The final Saturday of Pac-12 regular-season basketball — probably for good, as 10 teams head off to new conferences starting this fall — includes Utah visiting Oregon in Eugene, Ore.
The Ducks (19-11, 11-8 in Pac-12) have already locked up the No. 4 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, and could face the Utes in the quarterfinals in less than a week.
Utah (18-12, 9-10) can finish fifth in the conference with a win, which means they will have to play a first-round conference tournament game next Wednesday in Las Vegas. The Utes lost their chance at a first-round bye when they fell at Oregon State Thursday night.
The Ducks also lost Thursday, 79-75 to Colorado, as their comeback from a late nine-point deficit fell short. Jackson Shelstad had a career-high 23 points and N’Faly Dante made all 10 of his shots for 20 points to go with 12 rebounds for Oregon, which hit 53.3 percent of its field-goal attempts.
“We had our opportunity,” Oregon coach Dana Altman told the school’s athletics website. “I hate it for Dante, he played so hard and played so well. … We’re just going to have to bounce back on Saturday.”
Altman is 340-151 as Oregon’s head coach and is one win away from reaching 20 wins for the 14th time in his 14 seasons guiding the program.
Utah defeated Oregon 80-77 in January in Salt Lake City, a close game all the way that saw the Utes end an 11-game losing streak to the Ducks.
On Thursday, the Utes lost 92-85 to last-place Oregon State despite a career-high 40 points from Branden Carlson. Utah shot the ball well, making 51.5 percent of their shots, but couldn’t keep up with the Beavers.
Carlson became the first Utes player to score 40 points in a game since Keith Van Horn in 1997.
“He just played like a determined man, right, like a determined player and played like a fifth-year guy at the end of his last season,” Utah coach Craig Smith said of Carlson.
–Field Level Media
