Washington Huskies fall flat against Oregon, lose 65-40
EUGENE – Troy Brown Jr. scored 21 points and Kenny Wooten had 12 points and seven blocks to lead Oregon past Washington 65-40 on Thursday night.
Payton Pritchard also had 12 points for the Ducks (15-8, 5-5 Pac-12), who rebounded from a 35-point road loss at Stanford. Wooten has 70 blocks, fourth most by a Pac-12 freshman.
Noah Dickerson scored 14 points to lead the Huskies (17-6, 7-3), who had their four-game winning streak snapped. It was Washington’s lowest point total of the season.
The Huskies were 0 of 7 from 3-point range in the second half and 3 of 17 overall. They went without a field goal for the final 6:22 of the game.
Washington’s leading scorer, freshman Jaylen Nowell, failed to reach double figures for the first time in 16 games with nine points on 4-of-15 shooting and five turnovers.
MiKyle McIntosh had nine rebounds to lead Oregon to a 38-33 edge on the glass. The Ducks also had a 36-24 margin in points in the paint.
Oregon took a 28-21 halftime lead by relying mostly on Brown Jr., who had 16 points at the break. He made 7 of 8 shots while his teammates were just 4 of 19.
Brown Jr. wiped out Washington’s 19-16 lead with eight straight points that ended a 5 1/2-minute scoring drought for the Ducks, who finished the half on a 12-2 run. Five of the Huskies’ nine turnovers came on player-control fouls, including three in a row late in the half, as Oregon stood its ground in the paint.
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Washington suffered through its worst shooting game of the season at 15 of 54 for 28 percent. The Huskies were coming off a 78-75 win over Arizona that boosted its postseason resume, but they squandered a chance to gain ground on the No. 13 Wildcats, who lost at home to UCLA.
In order for Oregon to make the NCAA Tournament field for the sixth consecutive year, the Ducks need to replace one of the four, or at best five, Pac-12 teams projected to make the field ahead of them. With an RPI of 90, the Ducks helped their cause by beating the Huskies, whose RPI was 33.