Bears Come Up Just Short at Oregon, 68-65
Al Sermeno

Bears Come Up Just Short at Oregon, 68-65

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EUGENE, Ore. - Cal saw its three-game winning streak come to an end with a tough, 68-65, loss at Oregon Wednesday night.

Jaylen Brown led the Golden Bears (12-4, 2-1 Pac-12) with 20 ponts, while Ivan Rabb added 17 and Tyrone Wallace 16. Chris Boucher paced the Ducks (12-3, 1-1) with 18 points.

The game was close throughout with neither team building more than a six-point advantage. There were 15 lead changes and eight ties. Cal and Oregon also went into the locker room at 27-all at the half.

After the break, Oregon went ahead for good at 49-47 with 7:55 remaining. Cal stayed within striking distance, but a 3-pointer near the end of the shot clock by Tyler Dorsey with 42 seconds left gave the Ducks a 6-point edge, and the Bears were not able to catch up.

Cal dominated inside by a 46-32 margin on points in the paint and finished with a 38-35 edge in rebounds, but it missed all 12 of its 3-point attempts and came within one of its season high in turnovers with 18.

Oregon opened a 13-7 lead before Sam Singer came off the bench to spark a 9-0 run for the Bears. The teams traded the lead six times in the first half, which ended in a 27-27 tie.

The Ducks stayed close despite shooting just 32.4 percent for the half and missing 10 of 12 3-pointers. Dorsey hit both of Oregon's 3s as he and Boucher each had eight points.

The Golden Bears were hampered by 10 first-half turnovers and a 21-18 rebounding deficit. Brown had seven points and five rebounds at the break.

TIP-INS

California: Tyrone Wallace passed Russ Critchfield for 12th on the Golden Bears' career scoring list with 16 points to give him 1,440. No. 11 is Justin Cobbs at 1,469.... Cal is now 11-2 when it wins the rebounding battle.

Oregon: The Ducks will be without senior guard Dylan Ennis for the rest of the season after he aggravated a foot injury in Sunday's loss at Oregon State. Ennis, a graduate transfer from Villanova, played 21 minutes in two games after missing the first 12 recovering from surgery on his left foot. ... Oregon, next-to-last in the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting at 32.1 percent, made 7 of 21 (33.3 percent) in the victory.

FINDING THE HANDLE

California coach Cuonzo Martin said he thought his team handled Oregon's press well and it wasn't much of a factor in the Golden Bears' turning the ball over 18 times. "It's strange because normally when a team presses you that much, you turn it over in the back court," he said. "We just had bad turnovers. Sometimes trying to feed the post, handing the ball over, handling the ball."

DOWN TO NINE

With the injury to Dylan Ennis and freshman forward Trevor Manuel's decision this week to seek his release in order to transfer from Oregon, coach Dana Altman is down to nine available scholarship players, and eight played Wednesday night. "Those guys are going to have to play," Altman said. "We're going to have to get focused."

UP NEXT

California plays at Oregon State on Saturday night.

Oregon hosts Stanford on Sunday night.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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