Huskies can't get over the hump, fall to Oregon 83-76

Every time it seemed like the Huskies were going to get back in the game, the Ducks had an answer.

The Huskies do deserve some credit. They were able to fight back at times when it looked like the Ducks were going to blow the game wide open. The Ducks opened the second half with a quick 7-0 run, pushing their lead to 15, and looked like they were going to blow the Huskies out entirely. The Huskies were able to re-gather themselves and cut the Ducks' lead below ten multiple times throughout the remainder of the game.

However, the Ducks seemed to be able to keep the Huskies at arms' length when it mattered, as the Huskies were never able to make it a one-possession game in the second half. And it seemed like the senior forward, Elgin Cook, was the one who had the answers. He finished with a game-high 26 points, and had crucial back-to-back buckets late in the second half.

The Huskies had cut the lead to six points with just 5:40 to play, thanks in large part to Andrew Andrews, who finished with 21 points, and seemed poised to bring his young team all the way back. However, Cook came down and converted back-to-back lay ups, pushing the Ducks lead to eight points.

The Huskies never got as close again.

Though the Huskies played hard throughout, it was hard not to feel that they gave away multiple opportunities to get back into the game.

There was the offensive foul Noah Dickerson drew with 14 minutes to go in the second half. The Huskies were down just seven at the time and were getting the ball back, and seemed to have captured the momentum. Then the Huskies turned the ball over under their own hoop, and the Ducks were able to convert it into a three-point play.

Then there was when the Huskies were unable to secure a rebound off of Tyler Dorsey's missed free throw, the Ducks corralled the rebound and later converted, pushing their lead to 10 with 8 minutes. These may seem like nitpicky things to bring up, but against the top team in the league, these types of mental breakdowns can be the difference, especially against a team like Oregon, as they feed more off emotional plays than the average team.

Foul trouble was a problem yet again for the Huskies. Mattisse Thybulle,  Marquese Chriss, Noah Dickerson, Malik Dime, and Andrews all had two fouls in the first half. Chriss and Thybulle both wound up fouling out. The conspiracy theorist in me believes that the refs were targeting the Huskies to get back at Lorenzo Romar after he protested the Oregon State loss and was critical of the refs following the game. Whether or not that is actually true, the fact is the Huskies struggled once again with foul trouble, which just seems like a certain thing at this point.

The Huskies now sit at 8-9 in the conference and have lost six of their last seven games. They will look to close out the regular season at .500 when they play host to the Washington State Cougars on Wednesday.