By Morris Phillips

The Ducks desire to boost their NCAA resume trumped the Bears desire to provide hope for their home fans on Wednesday night.

Oregon raced past Cal, 80-69 at Haas Pavilion as Joseph Young scored 25 points and junior college transfer Dwyane Benjamin came up big with 14 of his 18 after halftime.  The Ducks (21-8, 11-5) followed up their big upset of Utah on Sunday to maintain their spot in the NCAA field as things stand currently, according to most tournament prognosticators.

“They’ve been hard on us.  Before I got here, they’d beaten up on us for a while,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said of interrupting a 12-game losing streak to Cal that dated back to the 2008-2009 season.

Cal saw its hopes for a big home win evaporate in the final 15 minutes.   The Bears led 51-47 courtesy of a trio of 3-pointers at the outset of the half, only to see Young and Benjamin take over from that point as the Ducks shot 51 percent from the field with their smaller, quicker lineup.  With few personnel options, Cal Coach Cuonzo Martin gambled on going small to contain the Ducks, but Young, Benjamin and company shredded the strategy with their ability to make tough shots inside and out.

“In Benjamin’s case three or four of his threes were probably because we weren’t getting long rebounds,” Martin said.  “The shot clock went down and he made a three with maybe one second left on the clock.  (Oregon’s 6’8” Elgin) Cook did a good job of really taking advantage of mismatch situations and getting to the free throw line.  Joe Young was just sound from start to finish.”

Martin didn’t have big man Kingsley Okoroh, and each of his top four players—Jabari Bird, Tyrone Wallace, David Kravish and Jordan Mathews—played at least 35 minutes.  Consequently, the game resembled a shoot-out with numerous fast-break opportunities on both sides and spacing preferable to shooters and drivers.  In that battle, Bird, Wallace and Mathews were outdone by Benjamin and Young despite Bird’s season-best 22 points.

In addition, and as Martin noted, the Bears were outrebounded 39-28.  Cal didn’t take advantage of 19 free throw attempts, converting just 11 as the Ducks made 17 of 20.

“The rebounding and defense stops are just as closing as hitting big shots,” Altman said.  “Our free throw shooting was really good again, Casey (Benson) hit two big shots and Elgin was nine for 11, so down the stretch we hit free throws.”

Cal (16-12, 6-9) has dropped three straight after five consecutive wins and will close their home portion of the schedule on Sunday against Oregon State.  If the Bears have an immediate goal over the final three regular season games, it would be staying ahead of Washington State and Colorado to get the best possible first round matchup in the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas beginning March 11.

Kravish contributed 14 points for the Bears, but managed just three rebounds in 39 minutes of action.  Wallace and Mathews chipped in with 11 points each.  Benjamin and Dillon Brooks contributed 20 of Oregon’s 39 rebounds.