Calliste leads Oregon to 64-57 upset of No. 3 Arizona

EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon senior guard Jason Calliste was going to go down shooting.

Calliste scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half as Oregon upset No. 3 Arizona 64-57 Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 12,364 at Matthew Knight Arena.

Calliste was 4-for-5 from three-point range off the bench, including three in the second half as Oregon rallied for the victory.

“I thought if we are going to lose, it is going to be on me because I am going to shoot regardless,” said Calliste, who was 5-for-7 from the field in the game. “I was going to put the team on my back.”

Guard Johnathan Loyd added 16 points and forward Mike Moser had 10 points and 10 rebounds as Oregon finished the regular season with seven straight wins to end up 22-8 overall and 10-8 in the Pac-12 Conference. The Ducks may have secured a trip to the NCAA Tournament even before next week’s Pac-12 Conference tournament.

“I don’t know, I’m not going to worry about all that,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We have to go to the conference tournament and go play. If you start thinking about stuff like that, you lose focus.”

Forward Aaron Gordon scored 21 points to pace Arizona, which won the Pac-12 title at 15-3 and finished 28-3 overall in the regular season.

“Oregon certainly had a great set-up today,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “A fantastic crowd and you are catching them on senior night. Quite a few seniors playing their last game and obviously playing for the NCAA Tournament.

“They were a highly-motivated group and with that I thought we had to be at our best and we weren’t.”

Oregon trailed 50-45 before finishing the game on a 19-7 run.

The Ducks took just their second lead of the game at 53-51 when Calliste converted a three-point play with 4:21 to go. Calliste and Loyd added back-to-back 3-pointers as Oregon went up 59-51 with 2:37 to play.

“Jason was unbelievable,” Altman said. “He stepped up and hit really big shots.”

Arizona closed within 61-57 on a three-point play by Gordon with 1:09 left to play, but Calliste and Ben Carter put the game away with free throws in the final minute.

“This shows that we can be one of the best teams in the country too,” Calliste said. “It doesn’t matter who you are playing. It doesn’t matter the name on your chest, just go out and play.”

Oregon shot just 41.2 percent from the field, but made 10-of-19 three-pointers including 7-of-12 in the second half. The Ducks held Arizona to 36-percent shooting from the field in the second half to outscore the Wildcats 35-26 during the final 20 minutes.

“They were a very difficult match up with the perimeter,” Miller said. “They made 10 three’s against our defense and I don’t think that’s happened all season. That was a huge difference in the game. They were a very hard-playing, quick, desperate team. We tried our best, but we weren’t at our best, and I give Oregon a lot of credit for that.”

Gordon scored the first three points of the second half to put Arizona ahead 34-29, but Moser scored five straight Oregon points as the Ducks closed within 38-34. Loyd followed with a layup that got Oregon within 38-36 with 14:24 to play.

Guard T.J. McConnell hit a short jumper and guard Nick Johnson added a basket before McConnell’s layup gave the Wildcats a 44-36 lead with 11:49 left in the game.

Oregon called a timeout before Moser and Calliste made back-to-back 3-pointers to get the Ducks within 44-42 with 10:45 left in the game. Gordon scored four straight points before Calliste hit a 3-pointer as the Ducks got within 48-45 with 6:55 to play.

McConnell made two free throws before Oregon guard Joseph Young drilled a 3-pointer and Loyd drove for a layup as Oregon tied the score 50-50 with 5:05 left.

Oregon center Waverly Austin opened the game with a basket before Arizona scored the next nine points. Center Kaleb Tarczewski started the spurt with a dunk and ended it with a rebound basket to put the Wildcats up 9-2.

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