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Oregon aims to bounce back vs. Arizona State (Feb 02, 2017)
EUGENE, Ore. -- Oregon has not had to bounce back from a loss in more than seven weeks.
The 13th-ranked Ducks set the school record with 17 straight wins before losing 74-65 at Colorado on Saturday.
"Honestly, I think we needed to lose a game," junior forward Jordan Bell said. "We had been kind of sloppy and we got away with it. At Utah, we started off bad and ended bad and we got away with it."
Oregon (19-3, 8-1) will look to avoid a losing streak when it hosts Arizona State (10-12, 3-6) Thursday night at Matthew Knight Arena.
The Ducks are one game back of fifth-ranked Arizona (20-2, 9-0) in the Pac-12 with the Wildcats coming to town Saturday.
"Halfway through conference and we still control our own destiny," UO coach Dana Altman said. "We have to keep moving forward and worry about ourselves."
Oregon's last two losses have come against unranked teams, Georgetown and Colorado.
"We just know that was a wake-up call," Boucher said. "Now we have to focus on winning the league and show what we are capable of doing. We can't have days off as we did in Colorado. It was good for us to realize that we can't slip up because we have people coming for us every time."
Oregon's leading scorer, Dillon Brooks, had a rough game against Colorado when he had six points. He is averaging 13.4 points per game.
Boucher has come off the bench recently after Brooks moved back into the starting line-up after returning from offseason foot surgery. Boucher is averaging 12.8 points and 6.9 rebounds while leading the Ducks with 2.8 blocks per game.
Sophomore guard Tyler Dorsey scored in double digits in back-to-back games to fall to 12.2 points per game while senior guard Dylan Ennis averages 11.5 points per game.
Bell leads Oregon with 7.5 rebounds while scoring a career-high 11 points per game to give Oregon five players in double figures.
After hosting ASU, the Ducks have back-to-back games against ranked teams in Arizona and UCLA.
"This is a difficult part of our schedule," said Altman, noting that Oregon plays five of its final nine conference games on the road. "To finish strong, we have to play well and get better."
Arizona State opened conference play at 2-1 before losing five of its last six games. The Sun Devils are coming off a 91-83 home loss to Washington State when they were outscored 54-43 in the second half.
"It came down to second half, our transition defense was bad and it has been bad in other games," ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. "This was a tough loss in terms of where we were and the progress that we made. This loss is going to sting."
The Sun Devils are second in the conference by averaging 81.7 points per game, but rank last in defense by allowing 83.7 points.
Guard Torian Graham and Tra Holder rank second and third in the conference with 18.7 and 17.7 points per game, respectively. Guard Shannon Evans II is 12th in the conference with 15.4 points.
