No. 13 Oregon blasts No. 5 Arizona with a performance that bordered on perfection

Perfection.

There’s supposedly no such thing in college basketball. Supposedly no such thing as a flawless performance. Supposedly no way to reach that ideal.

But if anybody has challenged that notion this season, it’s Oregon. Maybe what the Ducks did to No. 5 Arizona Saturday wasn’t perfection. But it was as close as any team will come.

Oregon cruised to a 85-58 victory, but the word “cruised” is no where close to emphatic enough to describe what transpired on the court, and the final score is in no way representative of the game’s one-sidedness. This was a trouncing. The Ducks bulldozed the Wildcats, steamrolled them, ran around and past them, shot over them, and coerced them into doing whatever they deemed necessary.

They flew out to a 38-11 lead, and didn’t look back. When Arizona coach Sean Miller called a timeout late in the first half, his team down 25, he was reduced to an exasperated smile and a shake of his head. He and his team were overwhelmed. They were helpless.

The leading characteristic of the blowout was Oregon’s 3-point shooting. The hosts hit 16 of their first 21 attempts from beyond the arc. Tyler Dorsey was 6 for 6. Dillon Brooks hit four. Casey Benson chipped in with three. The Ducks were rising up from anywhere and everywhere, and their shots were seemingly invariably finding the bottom of the net. They finished only 16 for 25 from deep after taking their foot off the accelerator late.

On the defensive end, Oregon reduced Arizona’s offense to a shambolic mess for much of the first 30 minutes. The Wildcats missed some open looks early on, and finished the first half just 7-of-27 from the field. But after the halftime break, the Ducks suppressed everything Arizona attempted to do. Every cut, every pass, every drive was contested. The ball trickled all over the court. Arizona, a top five team, looked like it had never played offense before. It was astounding.

With the game in hand so prematurely, Oregon decided to put on a show too. They got out on transition in the second half, filled lanes, and soared for dunks and alley-oops. The ease with which they did so was both exhilarating and embarrassing for the team on the other side of the acrobatics. Sean Miller’s expression alternated between that exasperation and a stern look.

Arizona had actually closed the gap to 20 at halftime. But Oregon’s play over the first 10 minutes of the second half were arguably as impressive and as dominant as its start. The Ducks led 64-27 with 11:27 to play, and 72-36 with 7:50 remaining. Brooks and Dorsey, who scored 18 and 23 points respectively, exited the game with more than 10 minutes to go and put their feet up. Their near-perfection over 30 minutes was more than enough.

Wild fluctuations in performance make college basketball what it is, but this was something else. This was a statement. And it was a statement Oregon needed to make after a loss to lowly Colorado and a scare from Arizona State.

Much of the Pac-12 narrative this season has centered on November and December darling UCLA and rejuvenated Arizona. The return of Allonzo Trier had the Wildcats atop the conference at 10-0, and had them as the clear favorites. Now they have company — rude, disruptive, robust company. And the Pac-12 has a regular season title race that is very much up for grabs.

An additional perk of the win is that Oregon now owns the nation’s longest home win streak after Kansas’ ended at Allen Fieldhouse earlier Saturday afternoon. The Ducks have won 40 in a row at home.

Their next hurdle, though, comes on the road: Oregon plays at UCLA on Thursday. It’s a hurdle that Arizona has already cleared. And with no second meeting between Oregon and Arizona this season, it’s a game that could decide that aforementioned title race.