SEATTLE – The Oregon Ducks (19-12) used a big fourth quarter to knock Arizona (14-16) out of the Pac-12 Tournament as they won 70-63 on Friday night in KeyArena.
"I'm just really proud of this team," head coach
Adia Barnes said. "This has been a great year for us just the way that they fought the entire year and showed heart and character and did everything I asked them the whole year. I thought it was a good fight. I thought we had opportunities to win tonight, but we just missed a couple shots down the stretch and didn't get shots we needed. I thought the seniors really led this team the entire year."
LaBrittney Jones hit double-figures for the 25th time this season as she scored 23 points and grabbed six rebounds. With that, she is now 11th all-time in Arizona history with 1,263 career points and finished just one point behind Kirsten Smith for 10th all-time. She also finished with 688 career rebounds, which is eighth all-time.
"I feel like this is one of the best seasons I've had since I've been here," Jones said. "It's probably not saying a lot because we haven't had a good season, but, hey, it's one of the better seasons. As a player and as the group of seniors that we grew, so I think that's all we could ask for leaving out of Arizona."
Lucia Alonso had her best game in a while as she hit double-figures for the first time since Jan. 1. She scored 14 points on a career-high four made three-pointers. She was incredibly efficient from the field as she shot 5-6 overall and was 4-4 from downtown.
Malena Washington also chipped in 14 points of her own as she hit double-figures for the 23rd time this season. She shot 5-12 from the field and made a pair of three-pointers.
"I think the most important thing is the growth," Washington said. Since I've been here, we haven't been at the top of the pack, we've had rough times in games, and as a team, we never gave up. We fought back. We stayed a family, and we just worked things out. So I would say just knowing things are going to get better."
Although Oregon outshot the Wildcats 48%-40%, Arizona was able to keep this game close as they forced 18 Oregon turnovers while only committing 10. The Wildcats would turn those turnovers into 15 points.
Oregon got out to a 13-5 lead to start the first quarter, but the Wildcats would finish off the quarter on a 7-2 run to cut the lead to 15-12 at the end of the first. Jones had seven points in the first period.
Arizona would take a 29-27 lead into halftime as they outscored the Ducks 29-27 in the second quarter. Alonso scored eight second-quarter points in the second quarter to give her a game-high 11 in the first half.
The Wildcats won the third quarter 15-14, which gave them a 44-41 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Oregon started off the fourth quarter on a 15-6 run and wouldn't look back as they would end up winning the fourth quarter 29-19 to give them the victory and allow them to advance to the quarterfinals.
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