Washington basketball let a 16 point lead slip away in the second half, and ended up falling to Oregon 64-61 in overtime
Washington basketball had their largest lead with 13:42 remaining in the game, but the Dana Altman’s full-court press forced a few turnovers and the Ducks slowly clawed their way back into the game.
Oregon’s Payton Pritchard was the hero for the Ducks yet again, as he hit three-pointers from way beyond the arc at the end of regulation to force overtime, and with 3.4 seconds left on the clock in overtime to win the game.
Pritchard ended up with 22 points, and went 6/12 from three-point range. Also, freshman forward Chandler Lawson had a big day for the Ducks, finishing 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Washington’s offense came primarily from two guys. The Huskies’ leading scorer on the season, freshman Isaiah Stewart, finished with 25 points and a career-high 19 rebounds. Freshman guard Marcus Tsohonis accrued a career-high 14 points, with 12 of them coming in the first half. He shows a lot of promise for the Huskies, and looks to be the answer now that Quade Green is ineligible.
Five-star freshman Jaden McDaniels returned to the starting lineup after sitting out the Oregon State game due to injury. He had a rough night from the floor, going 1/9, but he was able to contribute in other ways, adding eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Huskies are now 2-4 in the Pac-12, and 12-7 overall. Next week, they’ll be traveling to Utah and Colorado, to take on the Utes on Thursday and the Buffaloes on Saturday. If the Huskies want any chance at the Pac-12 championship, let alone the NCAA Tournament, they’ll have to go 2-0 next weekend, which will be no easy task against the two experienced teams.
Most of Washington’s losses came at the hands of talented teams that will probably be in the tournament, but the losses to Cal and UCLA really hurt right now if they can’t balance them out with some top tier wins, and they have two golden opportunities to do that against Utah and Colorado.