LAS VEGAS — Mark Tollefsen looked in the stands, sent a signal to his father and thought about all the times the two of them were in the backyard, shooting free throws and just having fun.
One down, 0.4 showing on the clock and two free throws to take. That’s what Tollefsen faced, after popping back in the game cold, having not played after halftime until there were 26 seconds left.
It was almost a storybook ending.
And maybe it will be someday, for Tollefsen and the Wildcats, if they can lean on their experience from what became Arizona’s 95-89 overtime loss to Oregon in a Pac-12 tournament semifinal on Friday.
But in reality, what happened was this: Tollefsen missed the first of two free throws, but made the second one, completing a stunning comeback from deficits of up to 17 points. But sending it into overtime ultimately meant the Wildcats had to deal with the constant mismatches the Ducks foisted on them for another five minutes.
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That proved too much.
In overtime, three-pointers from Dwayne Benjamin and Dillon Brooks gave the Ducks an 86-80 lead heading into the final two minutes and it wasn’t nearly as close a finish.
Although Gabe York made a three-pointer with 1:11 left to cut Oregon’s lead to 87-83 entering the final minute, Brooks made two free throws and the Ducks held on from there.
The loss meant Arizona heads into Selection Sunday at 25-8, expected to receive a No. 5 or 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. Oregon improved to 27-6 and into the Pac-12 tournament title game Saturday, where the Ducks will meet the winner of Friday’s late Cal-Utah semifinal game.
All of that, in theory, could have been avoided if Tollefsen sank both those free throws, but he was hardly the subject of blame. After all, it was Tollefsen who was summoned back in the game just when it appeared over, with Oregon leading 77-70 and 26 seconds left.
Eight seconds later, Tollefsen hit a three-pointer. Then, after York hit another three to pull UA to within a point with just 1.4 seconds left, Tollefsen grabbed a shaky Oregon inbounds pass – and the Ducks panicked, with Brooks, an all-league forward reaching in to foul Tollefsen in the early stages of a short jumper he was going up for.
Ryan Anderson, for one, wasn’t about to blame Tolly after all that.
“He made a big three and then hit a free throw to get us to overtime. That’s all we could ask for,” Anderson said. “He did his job. Obviously, we would have liked him to have made both and then the game would be over and all of that, but he did his job in making the shots and a hustle play, giving us one more life.”
Instead, Anderson put the blame on himself. Having been the Wildcats’ most consistently productive player all season – and joining Brooks on that all-league team – Anderson shot just 2 for 13 from the field, scoring six points to go with six rebounds.
“I struggled on both ends of the floor and really hurt my team in a lot of ways,” Anderson said. “Big games, our team relies on seniors and I wasn’t able to help us enough to win. I feel if I had played the way I played all year we would have been able to get the win and that’s what’s frustrating, that I let our team down tonight.”
Oregon, which ended UA’s 49-game home-court winning streak on Jan. 28 with a 83-75 win, was led by Elgin Cook, who had 22 points. Brooks and former UA commit Tyler Dorsey added 19 for Oregon, with Dorsey hitting 4 of 6 three-pointers. The Ducks shot 47.8 percent overall.
York led the Wildcats with 21 points and made 7 of 16 three-pointers, while Kaleb Tarczewski had 11 points and 12 rebounds.
In regulation, the Wildcats went on several short runs to chip away at a 16-point halftime deficit and an 8-2 run pulled them within four points, 72-68, when Parker Jackson-Cartwright hit a three-pointer with 3:26 left.
Down by 16 at halftime, Arizona cut Oregon’s lead to just 10 points less than two minutes into the half and similarly battled back from a 17-point deficit with 14:42 left. The Wildcats later went on a 10-1 run to pull within 65-60, getting layups by Dusan Ristic, Allonzo Trier and Tarczewski.
Trier picked up his fourth foul with 8:17 to go during the run and fouled out with 2:34 to go in regulation.
In the first half, Oregon took 44-29 halftime lead after shooting 47.2 percent and hitting 5 of 11 three-pointers while scoring 14 points off nine UA turnovers.
While the Wildcats fell behind 10-2 at the start, their biggest downfall was allowing the Ducks to go on a 15-2 run to close out the first half.
That’s what UA coach Sean Miller thought the blame should really be assigned. It also left him with mixed feelings: The Wildcats cost themselves the game then, but they also came back and nearly won anyway.
Oregon “just kind of punched it out” at the end of the first half, Miller said. “That was a function of them, but also a function of us. The second half we ended up outscoring them by 15. I think that says a lot about our team. … To give yourself a chance to win, to never give up, to just keep fighting and playing every possession until the end. We could have won the game with a free throw, which is amazing to think of.”
