Ducks hit the wall in 69-51 loss to Huskies
The legs that had soared lost their lift. Shots that had found their mark strayed.
Trying to win its third game in three days, Oregon ran into a fresher opponent and got a refresher course in defeat Friday night at Staples Center during a 69-51 loss to Washington in a Pacific Life Pac-10 tournament semifinal.
The seventh-seeded Ducks were trying to become the lowest-seeded team to reach the championship game after beating Arizona State and UCLA, but the Huskies were determined not to become upset fodder like the Bruins.
Freshman guard C.J. Wilcox scored 14 points to lead a balanced attack for third-seeded Washington, which had four players in double figures. The Huskies (22-10) will play top-seeded Arizona (27-6) at 3 p.m. Saturday for the championship.
Oregon forward E.J. Singler, who had a career-high 22 points against Arizona State and then topped that with 24 points against UCLA in the Ducks’ quarterfinal upset, had a relatively quiet performance with 10 points on three-for-nine shooting.
Oregon made some noise in the second half, scoring 10 straight points to pull within 44-40, but Isaiah Thomas and Terrence Ross hit three-pointers to restore Washington to a comfortable margin.
Ross finished with 13 points, and Thomas had 10 points and 12 assists.
Ross elicited laughter in the postgame news conference when he noted seeing a television replay of a basket he scored off a Thomas assist.
“I just saw it on ESPN right now,” Ross said. “He finds me a lot.”
Joevan Catron had 18 points for Oregon (16-17).
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