Whether it was behind the back, between the legs or bouncing off bodies mid-air, Oregon had no answer for UCLA’s Norman Powell and Kevon Looney as the Bruins topped Oregon 72-63 on Saturday afternoon in Pauley Pavilion.

Looney earned his 13th double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Powell compiled 23 points. The two combined for over half of UCLA’s points in a dominant effort by the Bruins’ talented tandem.

Jalil Abdul-Bassit did his best to keep the Ducks in the game. The senior scored a career-high 24 points on 7-of-12 three pointers. Joseph Young added 18 points on 6-of-17 shooting to round out Oregon’s box score.

The key difference in the game came in the paint. UCLA exercised its significant size advantage to earn easy shots down low and a 51.1 percent shooting mark.

After Oregon’s hot start from three point range, the Ducks found themselves struggling to score against the bigger Bruins. Oregon was held to 39.3 percent shooting and struggled to find open shots throughout the game.

Even though the Bruins distanced themselves at the end of the game, the Ducks did keep things competitive.

After the Bruins burst out of the gates on a 10-2 run, Oregon netted a quick pair of three pointers to start a 21-8 run of its own. After trading baskets, UCLA reclaimed the lead with a 10-0 run to continue the back-and-forth half.

Abdul-Bassit made five three-pointers in the first half on what would turn out to be a career night for him on the scoreboard.

During the streaky first half, Oregon’s perimeter shooting provided most of the scoring. The Ducks shot 8-16 from three. Meanwhile, UCLA worked its way to the interior and outscored the Ducks 20-8 in the paint to power its way to a 41-40 lead at halftime.

In the second half, Oregon’s stream of three pointers ran dry and Powell took over. Looney was un-guardable down low while the rest of the Oregon lineup struggled to get anything done on offense.

Every time Oregon tried to make a run at UCLA’s narrow lead, the Bruins came up with a basket in the paint. Every time Oregon missed a basket, UCLA came up with the rebound. Looney’s double-double propelled the Bruins to a 37-24 edge on the boards.

Outside of Abdul-Bassit and Young, Oregon’s offense had a tough time finding opportunities to score. Elgin Cook finished with a quiet 12 points and five rebounds, while Dwayne Benjamin was held to just four points.

Jordan Bell continued his streak of rough games with no points, no shots, no blocks, two rebounds and two fouls. Dillon Brooks found himself in foul trouble early in the second half and finished with two points on 1-of-6 shooting.

After the loss, Oregon has two games remaining against teams in the RPI top 50 and will likely stay on the wrong side of the bubble following the loss to a team that has a relatively similar resume to its own.

Next up, the Ducks return home to face Colorado and await a big contest against Utah next week at Matthew Knight Arena.

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The Four Factors:

• Field goal percentage (eFG): Regular field goal percentage with additional weight given to three-pointers
• Turnover rate (TOV): Measurement of ball security
• Rebounding percentage (Reb): Percentage of the possible rebounds an offense or defense collects
• Free throw rate (FTR): Rate at which a team gets to the foul line, or fouls the opposing team

Oregon men’s basketball is honing in on an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but needs a few more big wins to have a chance at bursting the bubble on Selection Sunday. The Ducks (18-7, 8-4) slid past USC on Wednesday and look to rack up a “quality win” against UCLA (15-10, 7-5) on Saturday.

Three weeks ago, UCLA lost to Oregon State 66-55 in a sloppy performance on both ends of the floor. A few days later, the Ducks scorched UCLA with a 75 percent shooting mark in the first half and coasted to an easy victory.

This past Wednesday, the Bruins dominated Oregon State 75-59 at Pauley Pavilion, marking a 27-point difference between the two teams’ matchup in Oregon and their game in Los Angeles. This time, Oregon State was the sloppy team with limited options on offense and a lackadaisical zone defense.

It’s easy to see that UCLA is a different team when it plays at home. The Bruins beat No. 11 Utah handily on their home court, despite getting blasted by the Utes in Salt Lake City.

If Oregon wants to find a way to beat the Bruins at Pauley, they’ll need to muster an offensive performance like their first matchup.

As it has been all year long, Oregon’s high expected field goal percentage is the Ducks’ biggest weapon on the offensive side of the floor. The Bruins have advantages in every other factor on offense however, as the Bruins have one of the more dangerous teams in the conference.

