place in the Pac-10. It is the first time the Wildcats have finished with fewer than 11 Pac-10 wins since going 8-10 in 1983-84, which was Lute Olson's first season as coach. Olson is on a personal leave of absence this season.

Arizona cut its deficit to 70-65 with three-minutes left, but Leunen followed with a 3-pointer to start an 8-2 Oregon run to end the game and seal the win.

Jerryd Bayless had 19 points and Chase Budinger had 16 for Arizona, which was outrebounded 36-23.

"It was a very physical game down low," Budinger said. "Boards were a huge key to the game."

With Oregon trailing 46-42 early in the second half, Porter made three consecutive 3-pointers to ignite an 18-4 Ducks run. Hairston capped the run with a 3-pointer to put Oregon ahead 60-50 with 9:10 to play. Porter had 11 points in the run, all in a span of 2:32.

"He was amazing tonight," Hairston said of Porter, his former high school teammate in Detroit. "That was the Tajuan that everyone was missing."

The Ducks shot 81.3 percent (13 of 16) in the second half, including 8 of 9 on 3-pointers.

"It's our job to make them miss those shots and we just didn't do that tonight," Arizona coach Kevin O'Neill said.

Oregon, feeding off the energy from its crowd in its home finale, led 7-2 early. Arizona later went on a 16-6 run to take a 22-17 lead, capped by a three-point play by Nic Wise with 9:06 left in the first half.

Bayless, playing with five stitches under his right eye from a collision suffered Thursday, had 10 points in the first half. Bayless, who entered as the Wildcats' leading scorer with 20.3 points per game, didn't play in Arizona's 84-74 loss to Oregon on Jan. 5.

Porter had 10 points in the first half, including a 3-pointer with six seconds remaining to bring Oregon within 38-35 at halftime.

"Tonight felt similar to last year, where somebody always stepped up," Taylor said. "We just started feeding off each other."

Notes: Oregon will open the Pac-10 tournament as the sixth seed and play No. 3 seed Washington State in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Arizona, the seventh seed, will play No. 10 seed Oregon State in the first round on Wednesday.

Oregon honored seniors Leunen, Hairston, Taylor, Ray Schafer and Mitch Platt before the game. All five players have already earned their degrees from Oregon, believed to be the most graduated players on one team in Division-I.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.