Despite big performances from Jermaine Couisnard, N'Faly Dante, Oregon fall short in loss to Utah

The Oregon Ducks had an opportunity to escape Salt Lake City with a win and salvage their final Pac-12 road trip to the mountain schools.

But they fell agonizingly short in the final minutes and found themselves on the wrong end of a nail-biter.

Oregon lost, 80-77, to the Utah Utes at the Hunstman Center to fall to 13-5 on the year and 5-2 in Pac-12 play. The Ducks have now suffered back-to-back losses for the first time since Nov. 24 and 25, when they lost to Santa Clara and Alabama.

Oregon trailed 78-76 with five seconds remaining after Keeshawn Barthelemy buried the first of two free throw attempts. He missed the second one and N’Faly Dante grabbed the ensuing rebound, was fouled, and went to the free-throw line with a chance to tie the game.

But the Ducks’ all-conference big man missed the first attempt and then banked in the second attempt while intentionally trying to miss.

Jermaine Couisnard delivered his best offensive performance of the season and finished with 26 points on 9-of-15 shooting, including 7-of-10 from three. Dante racked up a season-high 23 points — 21 of which came in the second half — and added 10 rebounds and six assists.

But the rest of Oregon’s players went a combined 10-for-35 (28%) from the field and struggled to contain Utah’s top players. Deivon Smith torched the Ducks for 24 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. Ben Carlson and Branden Carlson added 12 points a piece.

How it happened

Couisnard and Brennan Rigsby kept the Ducks afloat early and went a combined 5-for-5 from three-point range to give Oregon its first five field goals of the day.

Meanwhile, Dante, who is still working his way back from a knee injury after returning to the lineup last week, looked more comfortable as the opening half went on.

Dante made several sharp backdoor passes to set up teammates for easy buckets. On the defensive end of the floor, he blocked two shots and influenced several others to force misses.

Oregon had a chance to head into the break with a two-possession lead. But, at the final buzzer of the first half, Smith buried a leaning 35-footer to cut the Ducks’ lead to 32-31 at halftime.

Once the second half began, Dante immediately went to work offensively.

The standout big man buried an elbow jumper on Oregon’s opening possession. Then, next time down the floor, he went up and under for a baseline layup to give the Ducks a 37-34 lead.

From there, the two teams traded buckets and neither squad was able to create any separation.

Dante gave the Ducks a big spark when he tipped a pass that led to a steal for Rigsby, then sprinted up-court and threw down a two-handed slam on a pass from Couisnard. On Oregon’s next possession, Dante cleaned up a missed shot and went back up for a layup to give the Ducks a 47-42 advantage.

Several minutes later, the Utes suffered a big blow when starting big man Keba Keita picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench with 15:17 to go.

The Ducks struggled for offensive consistency over the next few minutes. But Couisnard brought them back to life once again with a timely three-pointer to make it 57-53 with 9:36 left.

Utah responded with a 7-0 run, though, that featured buckets from both Ben Carlson and Branden Carlson.

Down the stretch, Couisnard hit a flurry of crucial shots for the Ducks. He buried a three with 6:37 remaining to give Oregon a 63-62 lead. Then, two minutes later, he caught an inbounds pass and canned another three to make it 67-63.

But Utah responded with back-to-back threes to give the Utes a 69-67 advantage.

Jadriane Tracey missed a corner three at the other end, and Utah took control of the game with a Smith layup on its ensuing possession.

But the Ducks refused to go away quietly and were carried by their veterans down the stretch.

Dante completed an and-one with 1:44 to go to cut the Utah lead to 72-70. On Oregon’s next possession, Couisnard buried his sixth three-pointer of the day to make it 74-73 Utes.

But Smith was lights out down the stretch for the Utes and knifed his way to the basket for a layup to make it a two-possession game with 41 seconds remaining.

Dante finished a layup at the other end to cut the Utah lead back to one, and then Oregon was forced to foul. Smith missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Ducks had a chance to take the lead at the other end. But Couisnard and Dante each failed to convert contested layup attempts, and Oregon once again had to foul.

Cole Bajema made each of his ensuing attempts to set the stage for Dante’s game-tying free-throw attempts at the other end.

But he was unable to convert, and Utah closed out the game.

The Ducks will return home this week and prepare to host the Arizona schools at Matthew Knight Arena.

Oregon and Arizona State are slated to tip off at 6 p.m. PT on Thursday. Then, the Ducks will host No. 12 Arizona at 2:30 p.m. PT on Saturday.