Tale of the tape: Oregon 68, WSU 61

COUGARS

FROM EUGENE — A 10-point halftime lead dissipated early in the second half, and WSU ultimately fell to Oregon here 68-61 at Matthew Knight Arena. We have our usual tale of the tape, so read on.

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PLAYER OF THE GAME — E.J. Singler got the Ducks’ offense going in the second half, nailing a couple of 3-pointers, some baseline jumpers and taking advantage of a sequence in which it seemed WSU just couldn’t get a defensive rebound. Those second chances wound up costing the Cougars. Oregon scored 15 second-chance points and most of them came during a crucial stretch during the second half. Mike Ladd had an outstanding first half — 14 points, six rebounds and five assists — but Oregon’s pressure forced him into five second-half turnovers and he looked exhausted down the stretch, missing four free throws in the final 2:49.

PLAY OF THE GAME — Singler’s offensive prowess in the second half led to a wide-open 3-pointer for Dominic Artis with 5:47 to go. Singler drove to the paint, drew Artis’ defender to him, then kicked it out to Artis for the open look. He nailed it to give the Ducks a 57-53 lead with 5:47 remaining, Oregon’s first multi-possession lead of the game.

STAT OF THE GAME — WSU’s 0-for-11 shooting performance from 3-point range in the second half wound up being a huge factor, too, because the Cougars’ outside shooting was what helped them to their halftime lead. That’s a somewhat baffling turnaround, going from 7-for-13 to 0-for-11. But as Ladd said afterward, WSU was forced into a number of late shot-clock attempts, and that wound up leading to too many poor looks.

QUOTABLE — “I guess there is, but what I want to do as a coach is try to stay in the game. So sometimes I feel like if we rest certain guys too many minutes early on, it’s sometimes difficult to stay in the game. Tonight’s situation, I felt like we were playing good basketball so therefore we kind of milked it and went with the guys that were getting the job done to be up 39-29 at half. Second half, we tried to use timeouts and slow the game down a little bit if we can, and hopefully play well and make shots. But it didn’t happen tonight in the last 20.” — Ken Bone, answering a question about whether there’s anything he can do to mitigate his team’s fatigue

UP NEXT — Saturday at Oregon State (2 p.m., Pac-12 Networks). The Beavers currently hold a slim lead over Washington. If they hold on, it would be their first win of the conference season.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com . Twitter: @ChristianCaple