The Oregon men’s basketball program trailed by double digits in the second half and was struggling on the offensive end of the floor, and was seeing their defense start to leak. Trailing by 12 with ten minutes left in the game, the Ducks clamped down on defense, found their offense, and surged ahead of the Cardinal with a 16-7 run to take a one-point lead with 2:36 remaining. From there the Ducks gave up their lead, tied the game in the final minute, and then suffered yet again another buzzer-beating loss for the second straight week.
With the game tied at 69-69 and the ball with 13 seconds, Will Richardson attempted a three-pointer with seven seconds remaining on the clock and missed. Stanford recovered the rebound, called a timeout with four seconds remaining, and then called a timeout. After the timeout Stanford forward Jaiden Delaire hit a three-pointer as the buzzer sounded the Ducks lost 72-69.
“We wanted it cleared out a little bit. We went a little earlier than we wanted,” said Oregon head coach Dana Altman. “We gave ourselves a chance at an offensive rebound. I think there was a three-second difference.”
Oregon’s defense didn’t correctly defend the inbound play by Stanford and it opened the door for the buzzer-beater.
“We were supposed to switch everything. We were a little late on the switch,” said Altman.
The Ducks now drop to 5-5 on the year and are 0-2 in Pac-12 play.
Oregon junior forward Quincy Guerrier had 18 points and nine rebounds for the Ducks in 23 minutes. He made 5-of-9 shots from the field, including both of his three-point attempts. Will Richardson added 15 points, two rebounds, and one assist. Rivaldo Soares had 10 points.
Delaire led Stanford with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting.
Stanford scored 19 points off second-chance opportunities and they won the rebounding battle 36-30. The Ducks shot 41 percent from the field and Stanford made 44 percent of their shits. Both teams made 70 percent of their free throws.Â
