EUGENE -- In the afterglow of Oregon’s ear-splitting victory against No. 3 Arizona, coach Dana Altman paced a Matthew Knight Arena baseline – head down, grinning wide, lost in wondrous thought – as students stubbornly vacated the stormed court, the house lights dimmed and six Ducks celebrated senior day under a lone spotlight.

There was Jason Calliste, whose back-to-back three-point plays pushed Oregon to a 56-51 lead, its first advantage since 2-0.

There was Johnathan Loyd, Altman’s first recruit, whose three-pointer that followed Calliste’s turned UO’s upset bid into surround-sound reality.

There was Portland’s Mike Moser, left fist aloft, whose fourth-straight double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds was the first by a Duck in seven seasons.

It was Oregon 64, No. 3 Arizona 57 on Saturday, a win that was UO’s seventh straight and all but earned it a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. As his seniors soaked up the moment at midcourt, Altman accepted backslaps and handshakes in the semi-darkness before finding a skinny recruit, whose mouth was slightly agape at the events of the previous three hours, and wrapping his left arm around him.

“Can you,” Altman yelled over the din, “see yourself playing here?”

Four weeks ago, could anybody have seen this happening?

“This was exactly what I envisioned,” Loyd said. “I don't want to say, ‘I told you so,’ but I did.”

In front of the first home sell-out crowd of 12,364 this season, the Ducks (22-8, 10-8 Pac-12) weathered a poor first half and rare off night for leading scorer Joseph Young (eight points) to harass Arizona into an uncharacteristic 14 turnovers and secure not only a season-ending victory – despite a season-low for points -- but an improbable finish to the Pac-12 schedule.

Scoreless for 2:30 and trailing 48-42 with 7:51 remaining, the Ducks closed with a 22-9 run that concluded with students hopping two rows of donors seats’ to rush the floor. Young leapt into the first wave of arms; amid the crush, a student raise a whiteboard with “Let’s dance!” scrawled onto it by black pen.

Before hitting the Big Dance, the Ducks travel first to the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas next week where their seventh seed belies what is arguably the conference’s most dangerous team after resurrecting its Pac-12 season from 3-8 a month ago. Oregon faces Oregon State at 6 p.m. on Wednesday in the first conference tournament matchup between the rivals.

Not since a win against No. 1 UCLA in 2007 had UO beaten a team as highly ranked as Arizona, which is still likely to enter the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed. Freshman Aaron Gordon led Arizona (28-3, 15-3) with 21 points and eight rebounds but missed five three throws. Neither team was particularly sharp, but in the end, it was Oregon that held the daggers.

“We can be one of the best teams in the country, too,” said Calliste, who came off the bench to score a team-high 18 points, including 4-of-5 three-pointers. Oregon’s bench outscored Arizona’s by 22.

“No matter who we're playing, it doesn't matter about the name on your chest, just go out and play.”

It wasn’t all offense, though the Ducks’ 52.6 percent shooting from three certainly helped the Ducks overcome a stagnant first half in which they recorded just two assists in the first 16 minutes while the Wildcats streaked to a 17-2 edge in fastbreak points. Oregon’s biggest shots in the comeback belonged to Loyd and Calliste, who scored 11 straight points for Oregon to grab a 59-51 lead.

Fans flooded the floor after Oregon beat Arizona for its victory against its highest-ranked opponent since 2007, when UO beat No. 1 UCLA.

When Calliste was fouled after making a long two to take the first lead since the opening bucket at 53-51, a mob of eight teammates or coaches sprinted toward the Canadian senior to lift him up.

“Right when he hit that,” said Loyd, who added 16 points himself, “I knew 'Cali' is hot.”

It mirrored the way Calliste took over the end of the first half with a three-pointer with three seconds left to close an 18-9 run that somehow pulled the uneven Ducks within two after falling behind as much as 12.

“You know (Calliste’s) not afraid to take it,” Altman said. “You put the ball in his hands or run something for him he's not going to shy away at all.”

It went on like that the entire second half: If a Duck went down or missed an assignment, a teammate seemed to materialize to push the upset closer to reality. Oregon outrebounded the Wildcats by eight in the second half to tie for the game.

“The first half of the season we were making those tough plays down the stretch to get those close games,” Loyd said. “Then we went on that little slide and we weren't doing those tough things to end the game. It felt good to do the tough things down the stretch.”

Loyd’s three steals moved him into a tie for fourth all-time in school history with Luke Ridnour and Fred Jones, but he was one slice in a larger defensive effort that held Arizona to 42 percent shooting and 18 percent from three.

Trailing 63-57 with 29 seconds left, UO forward Ben Carter stretched himself to his limit to block the shot of likely conference player of the year Nick Johnson, who then fouled Carter. His free throw pushed the lead to seven and sealed the win. The final horn was like a starting gun, the cue for the students to run.

As they slowly retreated, athletic director Rob Mullens assessed the scene from his courtside seat, describing the last two minutes the arena as being “as loud as I’ve ever heard it.”

Ten feet to the right of Mullens, assistant Tony Stubblefield took a breath before summing up his mood as “very emotional.”

He recalled how after Oregon's two two-point losses in Arizona one month before that left it five games under .500, “we didn’t know which way we were going. A lot of people turned their back on us.”

On Saturday afternoon they came rushing back, spilling onto the court with arms wide open.