Oregon Oregon/Arizona Arizona Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

Even Loren Woods, in his last McKale Center appearance, broke out of his season-long funk Saturday as the Wildcats (No. 7 ESPN/USA Today, No. 9 AP) avenged their worst loss of the season with a 104-65 rout of Oregon.

"Loren came out with a positive attitude, and he was aggressive right from the start," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "He did a great job of taking the ball right to the basket."

Woods scored 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting and had seven rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots. He even made a 3-pointer on his final shot.

"I seemed more lucky today," he said. "Two weeks ago, I'm 1-for-10. Today I'm 8-for-10. It's luck. I just threw shots up there. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't."

Just two nights earlier, when he was 0-for-4 from the field with two points and two rebounds in a victory over Oregon State, Woods had said he regrets not leaving for the NBA a year ago.

He didn't change his opinion Saturday.

"Look at the tapes," Woods said. "That's my second good game in the whole Pac-10. You figure it out. Let's see, two good games and 12 – no, 13 – bad ones."

All five starters were in double figures for the Wildcats (21-7, 13-3 Pac-10), who had lost two in a row to Oregon, the latest a 79-67 defeat in Eugene on Feb. 1. Since then, Arizona has gone 8-1 and the Ducks 1-8.

"We really put a lot of effort out there," said senior Gene Edgerson, the only player left from Arizona's 1997 national championship team. "We have been thinking about revenge all week. That is the game that put us out of the Pac-10 race."'

It was Oregon's worst loss since the Wildcats beat the Ducks 104-56 on Feb. 27, 1992, and Arizona's highest-scoring game in three years.

Michael Wright scored 18 points for Arizona, while Gilbert Arenas had 14, Richard Jefferson 13 and Jason Gardner 11.

The only bigger victory margin for the Wildcats this season was 101-41 over St. Mary's on Dec. 2.

"If we put our heads together, we can blow any team out like that," Wright said. "We just have to pass the ball and take care of ourselves on defense."

Luke Jackson scored 15 points to lead the Ducks (13-14, 4-13). Bryan Bracey, the No. 2 scorer in the Pac-10 at 19 points per game, had seven to snap his string of 21 consecutive double-digit games.

"Everything was going Arizona's way tonight," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "Everything was going in, and the frustration of our team took a toll. It was a tough ball game in every category."

The Wildcats led by as many as 34 points in the first half and were up 55-25 at halftime. Arizona shot 62 percent from the field in the first half and forced 16 turnovers. For the game, the Wildcats shot 60 percent and the Ducks committed 26 turnovers.

"Arizona is a great team. They are definitely a championship contender," said Oregon's Frederick Jones, who scored 36 in a loss at Arizona State on Thursday night but only four on Saturday. "We didn't come in here fighting to the end. We didn't play very hard."

The game became a blowout in a hurry.

The Wildcats went on a 13-2 run to go up 18-9 on Jefferson's three-point play with 13:32 left in the half.

A 13-0 spurt by Arizona made it 35-13 on Woods' 10-footer with 6:28 to play.

Oregon got baskets from Jackson and Freddie Jones to cut it to 35-17, then Arizona had its biggest outburst yet, 16-0, to take a 51-17 lead on a backcourt steal by the Wildcats that turned into a 12-foot jumper by Wright 1:47 before halftime.

Arizona's 13-2 run made it 68-29 on Woods' inside basket with 16:12 to play. During the run, Jefferson had a spectacular one-handed jam on an inbounds lob pass from Gardner.

The Wildcats led by as many as 51 points in the second half.

Woods left early in the second half but came back briefly with 5:33 to play as Olson put all five of his team's seniors on the court. During that stretch, Woods hit the only 3-pointer of his career.

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AUDIO/VIDEO
video
Arizona's Richard Jefferson sails through the air for the sick jam off the inbound pass.
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RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1

Arizona's Loren Woods follows up his own miss with the two-handed jam.
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Arizona's Richard Jefferson drives through the lane and somehow gets the basket to fall.
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Oregon's Frederick Jones gets the ball on the break for the jam and the foul.
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