No. 16 Ducks rally past Cougars in 2nd half

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Halfway to its first win against a ranked team in two years, Washington State failed to finish.

The Cougars surrendered a 10-point halftime lead to No. 16 Oregon and the Ducks rallied for a 68-61 victory on Wednesday night.

Mike Ladd had 19 points and Brock Motum scored 14 for Washington State (10-9, 1-5 Pac-12), which shot just 27.3 percent from the field in the second half as it lost a 39-29 halftime lead.

"It seemed like they turned the heat up in the second half," Cougars coach Ken Bone said. "There's a reason why they're ranked 16th in the country."

E.J. Singler had 19 points - 14 in the second half - for Oregon (17-2, 6-0), which is 6-0 in the conference for the first time since 1925-26, when the Ducks were known as the Webfoots and the league was called the Pacific Coast Conference.

Arsalan Kazemi added 16 points and Damyean Dotson had 11 points and a career-high nine rebounds for Oregon in its eighth straight victory.

The win was Oregon's 19th straight at home, tied for the sixth-longest active streak in the nation.

"It was just one of those games, I guess," Singler said. "All that matters is we got the 'W.' We have to have the mindset that we're the hunted now."

Oregon opened the second half on a 9-0 run, getting within a point of the Cougars' double-digit lead on a breakaway dunk by Carlos Emory that made it 39-38 with 15:33 to play.

But Dexter Kernich-Drew snapped an 0-for-5 start to the second half for Washington State with a tough layup and Motum followed with a three-point play to put the Cougars back up 44-38.

Then Singler took over. The senior forward scored 10 straight points, tying the game 46-46 with the second of his consecutive 3-pointers. His free throws at the 11:45 mark gave the Ducks their first lead of the game, 48-46.

"I was just feeling it," Singler said. "Some of the guys gave me some good passes, and I knocked down the shots. That got me going and coach ran some plays for me."

The Cougars went back up 53-52 on a layup by Royce Woolridge with 7:38 to play, but Kazemi answered with a dunk off a pass from Singler, and Dominic Artis made a 3-pointer off another Singler assist as the Ducks took a 57-53 lead and they led the rest of the way.

"We bounced back and found a way," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "But you maybe get one of those a year, or two of those a year where you're really outplayed in the first half. . You get those double-digit deficits and if you think you're going to comeback from those every single game, you're making a mistake."

Ladd had 14 points, six rebounds and five assists in the first half for the Cougars, who cooled off considerably in the second half. After making 7 of 13 3-pointers in the first half, the Cougars missed on all 11 of their 3-point attempts in the second half.

Washington State plays at Oregon State on Saturday.

WASHINGTON ST. (10-9)

Motum 4-11 5-6 14, Shelton 2-5 0-0 5, Ladd 6-14 5-10 19, Lacy 1-8 4-4 7, Woolridge 3-7 0-0 6, Leavitt 0-0 0-0 0, DiIorio 0-2 0-0 0, Hunter 0-0 0-0 0, Longrus 1-2 0-0 2, Hayenga 0-1 0-0 0, Kernich-Drew 3-6 0-0 8. Totals 20-56 14-20 61.

OREGON (17-2)

Kazemi 7-13 2-3 16, Singler 7-12 3-3 19, Woods 2-4 3-3 7, Artis 1-5 4-6 7, Dotson 3-10 3-4 11, Loyd 0-1 0-0 0, Austin 0-0 0-0 0, Carter 1-2 0-0 2, Emory 3-8 0-2 6. Totals 24-55 15-21 68.

Halftime_Washington St. 39-29. 3-Point Goals_Washington St. 7-24 (Kernich-Drew 2-4, Ladd 2-6, Motum 1-3, Shelton 1-3, Lacy 1-5, Hayenga 0-1, Woolridge 0-1, DiIorio 0-1), Oregon 5-16 (Singler 2-4, Dotson 2-6, Artis 1-4, Loyd 0-1, Emory 0-1). Fouled Out_None. Rebounds_Washington St. 33 (Ladd 8), Oregon 37 (Dotson 9). Assists_Washington St. 10 (Ladd 5), Oregon 18 (Singler 5). Total Fouls_Washington St. 19, Oregon 19. A_6,946.