Oregon Ducks start fast, fade late in road loss to No. 21 UCLA Bruins
For the better part of 30 minutes on Sunday, the Oregon Ducks went toe-to-toe against one of the top teams in the Pac-12.
But they ran out of gas down the stretch and found themselves on the wrong end of a loss that wasn’t particularly close by the time the final buzzer sounded.
Oregon (4-5, 1-1 Pac-12) fell 65-56 to the No. 21 UCLA Bruins (7-2, 2-0) Sunday at Pauley Pavillion in Los Angeles.
Just three days earlier, the Ducks produced an encouraging win over Washington State in Eugene to open conference play.
Much of the momentum from that game carried over to Sunday as they jumped out to a 27-21 halftime lead over a veteran-heavy Bruins squad that reached the Sweet 16 last season.
But Dana Altman’s injury-depleted Ducks faltered down the stretch and could not find enough offensive production to deliver an upset.
Quincy Guerrier led the Ducks with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting. He left midway through the game with an apparent injury but returned for the second half.
Will Richardson played all 40 minutes for the Ducks and has now played 159-of-160 minutes over Oregon’s past four games. He finished 13 points and five assists on 6-of-13 shooting.
For the second game in a row, Oregon was rolling with just eight healthy scholarship players as Jermaine Couisnard, Ethan Butler, Nate Bittle, and Keeshawn Barthelemy all remain sidelined with injuries.
Guerrier helped push the Ducks to a convincing lead at halftime with 10 first-half points.
Meanwhile, the Bruins struggled to find their shooting touch early and shot just 10-for-33 from the field in the first half. They started to find their footing after the break and quickly took back the lead, though.
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The Ducks used a 7-0 run midway through the second half to take a 45-44 lead with just under 12 minutes to go.
They pushed their lead to three several possessions later when Ware caught an entry pass along the baseline and made a smooth pass to a cutting Dante, who converted a layup to make it 47-44.
From there, the two teams traded clutch baskets over the next few minutes.
A David Singleton three-pointer gave UCLA a 49-47 lead at the 8:38 mark, but Rivaldo Soares responded with a mid-range jumper to tie the game.
But that was the closest the Ducks would.
UCLA closed out the game on a 14-7 run over the final 7:46 as star freshman Amari Bailey took hold of the game.
Bailey, a 5-star recruit who was the No. 12 player in the class of 2022, scored all 14 of his points in the second half and went 7-of-9 shooting over the final 20 minutes.
The Ducks will return to Eugene and hope to bounce back quickly when they host the University of Nevada, Reno at Matthew Knight Arena on Dec. 10. That game is scheduled to tip off at 4 p.m. PT.
Oregon will resume Pac-12 play on Dec. 31 when it hosts Oregon State in Eugene.
