Washington Comeback Falls Short in 74-71 Loss to Oregon

Quade Green’s career night would’ve been complete with one more 3-pointer but unfortunately he missed one potential game-winner and one potential game-tie-er and Washington’s comeback hopes were dashed in a 74-71 loss to Oregon. Green’s career high 26 points weren’t quite enough to overcome a 10 point halftime deficit as the Huskies drop to 1-4 (0-2) on the season.

Washington looked like they might be carrying over some of their shooting mojo from the Seattle game early on. Hameir Wright knocked down his first 3-point attempt of the game and Quade Green hit a pull-up jumper to give the Huskies an early 5-0 lead. However, Oregon understood they had a mismatch inside and fed the ball down low every chance they had. N’Faly Dante hit a couple of baskets and a quick 6-0 Oregon run put them on top.

Washington caught a bad break though when Nate Roberts caught a Quade Green bounce pass backing towards the rim and was called for a charge and his 2nd foul in the first 4 minutes. The Huskies’ best big man would sit the final 16 minutes of the half after an early 2 points and 2 rebounds.

The Ducks hit their first 3-pointer of the game to go up 13-7 and it looked like they might run away with it on a 13-2 run. However, Washington clawed back into it as another Wright 3-pointer and Green jumper brought the Dawgs back to within one. After another Oregon basket, RaeQuan Battle nailed a corner 3 when Nate Pryor broke the press and found him waiting.

Time and again the Ducks would get it into the paint and either play volleyball at the rim or else draw a foul. Meanwhile, Washington for a while did everything they could to help the Ducks score. The Huskies had 4 turnovers on inbounds passes in the first half and were close to a 5th. 3 of those were turned into either layups or dunks by Oregon.

Washington’s ability to hit tough jumpers kept them in the game though. RaeQuan Battle had an open corner 3-pointer rim out but got the ball after an offensive rebound and somehow then swished another attempt that was about 6 feet beyond the arc to bring the Dawgs to 27-29 with 3 minutes left in the half.

From there though the Huskies collapsed. Oregon finally started making the 10-footer near the free throw line that is open against the Husky zone and Washington was unable to make shots. Chris Duarte hit a killer fadeaway corner 3-pointer (only their 2nd of the half) with 10 seconds left. Then Nate Pryor passed it to Hameir Wright who was out of position with 2 seconds left in the half, he had it stripped, then he fouled reaching in for it with 0.3 seconds left on the clock. Since the Dawgs were in the double bonus it resulted in a pair of attempts and one make for Oregon for absolutely no reason.

UW went into the half down 41-31 and Quade Green leading the way with 11 points on 5/8 shooting. Oregon held a 12-3 lead in free throw attempts, a 13-4 turnover advantage, and a dominant points in the paint edge.

Oregon’s ball movement kicked up another notch coming out of halftime. The Ducks scored on 5 of their first 6 possessions in the second half and an and-1 by LJ Figueroa pushed the lead to 53-38 as it looked like we were in store for another blowout loss for Washington.

But the Huskies showed some fight. Oregon went more than 4 minutes in between made field goals and Washington cut the lead to single digits in that time at 56-47 after 5 points in 20 seconds from RaeQuan Battle. Then the Huskies put together 4 great possessions in a row with a few great defensive plays from Erik Stevenson and that 8-0 run in 1:30 brought the score to 60-57 with 8:42 remaining.

Oregon regained a little of their inside dominance yet again and a 6-0 Ducks run stretched things back out to 9 and seemingly killed UW’s hopes. Yet again though Washington wasn’t done. RaeQuan Battle hit a 3-pointer and Quade Green scored UW’s next 6 points to make it 69-66. After an Oregon miss Nate Pryor drove, was fouled, and made both free throws to pull things within one.

The Ducks answered with a seemingly dagger 3-pointer but RaeQuan Battle drove and was fouled for an and-1 layup to once again pull within one point. Oregon milked the shot clock but a wild 3-pointer to avoid a shot clock violation missed badly and Nate Roberts secured the rebound. Quade Green then tried to hit Roberts on a roll to the basket with 17 seconds left and he was hacked on the arm but it wasn’t called and so instead it went out of bounds off Roberts. It looked like Washington got a steal when Chris Duarte stepped out of bounds against the trap but was bailed out by an iffy foul call instead.

Chris Duarte made only one of two free throw attempts and the Huskies again had life down 73-71. Quade Green got off a clean look about 5 feet past the 3-point line but it hit the front rim and Oregon secured the rebound. N’Faly Dante made only one of two free throws and a three-quarter court heave at the buzzer by Green was off target.

Quade (26 points and 4 assists) and RaeQuan Battle (19 points) were the only Huskies in double figures while Oregon had 6 players score between 8 and 14 points.

Washington returns to action on Wednesday night against Montana in their last game against a non-Pac-12 opponent.

Double Bonus Dots

• Quade Green did absolutely everything to try to win this game except make that last 3-pointer. He was fearless getting into the lane and hitting midrange shots or driving all the way to the basket. About 3 times he seemingly was banged up driving into traffic but every time got back up and either went back on defense or nailed his free throws. After a clunker against Baylor he’s looked every bit the 1st team all Pac-12 player I expected.
• RaeQuan Battle has been all hot or cold so far in his career at UW and this was one of his better games. He still jacked up quite a few 3-pointers but also drove to the hoop and was effective with 19 points on 11 shots. If he can play more like he did tonight the rest of the season then it would be a huge boost.
• Washington had 14 turnovers in the first half and 2 in the second half. Even with the improvement the Huskies are going to be absolutely kicking themselves they let this one get away. In the second half they didn’t have the same turnover problems but rather a different kind. Nate Roberts missed a pair of dunks and the Huskies blew multiple other point blank layups. The flow of the game would’ve changed but if UW just makes the 99% type plays they very likely win this game.
• Who would’ve thought watching UW host Oregon last year when Marcus Tsohonis had 12 points in the first half that he’d get a DNP in this one? It definitely seems like Nate Pryor has won the backup point guard spot and Riley Sorn has won the backup center spot. J’Raan Brooks and Marcus Tsohonis are officially out of the rotation.
• It’s painful to lose like this but I’d still take an effort like this than what we saw against Baylor or Utah. This team probably still isn’t good but they’re still playing hard and with the rotation they’ve found it looks like they have a shot to be in the middle of the conference rather than right at the bottom.