Oregon Ducks defeat Arizona State 91-73 in Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals

The top-seed Oregon Ducks beat the 8-seed Arizona State Sun Devils 91-73 Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.

With the win, the Ducks advance to the semifinals where they will face the winner of 4-seed UCLA and 5-seed Oregon State (2:30pm, Pac-12 Network).   That semifinal will take place Friday night at 5:30pm and can be heard on 750-AM The GAME via Westwood One, as well as streaming live at 750TheGame.com, the Radio.com App and the iHeart Radio App.

 

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Oregon was led in scoring by the 21 points of LJ Figueroa, a season-high.  Will Richardson had 17 points and Eugene Omoruyi had 15 points in the win.  AP Pac-12 Player of the Year Chris Duarte finished with 6 points on just three shot attempts (2-for-3, 1-for-1 3pt), with three rebounds, an assist and two steals.

Oregon led 35-27 at the halftime intermission before outscoring ASU 56-46 in the second half.  Oregon’s largest lead was 24 points at 84-60 after an Amauri Hardy dunk with 3:21 remaining.  ASU’s largest lead was only two points, at 17-15 with 9:34 in the first half.

Figueroa’s career-day in scoring was highlighted by his 9-of-16 shooting performance including making 3 of his 5 attempts from three-point range, as well as this spectacular finish of an alley-oop feed from Duarte in the second half.

🔥 CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF! 🔥

Thunderous slam by @Lj_Figueroa makes it 70-54, Ducks. 7:09 remaining.

📺 https://t.co/90rUYWEmxX#GoDucks | #AlwaysUs pic.twitter.com/H9o3OE83xe

— Oregon Men’s Basketball (@OregonMBB) March 11, 2021

Other notes:

After holding an eight-point halftime lead, Oregon came out strong in the scond half to push the advantage to 54-40 at the under-12 timeout.

1st Half notes: Oregon led the Sun Devils 35-27 at the half thanks in part to a 10-0 Ducks run midway through the first half that turned a 19-19 tied game to a 29-19 advantage with 4:55 remaining.  Oregon was led by Will Richardson’s 13 first half points on 5-of-7 shooting, including 2-for-3 from three-point range.  Eugene Omoruyi and LJ Figueroa each had 7 points in the opening half.   Oregon shot 51.7% as a team in the first half compared to 37% for Arizona State, while also making 4 of 8 from three-point range (50%).  After falling way behind early in rebounding, the Ducks cleaned up the glass for a 17-16 rebounding edge at the break.  Each team had 7 assists at the break.  Oregon’s largest lead was 11 at 35-24 after a Richardson triple with 2:25 remaining.  ASU’s largest first half lead was two points, the latest at 17-15 with 9:34 to go.