Oregon St. @ Oregon preview

Oregon St. at Oregon

Last Meeting ( Mar 7, 2021 ) Oregon 80, Oregon St. 67

For the second time this week, Oregon and Oregon State square off in a Pac-12 game with significant meaning.

The first semifinal of Friday's Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas features rivals who split this season's regular-season meetings -- top seed Oregon and No. 5 seed Oregon State.

The schools located just about an hour's drive from each other met in the final game of the regular season as the Ducks locked up the Pac-12 regular-season title.

The Ducks (20-5) had a fairly easy time with No. 8 seed Arizona State in a 91-73 quarterfinal win on Thursday afternoon. Later, Oregon State (15-12) rallied from a 16-point deficit to stun UCLA 83-79 in overtime.

L.J. Figueroa scored a season-high 21 points for Oregon. The St. John's transfer has scored in double figures in eight straight games.

Will Richardson added 17 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, and Eugene Omoruyi scored 15 points. The Ducks won their sixth straight game and 11th of their last 12.

The Sun Devils worked to take the Ducks' leading scorer, Chris Duarte, out of the game, and he was held to six points. But plenty of other Ducks stepped up.

"I think it showed the depth of our team, with different guys able to score on a night (Arizona State) really worked to take Chris out of it," Oregon coach Dana Altman told the school's athletics website.

The Ducks have at least 20 wins in each of the past 11 seasons, with Altman winning his conference-record 20th Pac-12 tournament game as head coach. Oregon shot better than 50 percent for the fourth time in five games, and committed 12 or fewer turnovers for the 10th time in the last 11 games.

Since the tournament returned from an 12-year hiatus in 2002, Oregon has won the most championships with five.

In the Beavers, Oregon plays a familiar foe. The two teams just played each other on March 7, won by the Ducks 80-67.

Oregon State won the first meeting this season, 75-64 in Eugene, on the Ducks' home court Jan. 23. But the Ducks were missing Duarte, Figueroa and Richardson in that game.

The trio combined for 42 points in the second meeting at Oregon State.

The Beavers aren't accustomed to getting this far in the conference tournament, as this is the first time they are in the semifinals since 2012. But Oregon State is feeling confident after coming back to beat the Bruins.

The Beavers have won four games when down by double digits this season.

"We've got a lot of guys that want to win. We push ourselves every day. It was a big win for us, especially against a really good program like UCLA," Beavers guard Jarod Lucas said. "(Oregon) beat us last week. They're our rival. There's going to be a lot on the line but I think we'll be up for the challenge."

Warith Alatishe led the Beavers with 22 points and 10 rebounds, Ethan Thompson had 18 points, all in the second half, and Lucas added 17. In overtime, Rodrigue Andela hit two free throws to give the Beavers the lead for good with 57 seconds to play.

--Field Level Media