EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Jermaine Couisnard scored 27 points in his first start of the season as Oregon beat No. 9 Arizona 87-68 on Saturday night.
Couisnard, a transfer from South Carolina who missed the first 14 games of the season due to injury, made six 3-pointers, including one that was intended to be an assist on an alley-oop.
Senior center N’Faly Dante added 22 points, including a highlight dunk early in the game, and 10 rebounds as the Ducks (10-8, 4-3 Pac-12) shot 54 percent from the field. Will Richardson added 14 points and Nate Bittle scored 10.
Kylan Boswell scored 15 points to pace the Wildcats (15-3, 4-3). Azuolas Tubelis had 14 points and six rebounds while Courtney Ramey made four 3-pointers for 12 points and Oumar Ballo added 10 points and seven rebounds.
Ramey opened the second half with consecutive 3-pointers to tie the game at 43 before Oregon followed with the next 10 points.
Rivaldo Soares pushed the lead to 61-48 on a 3-point play with 12:21 left in the game. Dante scored and added a free throw to extend the margin to 66-52 and Arizona never threatened again.
The two teams traded the lead six times in the first half before Oregon took a 43-37 lead to the locker room thanks to 50-percent shooting from the field.
Oregon led 7-5 before Bello had back-to-back dunks and Ramey added a 3-pointer. Tubelis followed with back-to-back buckets as Arizona went ahead 16-9.
Oregon followed with a 14-3 run highlighted by back-to-back 3-pointers from Couisnard to pull ahead 23-19. Kylan Boswell made back-to-back 3-pointers for Arizona and Kerr Kriisa added three free throws to put Arizona back ahead 28-26.
After Tubelis tied the game 33-33, Oregon scored seven straight points culminating with a 3-pointer from Keeshawn Barthelemy to pull ahead with 3:13 left in the first half.
BIG PICTURE
Arizona: The Wildcats will fall out of the top 10 after a third conference loss to an unranked foe. Arizona may not be able to afford another loss and still contend for the Pac-12 title, but two remaining games against UCLA gives the Wildcats a path to the championship.
Oregon: The Ducks resuscitated their NCAA Tournament hopes with a win over the Wildcats, their first win over a team in the top 15 of the NET rankings since last year. Oregon faces a key road trip next week at California and Stanford to try to build momentum toward a postseason run.
UP NEXT
Arizona: The Wildcats host USC on Thursday night.
Oregon: The Ducks visit California on Wednesday night.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