At their best, UCLA can score from all over the court. Bryce Alford has been a workhorse, Norman Powell has filled his role as the team’s primary scorer, while Tony Parker and Kevon Looney have been dominating teams all year long. Even 7-footer Thomas Welsh has been hitting his stride as of late off the bench.

When the Bruins are in Pauley Pavilion and play unselfishly on offense, they are the Pac-12′s second best unit. If UCLA keeps up its momentum on offense and gets Parker and Looney some touches in the paint, Oregon won’t be able to stop them.

Oregon’s offense should, however, have success as well. Joseph Young has been playing like his time in competitive basketball is running out, Dwayne Benjamin has hit his stride, while Elgin Cook and Jalil Abdul-Bassit continue to be solid producers on offense. 75 percent shooting might be a bit too much to ask for, but Oregon might need to put together a similar run to beat the Bruins on Saturday.

UCLA made Oregon State’s offense spin its wheels deeper into the mud. The Beavers couldn’t find a clean look and were forced to drain the shot clock down and force a shot up as the possession ended. However, it was apparent that the Beavers don’t have anything close to a dominant scorer. Gary Payton II is talented enough, but wasn’t effective against the longer, more athletic Bruins.

Taking a look at the Four Factors, UCLA’s defense is just as porous as Oregon’s, but is more effective by comparison. The Bruins allow a high expected field goal percentage, but cause more turnovers, corral more misses and foul less often.

Overall, the Ducks are behind the eight ball statistically. UCLA is a completely different team when it plays at home and, outside of its narrow loss to Cal, has been playing the best basketball of its season recently.

Oregon is 12-0 this season when it holds its opponents under 69 points, so expect its effort on defense to be a good barometer for the Ducks’ chances on Saturday.

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The Four Factors:

• Field goal percentage (eFG): Regular field goal percentage with additional weight given to three-pointers
• Turnover rate (TOV): Measurement of ball security
• Rebounding percentage (Reb): Percentage of the possible rebounds an offense or defense collects
• Free throw rate (FTR): Rate at which a team gets to the foul line, or fouls the opposing team

Oregon men’s basketball is headed into another offense-heavy showdown in Los Angeles against USC.

The Ducks (17-7, 7-4) and Trojans (9-14, 1-10) earn the most possessions per game in the Pac-12 and are ranked No. 20 and No. 23, respectively, in that statistic nationally. However, Oregon has the Pac-12′s top scoring offense at 77.2 points per game, while USC has the No. 10 scoring offense in the conference at 66.8 points per game.

After watching Oregon dismantle Washington State, a team similar to USC in multiple ways, it’s hard to expect anything but the road elements to keep Oregon from winning this game.

The Ducks have major advantages in expected field goal percentage and turnover rate, but only have a slight edge in rebounding percentage. The Trojans turn the ball over more than any Pac-12 team and have the conference’s lowest field goal percentage, but still have the ability to get out in transition and push the tempo.

With most of the team’s offense coming from their backcourt, Jordan McLaughlin (12.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 4.7 apg) and Julian Jacobs (7.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.3 apg) will be the focus for the Oregon defense. Perimeter shooter Katin Reinhardt (12.3 ppg) and forward Nikola Jovanovic (12.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg) are both capable scorers as well, but don’t match up very well against Oregon’s athletic lineup.

While defense looks like it will be a secondary factor in this game, Oregon and USC are relatively similar defensively. Both teams rank in the bottom third of the conference in scoring defense and defensive rebounding, but they each have their own strengths.

USC defends the perimeter very well, which pushed its expected field goal percentages down, and causes a fair amount of turnovers. Oregon has maintained a strong expected field goal percentage against throughout conference play.

A lot of the poor defensive numbers that USC has are a byproduct of its high possession rate and tempo, but the Trojans aren’t anywhere close to a defense-first team.

Expect Oregon’s offense to fly right through the USC defense, while Oregon’s defense will be the key factor in determining how close this game will be. The Ducks understand that the impact of a “bad loss” will end their tournament bid and should take care of business against the Trojans on Wednesday.

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The Pac-12 conference announced that Oregon’s Joseph Young has been named Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for Feb. 2-8.

Young averaged 30.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists, hit a game winning bucket to beat Washington, came up two assists shy of a triple-double against Washington State and passed the 2,000 career point milestone all in one week.

Despite leading the Ducks on the stat sheet for almost two years, it is Young’s first-career player of the week selection.

