Keeshawn Barthelemy, Jadrian Tracey lead furious Oregon men’s basketball comeback to beat Portland in overtime

EUGENE — For 35 minutes, Portland outplayed Oregon in every aspect of the game, building an 11-point lead to put the Ducks on the precipice of an all-time albatross. Then Keeshawn Barthelemy and Jadrian Tracey took over, ensuring UO survived a scare.

Tracey scored 19 points, including the game-tying layup with 10.1 to go in regulation, and Barthelemy scored 11 of his 13 points in the final 4:00 of regulation in an 80-70 overtime win for Oregon over Portland in front of 5,260 at Matthew Knight Arena Tuesday night.

Jackson Shelstad had 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists and Nate Bittle had 13 points and nine rebounds for Oregon (3-0), which did not lead for the final 27:53 of regulation, then scored the first 11 point of overtime.

Vukasin Masic and Vincent Delano each scored 12 points for Portland (1-2), which led 60-49 with 4:46 to play in regulation. Tracey scored and Barthelemy hit back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to three.

The Pilots were up 65-59 with 1:52 to go, then Brandon Angel (seven points) made a pair of free throws and TJ Bamba (10) made 1 of 2. Chris Austin knocked down a pair for Portland, then Barthelemy hit another three with 29.9 to go.

Austin Rapp missed two free throws with 27.3 left, Shelstad missed a jumper from the right corner and Oregon corralled the rebound and got the ball to Tracey, who drove to the hoop for the game-tying layup. Portland could not get a clean look at the end of regulation and it went to overtime.

Tracey scored five of UO's 13 points in overtime, including a dunk off one of his four steals to go with his five rebounds and two assists.

The furious comeback prevented what would have been far and away the worst loss of the Dana Altman era and the kind of defeat that can destroy a team's postseason resume, as only two teams with Quadrant 4 losses received at-large bids to last year's NCAA Tournament while multiple other bubble teams could not overcome such miserable defeats.