Oregon Ducks’ junior forward Dillon Brooks has made some negative headlines with a groin kick a flop, but he’s had some great moments on the court this season too. The latest one came Wednesday night against Cal, where he capped the Ducks’ comeback with a three-point dagger that went in with less than one second left:
Here’s the replay:
That left Cal with just 0.2 seconds left, and they couldn’t inbound the ball and get a shot off in time, giving Oregon a 68-65 win. It was a remarkable one for the Ducks, as their first lead in the whole game came in the final three minutes; they trailed by 16 early in the second half and were down by 10 with just over four left. However, Chris Boucher, Dylan Ennis and Payton Pritchard then hit back-to-back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to one, and a Boucher layup then put Oregon into the lead with 1:48 left. Grant Mullins scored for Cal and Brooks responded for the Ducks, and then Oregon extended the lead to two after the Bears’ Jabari Bird missed a contested three with the shot clock running out and the Ducks’ Tyler Dorsey hit a free throw. Cal star Ivan Rabb then tied the game after rebounding his own missed basket with less than 10 seconds left, paving the way for Brooks’ game-winning shot.
The victory is an important one for Oregon, as it improves the sixth-ranked Ducks’ overall record to 25-4 and their conference record to 14-2. That has them just behind Arizona (25-3, 14-1) in the Pac-12 standings with the regular season winding down, and keeps their conference title hopes alive. It also keeps them well ahead of UCLA (11-3) and Cal (9-6). That could put Oregon in excellent shape heading into the conference tournament. A loss here certainly would have been a setback, and for much of the night, it looked like one was coming, but the Ducks managed to come together at just the right moment.
Brooks played a major role in that win, recording a game-high 22 points on nine-of-18 shooting. That was particularly impressive considering that he was playing with four fouls for much of the second half. Oregon also got big performances out of Boucher (18 points and five rebounds off the bench) and Ennis (13 points, two assists and two steals), but at the end of the game, it was Brooks with the ball in his hands. He certainly made it count on this shot.
[Matt Clapp on Clippit]
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