Oregon basketball headed into the week with two road games left on the schedule and the opportunity to be outright regular season champions of the Pac-12. Wins would secure the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament for the Ducks. The opportunity was blown, with the Ducks losing both road games, the second a 72-62 loss to a 5-13 Utah team.

The Ducks never led against the Utes on Saturday, trailing by as much as 17 in the second half while allowing Utah to shoot close to 58 percent. The loss came on the heels of a 23-point blowout defeat at Colorado on Thursday.

UCLA pulled off a close victory over Washington in Seattle, just minutes before the final horn sounded in Oregon’s loss, spelling a regular season title for the Bruins and disappointment for the Ducks. The Ducks slip from their potential No. 1 seed to the third spot, which means they will play the winner of No. 6 vs. No. 11 after a first round bye in Las Vegas.

Against Utah, Oregon fell behind early, trailing 9-0 at the 17:40 mark. A Dominic Artis three-pointer at 11:31 pulled UO within one point at 21-20. Utah pushed its advantage though, going on a 10-2 run in the final three minutes of the half to take a 44-30 lead into the break.

Utah’s Jason Washburn, playing on his senior night, added a bucket and one in the first minute of the second half to push his team’s lead to 17. Oregon went on a 9-2 run capped by an E.J. Singler three to cut the deficit to 10.

Another make from beyond the arc for Singler sliced the Utah lead to only six at 60-54 with 7:35 remaining. But the glimmer of hope for the visitors evaporated when Utah strung together a 10-2 run to take a 70-56 lead less than four minutes to go.

Desperation set in for the Ducks and UO could not recover, falling to a lowly Utah team and tumbling out of first place in the conference with a sixth conference loss for the year.

Singler finished as top-scorer for Oregon with 21 points while Tony Woods added 13 points and eight rebounds.