The first stop on redemption road didn’t go the way the Ducks hoped. The Oregon men’s basketball team dropped its first attempt at avenging an earlier loss against California, falling 48-46 on Thursday.
The loss was the 11th consecutive failure against Cal, and the Ducks’ fourth conference loss of the season, moving Oregon’s record to 10-4 in Pac-12 play.
Next up for the Ducks is Stanford on Saturday at 5 p.m., whom the Ducks were blown out by on January 30th, 76-52.
The was the Ducks’ first conference loss of the season and the beginning of a three-game slide. It was also Johnathan Loyd’s second start in place of an injured Dominic Artis. Oregon now stands at 4-4 without Artis, 6-0 with him.
In the last matchup between UO and Stanford, the Cardinal had four players score 12 or more, while Carlos Emory was the only Ducks player to score that much, achieving 12 while Arsalan Kazemi chipped in six.
Stanford is led by junior Dwight Powell, a versatile forward who scores 15.4 points per game. Powell has scored 22 or more in three of his lat five outings. Chasson Randle, the Stanford point guard is scoring 13.8 per game.
E.J. Singler and Damyean Dotson are tops for Oregon in scoring, managing 11.6 and 11.4 points per game, respectively.
With Oregon faltering without Artis, the once red-hot Ducks now find themselves falling closer back down into the pack.
The Ducks are tied with Arizona atop the conference standings at 10-4 but UCLA is just a half-game back at 9-4, with Arizona State and Cal deadlocked at 9-5. Stanford sits at eighth at 7-7.
With eight teams in the conference having winning or neutral records, the jockeying before the Pac-12 tournament in mid-March as well as the tournament itself becomes all-important in snagging a bid to the NCAA tournament.
Oregon is in danger of losing a chance at a first round bid if they fall out of the top four in the standings.
Joe Lunardi of ESPN’s Bracketology currently projects six teams from the Pac-12 will make March Madness, with Stanford not one of them.