Oregon blew a seemingly insurmountable lead but managed to avoid an all-time disastrous meltdown by closing out stronger than Washington State.
Keeshawn Barthelemy and Jermaine Couisnard each scored 17 points and N’Faly Dante had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the No. 4 seed Ducks in a 75-70 win over the No. 5 seed Cougars in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament Thursday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena.
The Ducks (19-13) advance to face No. 1 seed UCLA in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday.
TJ Bamba had 19 points and Mouhamed Gueye had 13 of his 14 in the second half for the Cougars (17-16), who overcame a 19-point deficit in the first half and led 62-58 with 7:28 to go.
Barthelemy scored eight of his 17 in the final 7:28 to help the Ducks avoid a devastating collapse.
Five different players scored during a 26-6 run spanning just over 10 minutes of the first half to help Oregon take a 34-15 lead. But the Ducks closed the half with six straight misses from the floor and Washington State closed on a 10-0 run to cut the gap to 38-30.
Despite going 3 of 14 from three in the first half Oregon still managed to shoot 51.6% from the field before the break because it was 13 of 17 from inside the arc.