Oregon faces both USC and UCLA this week, starting with the Trojans on Wednesday Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. PT.

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Oregon men’s basketball came into the game expecting a shootout, but earned a blowout as they trounced Washington State 95-72 at Matthew Knight Arena on Sunday afternoon.

After Oregon (17-7, 7-4) announced its leading shot blocker Jordan Bell’s one game suspension, it seemed like the Ducks and Cougs (10-13, 4-7) were headed to a matchup like their first one, where the two teams combined for 207 points.

But after Oregon jumped out to a 12-0 lead to start the game, the Ducks slammed on the accelerator and never looked back.

Joseph Young was the first Duck to step up in Bell’s absence. Young finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, just shy of Oregon’s first triple double since Luke Jackson accomplished the feat in 2002.

Young’s great night in the box score should be credited to his move to the point guard full time after spending his Oregon career as a shooting guard. His leadership has led to increased efficiency and fewer bad possessions on both ends of the floor.

“I’m getting the team more focused,” Young said. “(I) make sure we get into the offense, make sure we get back on defense and make sure we’re communicating on the court. Once we do that and we stay more active…we’ll be good down the stretch.”

With Young creating plays, Oregon’s supporting cast flourished.

Dwayne Benjamin missed just one shot all night long, setting a new Matthew Knight Arena record for single game shooting percentage (.909). Benjamin finished with 25 points on 10 of 11 shooting, five rebounds, one assist, one block and three steals.

“I think I contributed pretty well,” Benjamin said. “I could have made a few plays on defense assignments wise, but I think I played pretty well tonight.”

Benjamin’s performance helped Oregon get out to a hot start in the first half as the Ducks went on a 23-4 run to start the game. By the second media timeout, Oregon was 9 for 15 from the field while Washington State was held to just 2 of 12 shooting.

Even without its best interior defender, Oregon held Washington State to a mere two points in the paint in the first half and 24 for the game after giving up 42 points down low against Washington a few days before.

“I was really pleased with our activity in the first half,” head coach Dana Altman said. “I thought our guys really flew around, diving on loose balls, our rebounding was good, only one turnover, made shots for each other…so in the first half, I really loved our intensity.”

The Ducks’ strong defensive performance gave them multiple advantages on the hustle board. Oregon out-rebounded WSU 39-37, earned more points off of turnovers (12-4) and edged the Cougs in fast break points (23-14).

Dillon Brooks and Jalil Abdul-Bassit pitched in nine and 11 points respectively to round out Oregon’s scoring.

Freshman Roman Sorkin also earned career-highs in minutes played (14) and points (8).

Washington State’s leading scorer DaVonté Lacy struggled to start the game and shot just 2-7 from the field in the first half, but finished with 13 points and three rebounds. Dexter Kernich-Drew led the team with 18 points, while Josh Hawkinson led the Cougs in the paint with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Oregon has now built a three game winning streak, its longest of the Pac-12 season, and is quickly approaching the NCAA Tournament bubble watch. With just seven games remaining, the Ducks will be under the microscope for the rest of the way.

The Ducks will looks to continue their winning ways on the road against the Los Angeles schools next week.

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Oregon men’s golf came up just short of its fifth straight tournament win at the Amer Ari Invitational on Saturday. The No. 2 Ducks finished with a three round score of 35-under – three strokes behind the tournament winner, No. 25 Arizona State – at the par 72 Waikoloa King’s Course in Hawaii.

Each of the top four teams came from the Pac-12. No. 19 Washington finished second at 36-under and No. 15 USC tied with Oregon for third at 35-under.

Brandon McIver tied Texas’ Scottie Scheffler for third on the individual leaderboard at 13-under. The nation’s top collegiate golfer Cheng-Tsung Pan from Washington scored a 17-under to win the event.

Oregon did make a late push to win the event in the third round. Aaron Wise scored a team best five-under, while McIver and Jonathan Woo both scored four-under in the final round. The team’s 16-under 272 was the fourth best score in the third round.

Wise finished at seven-under on the event and in a three-way tie for No. 23 overall. Zach Foushee scored six-under and Woo finished at three-over. No. 11 Thomas Lim ended the third round at even par, and scored five-under for the tournament.

Although the Ducks’ undefeated streak will end with the third place finish, Oregon was still impressive at the event. After two months off, the Ducks had a top three finisher and were just three strokes away from forcing a playoff with Arizona State.

