EUGENE — Oregon is back atop the Pac-12 with one game to go.
Chris Duarte had 23 points, LJ Figueroa had 18 and Eugene Omoruyi and Will Richardson each added 15 for the Ducks, who erased a nine-point deficit and closed on a 14-6 run in the final 4:06 to top UCLA, 82-74, Wednesday night at Matthew Knight Arena.
Oregon (18-5, 13-4 Pac-12) won its ninth of 10, with seven of those games coming in the last 14 days, and moves a half a game ahead of UCLA for first place in the Pac-12 with one game to play.
Jules Bernard scored a career-high 23 points and had four assists for the Bruins (17-7, 13-5), who play USC on Saturday. UO plays at Oregon State on Sunday (5 p.m., FS1).
Oregon’s five starters scored all of its 37 points in the first half but allowed Bernard to shoot 7 of 8 from the field for 15 points, the primary reason for a 30-12 UCLA edge in the paint in the first half. The Bruins shot 60% from the field and took a 39-37 lead to the break.
“He was absolutely killing us,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “He had 15 points on six layups (in the first half). He was getting to the rim whenever he wanted, he’s physical, but we weren’t sliding our feet.”
But the Ducks shut down Bernard down the stretch. The junior made a three-pointer to give UCLA a 56-47 lead with 13:28 to go but didn’t score again.
Oregon, which was a season-high 60.8% (31 of 51) from the field for its best shooting performance in Pac-12 play since Feb. 4, 2017 against Arizona (65.2%), wiped out a nine-point deficit (60-51) with 11:16 to go by going on a 17-6 run with seven from Duarte.
“A lot of teams wouldn’t have responded that way,” Altman said. “Very proud of the guys. I thought Will Richardson just took the game over and really made some good plays, finished some things at the basket. Our defense really tightened up.”
Altman said UO’s players told him they wanted to switch to man-to-man defense and press more down the stretch, which sped UCLA into 12 turnovers in the second half compared to just two in the first.
“I had them in the huddle and I go, ‘Fellas, we’re not getting any stops. What do you want? You become accountable; we got to get stops,’” Altman said. “They wanted to go to man and switch everything and they did a tremendous job with it, fronting the post. Will and Eric (Williams Jr.) at times, LJ, Chris, all kept it out of (Cody) Riley’s hands pretty good.
“I thought that was a big, big key. The team really bought into what they wanted to do and really took it over.”
Oregon employed its press on dead balls in the back court and its bench was as energetic as it has been all season, making in-bounds passes and backcourt pressure even harder to handle and forcing UCLA coach Mick Cronin to turn two timeouts in those situations.
When the Bruins got the ball to Riley in the second half, multiple Ducks would swarm and either close him off, force a ball or turnover and it flipped the advantage in the paint to 28-12 UO in the second half.
“We realized they were really attacking certain areas in the zone,” Omoruyi said. “As a collective (we) decided to go to our man-to-man defense because we felt like it was more effective and coach let us do us.”
Chandler Lawson came in to give Figueroa a rest with 10:50 to go and it altered the top of Oregon’s press and forced UCLA into a string of costly errors. The Ducks forced six Bruins turnovers during the 4:46 span when Lawson came in.
“We were a step behind them the whole night until Chandler Lawson gave us a big lift in our press,” Altman said. “His energy and got some hands on some balls and that length made them lob some passes. When we got deflections and turnovers, it changed the tempo of the game.”
Omoruyi intercepted a UCLA pass in the backcourt and went coast-to-coast for a basket to put Oregon up 64-62 with 6:04 to go. The Ducks never trailed again.
“We knew what they were looking at, and if we stopped something else, what they were looking at,” Omoruyi said. “I executed the read, I got the ball and I finished it.”
Riley, who had 11 points, converted a three-point play to tie it at 68-68 with 4:06 to go. Then Oregon closed the game on a 14-6 run with contributions from each of its big four.
Figueroa came off the bench after a 4:06 break and had a putback of a miss by Richardson. Omoruyi drove down the right edge of the lane and contorted himself into a running jumper to put UO up 72-68.
“I knew they were cutting off driving lanes,” he said. “I was able to adjust myself and get around, Euro step.”
Duarte drilled a three-pointer to give the Ducks their biggest lead of the game with 2:16 to play.
After two free throws by Tyger Campbell (eight assists), Richardson hit a jumper in the lane, Duarte blocked Bernard and Richardson hit a three to blow the game open.
UCLA was 55.4% (31 of 56) from the floor, the highest a Cronin team has ever shot from the field in a loss in his 18 seasons (401-190) as a head coach.
“They were just a tougher team, on both ends,” Cronin said. “Obviously the turnovers destroy you and they weren’t all against pressure. We can’t even feed the post. We throw it out of bounds or we catch it with one hand and that’s all lack of toughness.
“At winning time against high-level teams the tougher team is going to win. Whoever is tough enough to get a good shot, to take care of the ball, to sit down and get a defensive stop, that’s who is going to win the game and we’re just not there. And we got a really good team. (If) you’re going to beat a team like this on the road on senior day it’s going to take a way better defensive effort.”
The dramatic and intense win gives Oregon the lead in the conference following a gauntlet of rescheduled games, four of which were decided by four points or less.
Altman attributed it to the team’s mettle.
“Tonight, nine points, a lot of teams I think would have quit,” he said. “It wasn’t going well for us. We didn’t have much energy. But a great credit to all the guys, they turned it around.”