Caleb Love scored 20 of his 29 points in the second half and made several vital plays down the stretch to help fourth-seeded Arizona put away fifth-seeded Oregon 87-83 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night in Seattle.
Love shot 6-for-7 with four 3-pointers in the second half and scored 10 straight Arizona points in crunch time to ensure the Wildcats (24-12) would beat their former Pac-12 rivals. They will face No. 1 Duke in the East Region semifinals on Thursday.
“God gave me that ability to step up in those moments and my teammates back here, they trust in me,” Love said. “I gotta step up for them and everything. I give my credit to them.”
Tobe Awaka collected 12 points and 14 rebounds for Arizona, which reached the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years under coach Tommy Lloyd. KJ Lewis, Anthony Dell’Orso and Jaden Bradley all finished with 12 points as well.
Jackson Shelstad led Oregon (25-10) with 25 points, TJ Bamba had 17 and Nate Bittle paired 16 points with 11 boards. The Ducks squandered a 19-4 head start, fell behind before halftime and could not land the final blow after making it a one-possession game again.
“Arizona did the things necessary to win the game,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “They outrebounded us, hit their free throws, and just made the adjustments that they had to to win the game.
“Proud of our guys. They fought their tails off. We got down 11 in the second half and fought back. We put ourself in a position to maybe make a comeback.”
Love stormed in for a dunk with 2:37 left for a seven-point lead, and he added a trey to make it 80-73, but the Ducks weren’t done.
Arizona attempted and fumbled an alley-oop dunk and Oregon quickly took it the other way for a 3-pointer by Keeshawn Barthelemy. Arizona big man Henri Veesaar missed two free throws, and Bittle cut the deficit to two on a hook shot with 49 seconds left.
The teams played free throw cat-and-mouse the rest of the way. Oregon twice got within one point, but Bradley, Dell’Orso and Love went a combined 7-for-8 at the line in the final 21 seconds.
After Arizona led 42-38 at intermission, Awaka made two buckets early in the second half, and Love and Dell’Orso combined on an 8-0 run to give Arizona a 54-43 cushion. Awaka scored one more time before picking up his third foul and subbing out.
Oregon took advantage and clawed back, drawing within 56-52 on Shelstad’s third 3-pointer with 14:18 to play.
Awaka got his fourth foul at the 8:40 mark and exited again, and Oregon twice pulled within three points before Shelstad made a long 2-pointer that cut it to 72-70. Love answered by drilling a trey on the next possession, starting his personal run.
Arizona shot 1-for-6 with three turnovers in the opening five minutes while allowing three 3-pointers. Shelstad and Kwame Evans Jr. scored back-to-back fastbreak layups off takeaways, and when Evans scored around Carter Bryant with 14:49 still on the clock, it was 19-4 Ducks.
The Wildcats didn’t panic, as one-sided as it looked.
“First off, you needed to relax in that media timeout,” Lloyd told sideline reporter Andy Katz postgame. “I think we were down 14 eight minutes into the game, and we knew we were fine. Hey, we’re a ‘So what? Now what’ type of team.”
Bradley stemmed the tide with a 3-pointer, the first of four Arizona treys that helped stoke a comeback. A 9-0 Wildcats run capped by Love’s triple trimmed it to 26-23, and after Oregon scored a quick five, Arizona embarked on another nine-point stretch to take its first lead at 32-31.
–Field Level Media
