EUGENE -- The fans waited.

They had stormed the floor and settled around midcourt. They jumped up and down, swaying side to side and a sign reading "Allonzo Trier is my drug dealer" rose above the fray.

They wanted Elijah Brown. The same player who has never been fully embraced here in Eugene. The same Elijah Brown who scored 30 points in leading Oregon to a 98-93 upset victory of No. 14 Arizona in overtime, yet the same Elijah Brown who head coach Dana Altman said after the game "does some things that really irritate me."

The masses began to grow impatient.

Soon, they would swarm freshman Abu Kigab, who missed all three of his shots on Saturday, but had the best game of his Oregon career by playing ferocious defense.

"Kigab, Kigab, Kigab!" the crowd roared, dancing around the freshman before he finally departed the court.

"That was a lot of fun," Kigab would say later. "I haven't had that experience before."

But the fans wanted Brown and once security cleared them off the court, they settled back into the Pit Crew and waited for him to finish his interview with Bill Walton and ESPN.

Brown didn't seem to mind making them wait. It's been a long year for the fifth-year senior. He transferred in the offseason from New Mexico with high aspirations and heavy expectations. The Ducks, fresh off a Final Four appearance, weren't supposed to rebuild. They were going to reload with the high-scoring guard as one of the centerpieces.

Throughout the season, Brown has never quite lived up to expectations. He's averaging 13 points per game, but his shot selection has been questionable at times. On some nights he has just disappeared. Rarely has he taken over a game the way Deandre Ayton did early Saturday night, leading the Wildcats with 28 points and 18 rebounds on the same day his coach, Sean Miller, stepped away from the team after he was allegedly caught on the phone in an attempt to secure the freshman star $100,000. Not to mention it was only two days after star Arizona guard Allonzo Trier was suspended for failing his second performance-enhancing drug test in as many years.

Brown has never been in that same stratosphere of attention, in fact he's been so beleaguered in an up-and-down season that he even had to call out his own fans a week ago on Twitter.

And for the first five minutes of the game, as Arizona hit shot after shot and Ayton played like a professional and the Wildcats built a lead that would eventually rest at 13 points, Brown served as an afterthought.

"Well, he takes some bad shots," Altman said. "He does some things that really irritate me...you just shake your head at the things he does that aren't good basketball plays."

A few minutes into his interview with ESPN, Brown finally gave the crowd something. He lifted up his right hand in the air and waved the fans on into a cheer, headset still on. He didn't give them everything, but it was a start.

In the second half, Arizona inexplicably stopped feeding Ayton. The 7-foot-1 freshman didn't hit a field goal in the final 15 minutes of regulation and all throughout overtime.

"We were supposed to double team him and two of them weren't working so we went to three," Altman said.

At the same time, Brown began to pour it on. Sparked by several turnovers caused by Kigab and Keith Smith in an all-out press, Brown keyed a 13-0 run that gave Oregon its first lead of the game. After Payton Pritchard couldn't get a shot to drop at the buzzer and overtime ensued, Brown scored five of the Ducks 15 points in the extra frame.

At halftime, it was Ayton with 17 and Brown with 8. After halftime, Brown outscored the potential No. 1 pick 22-11 and the fans wanted Brown to know how they felt.

It was his last time playing a regular season game inside of Matthew Knight Arena. A loss could have setup a return, potentially in the NIT, but the hope now for Brown and Oregon is that the win could lead to something grander.

The win secured a home sweep of Arizona and Arizona State and have just two games remaining against Washington State and Washington. Two more wins could get the Ducks back into the NCAA Tournament bubble and the Pac-12 Tournament looks completely up for grabs.

It's a stark contrast from where the Ducks were three weeks ago, when Stanford blew the doors off Oregon in the Bay Area. Since that 96-61 loss, Oregon has won four of six games. The two losses came last week on the road -- one at the buzzer and one in overtime -- and players said they felt close. Over Oregon's last three games, Brown has averaged 23 points per game.

"Since the Stanford game, which was an embarrassment for our program, the last six games I have not (found) any fault in their effort," Altman said. "It was probably a little bit too late, but we're the only ones who can change that. We have two tough road games and then we go to Vegas."

When the ESPN interview finally finished, Brown took off the headset and threw his hands into the air. The crowd had dispersed a little by then, but those that remained embraced the 23-year-old. He was then whisked out of a large group hug and back toward Oregon's bench, where his team waited for him. He bumped chests in the air with some and hugged others.

The media was left waiting, too, as Brown -- and fellow senior MiKyle McIntosh with his 20 points and 5 rebound -- wasn't made available for interviews. But on a night where the two carried the Ducks into the bubble, their teammates were able to speak for them.

"I'm extremely happy for them," Kigab said. "Seeing them have a great game like that, it was really fun to watch. It's something that all of us really enjoyed being really happy for them."

-- Tyson Alger

talger@oregonian.com

@tysonalger