The sixth-ranked Arizona Wildcats will seek a third straight win, and ninth in their past 10 games, when they host Oregon on Saturday afternoon in Tucson, Ariz.
First-place Arizona, which is 14-1 at the McKale Center this season, would move closer to clinching the Pac-12 regular-season title and the top seed in the upcoming conference tournament with another victory. The Wildcats (22-6, 13-4 Pac-12) defeated the Ducks 87-78 on Jan. 27 in Eugene, Ore.
Arizona guard Caleb Love had 36 points in that game. He is widely considered a leading candidate for conference player of the year.
Love had 16 on Wednesday in the Wildcats’ 85-67 road win over Arizona State. Arizona got 14 points and 13 rebounds from Oumar Ballo, his eighth consecutive double-double and 14th of the season.
“Caleb’s clutch. He’s not afraid of that moment,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said following the win over the Sun Devils. Love is fourth in the conference in scoring at 19.3 points per game.
“We knew it was going to be a hard game. I’m happy we got off to a good start,” Lloyd said. “I was just hoping we could come out and hit first in the second half and maybe extend our lead a little bit and really test them. It didn’t happen that way and I thought our guys did an incredible job of kind of managing a little bit of chaos in that second half.”
Arizona ranks among the nation’s Top 25 for the 54th consecutive week — and for the 54th time in 55 rankings during Lloyd’s tenure. With Lloyd at the helm, the Wildcats have spent 43 weeks in the Top 10 and the 23 weeks in the Top 5.
Lloyd, in his third season, is 83-17 as Arizona’s head coach.
Oregon’s Dana Altman won his 750th career game as a Division I coach on Wednesday when the Ducks defeated visiting Oregon State 78-71. He has a 340-149 record since arriving in Eugene.
The Ducks (19-9, 11-6) sit in third place in the Pac-12. An upset of Arizona would be a huge boost to their resume for a potential at-large NCAA Tournament berth, if Oregon can get the win and then defeat Colorado and Utah at home to end the regular season.
Oregon was tested by Oregon State, trailing by as much as five in the second half to the last-place team in the conference. The Beavers led 57-55 with 10 minutes to play. However, the Ducks surged to an 11-point lead late in the game and walked away with a win in the final Pac-12 regular-season meeting ever between in-state rivals.
Kwame Evans Jr., coming off an injured ankle, scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Ducks.
“I just focused on defense, it starts with me on defense,” Evans said. “I have to be able to talk to everybody and just get stops, we all have to talk to get stops, and then just play within the game and get shots here and there. They were looking for me, so I was knocking them down.”
–Field Level Media