Oregon shouldn’t lose much respect from the polls considering the overall strength of the event. The Ducks finished ahead of multiple top tier teams, such as No. 4 Texas, No. 7 UCLA and No. 13 Auburn.

The Ducks will return to Eugene for a week of practice before heading to La Quinta, California for The Prestige at PGA-West February 5-7.

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Expectations have changed for the Oregon men’s golf team since the beginning of the fall season.

The Ducks emerged as the only undefeated team in the country after four tournament wins, set an NCAA record for the lowest team score in a single round and garnered the No. 1 ranking from the Golf Coaches Association of America Coaches Poll.

“After you look back, you kind of want to shoot for the stars,” head coach Casey Martin said. “I just told the guys, just get in contention. Get in there down the wire and be willing to fail down the stretch. As long as we’re willing to put ourselves mentally in a position to have a shot, that’s all I care about right now.”

Oregon will have a chance to preview a high-pressure situation when it competes in the Amer Ari Invitational on the Kings’ Course in Waikoloa, Hawaii from Feb. 5-7.

The 18-team event will have 13 of the top-50 teams, four of the top-10 teams and four top-20 individual golfers according to Golfweek’s individual and team rankings.

Martin called the tournament one of the majors for amateur golf in 2015.

So the Ducks will be thrust right into one of the biggest events of the calendar year.

“We haven’t been cooped up at all,” Martin said. “We’ve had incredible weather over here, we don’t have any excuses. It’s a bit out of the blue after two months being down, being thrown into a big event, but it gets the guys jacked up. They’re stoked to go play.”

After a competitive week of qualifying play, Brandon McIver, Thomas Lim, Aaron Wise, Zach Foushee and Jonathan Woo each earned spots in the team’s lineup. Wise was the overall winner for the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic in Maui.

Freshman Hurly Long and redshirt junior Noah Sheikh didn’t make the team cut, but will compete as individuals at the tournament.

Sheikh, who has suffered multiple injuries throughout his career, will be participating in his first major event outside the Pacific Northwest.

“I’ve just been waiting to get into a rhythm, kind of waiting to wake up from the bad spell,” Sheikh said. “Once I strung one good round together, the second happened, the third happened, the fourth happened. I just kind of got into a rhythm and restored some of my self-confidence.”

Long, on the other hand, has already been a major part of Oregon’s success this season.

After traveling back home to Germany over break, Long had to shake off a bit of rust and struggled early in the qualifying rounds. After showing consistent improvement throughout this past week; however, Long isn’t concerned about the level of competition heading into the tournament.

“It does not change my approach, it changes the excitement for it,” Long said. “It’s definitely the biggest event we’ve played so far and there’s a lot of guys there that are really the top ranked college golfers.”

With such a broad spectrum of top-notch teams both inside and outside the Pac-12, competing in the Amer Ari Invitational, Oregon’s performance should serve as a barometer for the rest of the season.

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Joseph Young came into tonight’s game against Washington 30 points shy of the 2000 point milestone. Tonight, Young surpassed that milestone with a 32 point performance, but his final two points were particularly special.

With the scored tied at 74 with under one minute to play, Oregon (16-7, 6-4) gave the ball to Young on the perimeter as the shot clock ticked down. The senior guard faked right, then drove to his left, split three Husky defenders, floated the ball up towards the rim and drained it.

“The play was ‘Joe, make a play,’ pass it, or shoot it,” Young said. “First I was going to pass it to Elgin, but they stepped out and he kind of opened the drive and I just drove it. It was wide open.”

Behind Young, Oregon men’s basketball edged Washington 78-74 in a back-and-forth battle on Wednesday night at Matthew Knight Arena.

Both teams could not stop each other. Washington (16-7, 3-7) shot 56.7 percent from the field and scored 46 points in the paint, while Oregon shot 57 percent from the field and 43 percent from three point range.

But at the end of the day, Oregon’s efforts on defense ended up deciding the game.

After Young made his go-ahead basket, Washington had one possession left to tie the game, but the Ducks came away with a steal before the Huskies could set anything up.

“I wish they’d have done that a few more times during the ball game,” head coach Dana Altman said. “But they did it when they had to have it.”

The Ducks tried switching from man to zone defense. They also tried double teaming and hedging, but nothing worked. Washington’s star guard Nigel Williams-Goss went 9-13 on the night for 19 points to lead the team, while Portland native Andrew Andrews contributed 14 points on 6 of 8 shooting.

