No. 5 Oregon was able to hold off No. 19 Arizona State 77-71 on Friday night in front of a crowd of 6,769 at Matthew Knight Arena. Oregon moves to 16-1 on the season and 5-0 in Pac-12 play. Arizona State falls to 12-5, and 3-3 in conference play. The Ducks are now 3-0 against teams in the AP Top 25 this season.



Arizona State took it to Oregon to start off the game. The Sun Devils were able to play stifling defense for most of the first quarter, and shoot well in the early going. This allowed Arizona State to take an early six-point lead. However, Oregon finished the opening quarter on a 10-0 with five points coming from Maite Cazorla to take a 20-16 lead heading into quarter two. Oregon ended up improving its shooting to 60 percent at the end of the first quarter.



It wasn’t a surprise to see the Sun Devils have a solid start to begin the game. Oregon head coach Kelly Graves knew going into the game that this would be a tough one going up against a great defensive squad in Arizona State. “Arizona State is never fun to play, I told the team before the game it’s like going to the dentist, we’ve gotta play them,” Graves said. “They’re talented, they play great defense, they don’t make anything easy.”



Oregon was able to continue to build its lead early in the second quarter, increasing the lead to as many as 11. Arizona State was able to frustrate Oregon late in the half, holding the Ducks to a scoring drought of 3:51 seconds before Cazorla hit a three with 12 seconds left in the first half. Unfortunately for Arizona State, its offense wasn’t able to to capitalize with only four points being scored in that stretch. Oregon still went into the half with a 38-29 lead. Most of Oregon’s offense came from Ionescu, Cazorla and Ruthy Hebard, who scored 32 of the team’s 38 first half points.



Things seemed to continue to go this way in the third quarter, with Oregon responding every time Arizona State started to get things going on offense. But, Oregon was still frustrated by the Sun Devils’ defense. Whenever Oregon was able to get a good look, the shot seemed to rim out. Arizona State would’ve been able to keep it within single digits heading into the fourth quarter, but a bad three on Ionescu from beyond the arc allowed Oregon to go into the final frame with a 57-47 lead.



For the first half of the fourth quarter, things were going mostly as they had so far to that point. Oregon was keeping a steady lead of around eight to 10 points. But, a quick 8-0 run by Arizona State made it only a two-point lead for Oregon with 4:23 remaining.



Late in the fourth quarter, Arizona State seemingly had a wide open three to tie the game, but Satou Sabally flew in for the block and ignite the crowd. “That was huge,” Ionescu said. “A transition three like that while we’re running back on defense could have changed the outcome of the game.”



Arizona State managed to score off the inbounds after the block, but Maite Cazorla had a huge jumper on the end to go up three again. After that, Oregon was able to play the free throw game and hold off the Sun Devils.



“We knew they were gonna come out and fight to the very end,” Ionescu said. “We just had to fight. We knew the big players that were going to make plays for them and they did, but I think we did a great job and staying poised and hitting shots that we needed to make in order to win this game.”



Ionescu dominated this game on the scoring end with 31 points and five rebounds. It was also a big game for Cazorla with 16 points, and seemingly hitting big shots and making big plays whenever Oregon needed it. “Maite was great, I thought she was great down the stretch,” Graves said. “When they were making that run, I thought she gave us a solid effort, but a calming influence.”



Cazorla also felt good about the contribution that she was able to make on the court. “I think I did good, but we won and that’s what matters. I think we all did what we had to do,” Cazorla said.



It was the fourth loss of the season Arizona State has had to an AP Top 10 team, with losses to Baylor, Louisville and Stanford earlier in the year. All four of these losses have been within single digits, so it’s obvious this Arizona State team is very talented.



Oregon will have a short break until its next game, with Arizona coming to town on Sunday for a noon tipoff. Arizona plays similarly to its in-state rivals, so it could be another close game. The game will be available to watch on Pac-12 Network.