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Oregon, USC and Arizona advance to semis
Oregon 86, Washington 64
LOS ANGELES – Regular-season champion Oregon played like an also-ran for most of the first half in the first Pacific-10 Conference tournament game in 12 years.
The second half was a different matter.
Luke Jackson scored 16 of his 27 points after halftime, and leading scorer Frederick Jones also got going in the final 20 minutes Thursday as the ninth-ranked Ducks beat Washington 86-64.
Jackson, who also had eight rebounds, made all of his career-high four 3-pointers in the second half, which began with the Huskies leading 42-35.
The Ducks, who trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half, moved within one on 3-pointers by Jackson and Jones to begin the second half. Jones’ field goal was his first of the game.
A steal and dunk by Jones with 13:59 left gave Oregon its first lead since the opening eight minutes, and a 3-pointer by Jackson 35 seconds later snapped a 47-all tie and put the Ducks ahead for good.
USC 103, Stanford 78
LOS ANGELES – Despite what the rankings say, Southern California has proven it’s a better team than Stanford this season.
The 22nd-ranked Trojans built a 23-point lead in the first half and never looked back, beating the No. 16 Cardinal 103-78 Thursday night in the first round of the Pacific-10 tournament.
It was USC’s third victory over the Cardinal (19-9) this season. The Trojans won the first meeting by eight points in Los Angeles, then won the second by 19 points in Stanford’s worst loss at home since 1993.
Sam Clancy led five USC players in double figures with 25 points. He was voted the Pac-10 player of the year Wednesday.
Brandon Granville added 20 points and 11 assists, Desmon Farmer 19 points, David Bluthenthal 17 points, and Jerry Dupree 10 points.
The fourth-seeded Trojans (21-8) will play top-seeded Oregon in Friday’s semifinals at Staples Center.
Arizona 73, Arizona State 56
LOS ANGELES – The Arizona players cleared the air after a recent three-game losing streak.
And Luke Walton got a haircut. So far, so good.
Walton had 25 points and eight rebounds Thursday night as the Wildcats (No. 14 ESPN/USA Today, No. 15 AP) beat archrival Arizona State 73-56 in the opening round of the first Pacific-10 Conference tournament since 1990.
The second-seeded Wildcats (20-9) meet the winner of the UCLA-California game in Friday night's second semifinal matchup, after top-seeded Oregon faces fourth-seeded Southern California.
Salim Stoudamire and Will Bynum added 10 points each for Arizona.
Jason Braxton had 12 points and four assists and Chad Prewitt and Curtis Millage added nine points each for seventh-seeded ASU (14-14), which finished its season by facing six straight ranked teams – the most in school history.
The Sun Devils were 1-5 during the stretch, beating only UCLA on Feb. 16.
Prewitt also had 12 rebounds for ASU, who made only 2 of 12 foul shots in equaling its season-low point total.