Utah’s leading scorer for the season and recent hero against California, Jarred DuBois, was held scoreless on Friday night, and Oregon defeated the Utes behind a solid defensive performance, 64-45.

DuBois hit a three to send the Utes into overtime against a heavily favored Cal team and scored 21 points in his squad’s surprise win on Thursday. He shot 0-for-8 against the Ducks on Friday.

Oregon beat Utah for the second time this season in three tries, leading by eight or more since the 8:54 mark in the first half. The Ducks held the Utes to a measly 29 percent shooting and Damyean Dotson and E.J. Singler led the way for UO with 14 points each.

Oregon’s second win in as many nights catapults the program into the final of the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas, where the Ducks will face UCLA at 8 p.m. on Saturday night.

“I thought overall we didn’t give up a lot of really good looks,” Ducks’ head coach Dana Altman said. “Our pressure created some turnovers and got us some easy baskets.”

“We tried to set the tone from the start with our defense, not give them any easy buckets because that will get their energy going,” Johnathan Loyd said.

In the first half it was all Oregon. Dotson started the scoring for the Ducks with a steal and a jumper. He nailed two threes to give Oregon a 10-6 lead and Carlos Emory joined in with five in a row to put the Ducks ahead 19-10.

UO employed stifling defense, forcing Utah deep into the shot clock and poor shot attempts. Utah shot below 32 percent in the first half, while the Ducks shot over 46 percent.

Dotson turned in another smooth offensive first half, as he did against Washington, shooting 4-for-6 for 10 points. Jarred DuBois, Utah’s leading scorer and hero against Cal, was scoreless in the initial act.

At the midway point Oregon led 29-15.

Dominic Artis made his first two-point jump shot since January 19at the 16:47 point in the second half. Next, in transition, Arsalan Kazemi dribbled behind his back to lose a defender and swung a no-look pass to the corner, which ended in Carlos Emory three-pointer. Singler then stripped DuBois and the turnover translated into an Emory highlight dunk to put the Ducks ahead 41-22. An 8-0 run for Oregon spelled the largest lead of the game for the third-seeded Ducks.

The Utes tried to push back a bit, hitting a three but Singler nullified with his own make from long-range. Utah went on an 8-2 run to slice the Oregon lead to 11 and moments later had pulled within eight. But Utah began to blow opportunities to really make it game, none more evident then a possession on which Oregon was allowed four offensive rebounds that ended in a Singler bucket. On the next Ducks possession, the team from Eugene crashed the offensive boards again resulting in two-points for Singler.

“I wanted to make a point on the boards,” Singler said. “So I felt like I could get in position and get some offensive boards.”

Utah went on a four-minute scoring drought when they needed points most and by the time the Utes had scored again, they were back 13 with fewer than two minutes to go. Johnathan Loyd protected UO’s lead with six foul shots and Oregon cruised to victory.