No. 7 UCLA pulls away in 2nd half to beat Oregon 70-63

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 25 factors and 12 rebounds, and No. 7 UCLA received in Eugene for the primary time since 2019 with a 70-63 victory over Oregon on Saturday night time.

UCLA (21-4, 12-2 Pac-12) has received 4 straight after shedding convention video games to Arizona and rival USC on the finish of January.

”We had been simply speaking to the fellows – it is our final 12 months right here, we will go down swinging,” mentioned Jaquez, who scored 18 factors within the second half. ”It is our final time on this area, we hadn’t received right here and we did not get one at USC, so we undoubtedly wanted to get one right here.”

UCLA sits atop the Pac-12 standings forward of No. 4 Arizona, which fell 88-79 at Stanford earlier within the day.

Jaquez dunked to place the Bruins up 66-48 with simply over 5 minutes left, however Keeshawn Barthelemy hit a 3-pointer with 3:15 to go that narrowed the hole to 66-54. Tyger Campbell answered with a 3 for the Bruins.

Quincy Guerrier’s 3-pointer bought Oregon inside 69-63 with 17 seconds left, however the Geese could not catch up.

Jermaine Couisnard had 19 factors for the Geese (15-11, 9-6), who received the earlier three conferences in Eugene.

The loss snapped a two-game profitable streak for the Geese, whose probabilities of an at-large berth within the NCAA Event bought significantly slimmer. Oregon beat visiting USC 78-60 on Thursday.

UCLA got here into the sport realizing the Geese had been hungry, Bruins coach Mick Cronin mentioned.

”It was just like the candles had been lit for the get together right now. And it is arduous to win these kinds of video games. You have to perceive what you are up towards,” Cronin mentioned. ”I instructed you guys, it is a nice problem for us.”

UCLA was coming off a 62-47 victory at Oregon State on Thursday, led by freshman guard Amari Bailey with 24 factors.

Bailey appeared to injure his proper foot or ankle late within the first half towards the Geese and limped straight to the locker room, however returned to begin the second half.

Oregon took an early 8-0 lead after N’Faly Dante’s dunk that introduced the house crowd to its toes. However the Bruins closed the hole and took a 12-10 lead on a pair of free throws from Jaquez.

Barthelemy’s 3-pointer with 5:52 left within the first half gave the Geese a 25-21 lead and so they stretched it to 31-23 on Rivaldo Soares’ layup. The Bruins closed the half with a 7-2 run to chop the hole to 33-30 on the break.

Campbell’s layup gave UCLA a 34-33 lead early within the second half because the Bruins went on a 15-4 run. Jaquez hit consecutive 3-pointers to provide UCLA a 53-41 lead halfway via the half because the Geese went chilly.

”We had been simply actually sloppy. We missed some attractiveness early, and so they simply pounded us on the boards,” Oregon coach Dana Altman mentioned. ”Second-chance factors, they’d two at halftime, they’d 16 within the second half.”

BIG PICTURE

UCLA: The Bruins downed Oregon 65-56 in December. … UCLA has held opponents below 70 factors 4 instances this season. … The Bruins have received 20-plus video games for the third straight season. … It was Jaquez’s seventh profession double-double with at the very least 20 factors.

Oregon: Will Richardson has performed in 141 video games for the Geese, 4 shy of the varsity report. … Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, the corporate’s vp for design and particular tasks, was on the sport.

UP NEXT

UCLA: The Bruins host Stanford on Thursday.

Oregon: The Geese go to Washington on Wednesday.

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