Oregon’s all-time leading shot blocker Jordan Bell didn’t pick up a single rejection, even with Washington big man Robert Upshaw off the team.

“I was a little disappointed that Jordan didn’t contest a few more shots,” Altman said. “We’ve come to rely on him so much as a team. He wasn’t nearly as active today.”

Bell finished with just four points, but brought down eight rebounds and two steals.

On the other end, Oregon’s offense was humming.

Elgin Cook was Oregon’s secondary contributor, scoring 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting from the field. Jalil Abdul-Bassit and Dillon Brooks chipped nine and eight points in respectively.

After handing Washington a 10-point comeback the last time the two teams played in Seattle, the Ducks have now won a string of close games, something that Altman has taken as a positive.

“Winning close games and losing close games is a habit,” Altman said. “If you’re losing close games you’re looking for bad things to happen. If you’re winning close games, you’re looking for good things to happen. It is pretty important to win those close ones.”

The Ducks will have to find a way to continue that streak when they face Washington State at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Matthew Knight Arena.

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Longtime three-star Oregon commit PJ Locke announced his decision to sign with Texas on Wednesday morning.

I’ve decided to sign to #Texas ! #LetsRide pic.twitter.com/UGZCjCnSid

— James PJ Locke III#4 (@PjLocke4) February 4, 2015

Locke, a 5-10 defensive back from Beaumont, Texas, showed promise as a prototypical Oregon safety. Before losing Locke, the Ducks bolstered their defensive depth with the signing of Jonah Moi on Tuesday.

With the signing day flip, head coach Charlie Strong is already showing he has a knack for recruiting at Texas.

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The Four Factors:

• Field goal percentage (eFG): Regular field goal percentage with additional weight given to three-pointers
• Turnover rate (TOV): Measurement of ball security
• Rebounding percentage (Reb): Percentage of the possible rebounds an offense or defense collects
• Free throw rate (FTR): Rate at which a team gets to the foul line, or fouls the opposing team

A lot has changed since Oregon dropped a 85-77 decision to Washington in Seattle.

To start, Oregon has gained a bit of an identity on both offense and defense. Its ball movement has improved and its communication on defense has improved.

But the biggest factor in Wednesday’s game has nothing to do with Oregon at all. The dismissal of Washington’s 7-footer Robert Upshaw, who averaged 10.9 points, 8.2 rebounds and a nation leading 4.47 blocks per game, has already made a significant impact on how the Huskies defend.

In the first game after Upshaw’s dismissal, Stanford center Stefan Nastic dominated the Huskies, going 8-11 from the field for 17 points. The Cardinal amassed a 52 percent shooting percentage, with a large portion of those baskets coming from the lane.

So, the Four Factors for this game should be disrupted slightly, particularly in Washington’s rebounding and shooting percentages. The statistics used in the diagrams account for Washington’s entire season, which includes Upshaw’s contributions.

Washington runs an inside-out offense, as Upshaw wasn’t the only threat the Huskies had down low. Senior forward Shawn Kemp and junior forward Mike Anderson are both capable rebounders and inside scorers, but after those two, Washington’s front court depth comparable to Oregon’s.

On the perimeter, Nigel Williams Goss is a servicable slashing guard while Andrew Andrews sticks on the perimeter. The Huskies aren’t a very good perimeter team at all, as they rank last in the Pac-12 in three point percentage. Their high expected field goal percentage comes from their good two point shooting percentage, which ranks third in the Pac-12 at 50 percent.

With Upshaw out, Oregon should have an advantage in all of the four offensive factors.

The Huskies were a popular pick to make the NCAA Tournament because of their stellar defense, which was almost completely anchored by Upshaw’s presence. Washington is ranked fifth in the conference in field goal percentage against at 42.4 percent, and second in two point field goal percentage against at 44.3 percent.

After Stanford’s offensive performance against the Huskies, it was obvious to see that Upshaw’s rim-protection was the biggest factor in Washington’s success. Even if he didn’t pick up a statistic on plays, Upshaw’s frame prevented easy trips to the basket and adjusted nearly every shot that he could stand in front of. Without him, Washington’s defense took a big step backward.

If Oregon can attack the basket against a team without a strong rim protector, like it did in the first half of its game against Arizona State, the Ducks will succeed.

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