Oregon 80 - Washington 77 (OT)
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LAS VEGAS – The third time was not the charm for Washington as Oregon completed a season sweep of its Pacific Northwest rivals 80-77 in overtime Thursday at the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas. The Ducks beat the Huskies three times in a season for the first time since 1954 and earned their first neutral-site win of the season at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Thursday. “We knew it was going to be a really tough game,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We played pretty good. I know we played really hard but made some mistakes. “I’m just really proud of the guys, we had guys step up tonight.”
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Oregon led 39-34 at the break but an Aziz N’Diaye jumper a few minutes into the second half gave Washington back the lead. The teams traded baskets until the Senegalese center knocked down a jumper to push the Huskies up six with 6:55 left. The Ducks raced right back, with Tony Woods converting a three-point play and E.J. Singler knocking down a three from the corner to cut the deficit to just one. Pac-12 Coach of the Year Dana Altman made inserted Dominic Artis with the game tied after the under-4 timeout. Artis immediately found Woods for a sky-high alley-oop dunk to put the Ducks up two. Washington responded as C.J. Wilcox nailed a turnaround jumper to put his team up two 64-62. The Ducks came down the floor and missed a three before Johnathan Loyd was fouled shooting a fadeaway with 16.6 left. He nailed both free throws and knocked the ball away from Wilcox on the defensive end as the buzzer sounded to force overtime. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2382","attributes":{}}]] “He made big plays,” Altman said of Loyd. “The last play he got a hand on the ball and knocked it away to give us a chance going into overtime.” Arsalan Kazemi took over for Oregon in the extra five minutes, scoring 11 of his 14 points including a put-back and a big dunk off a nifty behind-the-back pass from Johnathan Loyd that brought the crowd to its feet. “His put-back was maybe the game-changing play,” Altman said. “I thought he played his tail off.” “This was like a playoff game,” Kazemi said. “I played as hard as I could. I didn’t even look at the score.” The Ducks (24-8, 12-6 in the Pac-12) move on to the Pac-12 tournament semifinals on Friday at 8:30 p.m. PT against an upset-minded Utah team that has the longest active winning streak in the league. The game will air at 8:30 p.m. PT on ESPN. Game Photos (Eric Evans Photography): [gallery ids="1664,1678,1681,1677,1680,1676,1674,1666,1675,1665"]