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Dillion Brooks beats buzzer to lift No. 6 Oregon over Cal

By Jake Curtis, The Sports Xchange
Oregon's Dillon Brooks. (Oregon Basketball/Instagram)
Oregon's Dillon Brooks. (Oregon Basketball/Instagram)

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Dillon Brooks hit a 3-point shot with 0.2 of second remaining to give No. 6 Oregon a 68-65 comeback win over California on Wednesday at Haas Pavilion.

Oregon (25-4, 14-2 Pac-12) overcame a horrible first half, in which it scored just 16 points, and a 16-point, second-half deficit to win.

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Brooks, who also hit a late-game shot to beat UCLA earlier this season, finished with 22 points. Chris Boucher added 18 points for the Ducks, and Dylan Ennis had 13.

Jabari Bird led Cal (18-9, 9-6) with 20 points, but the Bears missed a chance for a quality win that would have enhanced their chances for an NCAA tournament berth.

Cal held a 16-point lead at 37-21 when Bird made a layup with 16:36 remaining in the second half, and the Bears still held a 15-point advantage when Bird made a breakaway dunk at the 9:44 mark.

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Cal held a 10-point advantage with 4:15 left, but 3-point shots by Boucher and Ennis reduced the margin to four points with 3:22 remaining.

It became a one-point game when Oregon's Payton Pritchard hit a 3-pointer, and Boucher put the Ducks ahead 62-61 with an inside basket with 1:47 left.

Grant Mullins put Cal back in front by a point with a leaning 10-footer, but Brooks hit a 14-footer to put Oregon ahead by one with 54.4 seconds remaining.

One free throw by Tyler Dorsey made it a two-point game, but Cal's Ivan Rabb tied it on a follow shot with 9.7 seconds remaining.

Brooks then came down court and launched his winning shot from the top of the key.

Oregon shot just 29.2 percent (7 of 24) from the field and missed all seven of its 3-point attempts in the first half, which ended with Cal holding a 30-16 lead.

The 16 points were Oregon's lowest total for a half this season and were the fewest by a Cal opponent this season.

Oregon missed its first seven shots and made just two of its first 15 field-goal attempts. That helped Cal launch a run of 14 straight points that turned a 3-2 Oregon lead into a 17-5 Cal advantage with 9:37 left in the half.

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Bird hit two 3-pointers during that surge and finished the half with nine points. Cal was 5-of-9 on 3-pointers as a team in the first 20 minutes.

Brooks missed his first five shots and finished the half with five points.

NOTES: ESPN's Joe Lunardi and USA Today both have Cal in the NCAA tournament field as a No. 10 seed in their latest projections posted this week. ... Oregon finishes the regular season with road games against Stanford on Saturday and against Oregon State on March 4. The Ducks lost all three road games to Cal, Stanford and Oregon State last season when they won the Pac-12 regular-season title. Cal beat the Ducks 83-63 in Berkeley last season when Oregon was ranked No. 11. ... Cal has three games left -- a home game against Oregon State on Friday and road games against Utah on March 2 and Colorado on March 4. ... Oregon beat Cal 86-63 on Jan. 19 in Eugene, Ore., in the teams' first meeting this season.

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