No. 7 Bruins pull away in victory over Oregon

UCLA MEN’S BASKETBALL

UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr., right, shoots over Oregon’s Quincy Guerrier during the second half of Saturday’s game. ANDY NELSON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Anne M. Peterson

The Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. >> Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 25 points and 12 rebounds and No. 7 UCLA won in Eugene for the first time since 2019 with a 70-63 victory over Oregon on Saturday night.

UCLA (21-4, 12-2 Pac-12) has won four straight after losing a pair to Arizona and rival USC at the end of January. Those are the Bruins’ only two conference losses.

UCLA sits atop the Pac-12 standings, ahead of No. 4 Arizona, which fell 88-79 at Stanford earlier in the day.

Jaquez dunked to put the Bruins up 66-48 with just over five minutes left in the game, but Keeshawn Barthelemy hit a 3-pointer with 3:15 left that narrowed the gap to 66-54. Tyger Campbell answered with a 3-pointer for the Bruins.

Quincy Guerrier’s 3 got Oregon within 69-63 with 17 seconds left, but the Ducks couldn’t catch up.

Jermaine Couisnard had 19 points for the Ducks (15-11, 9-6), who had won the last three against UCLA in Eugene.

The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Ducks, who still have hopes for a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks beat visiting USC 78-60 on Thursday.

UCLA was coming off a 62-47 victory at Oregon State on Thursday, led by freshman guard Amari Bailey with 24 points.

Bailey appeared to injure his right foot or ankle late in the first half against the Ducks and limped straight to the locker room, but returned to start the second half.

Oregon took an early 8-0 lead after N’Faly Dante’s dunk that brought the home crowd to its feet. But the Bruins closed the gap and took a 12-10 lead on a pair of free throws from Jaquez.

Barthelemy’s 3-pointer with 5:52 left in the first half gave the Ducks a 25-21 lead and they stretched it to 31-23 on Rivaldo Soares’ layup. The Bruins closed the half with a 7-2 run to cut the gap to 33-30 at the break.

Campbell’s layup gave UCLA a 34-33 lead early in the second half as the Bruins went on a 15-4 run. Jaquez hit consecutive 3-pointers to give UCLA a 53-41 lead midway through the half as the Ducks went cold.

Notes

The Bruins have won 20-plus games for the third straight season. ... It was Jaquez’s seventh career double-double with at least 20 points.