1 of 2 | Washington guard Wesley Yates III shoots against Oregon forward Kwame Evans Jr. as the Huskies take on the Ducks at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon Saturday March 7, 2026. (UW Athletics / )
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By
Percy Allen
Seattle Times staff reporter
The Washington men’s basketball team alternated wins and losses in the previous six games and painfully for the Huskies, the pattern continued in a brutal 85-79 loss at Oregon in the regular-season finale on Saturday night.
The Huskies erased a 21-point deficit in the first half and led by three points in the final 24 seconds before imploding at the end.
Ducks forward Kwame Evans Jr. tied it on a three-pointer and drew a foul on Quimari Peterson that put Oregon up 80-79 with 11 seconds left.
On the ensuing possession, Zoom Diallo drove to the middle and passed to Hannes Steinbach in the paint where he drew three defenders and lost the ball.
Coach Danny Sprinkle received two technical fouls and was ejected after pleading for a call and Oregon finished the game with five free throws.
“They fought and they got screwed,” Sprinkle said in a postgame radio interview. “They’re going to call a foul like that down there, a guy with a little bit of hand on body and then I got my guy getting slapped on the forearms and body and getting hit. It’s ridiculous.”
The ending spoiled what was shaping to be the second-largest comeback in UW history.
Instead, the Huskies will wonder what might have happened if they didn’t fall behind 29-8 at the start.
“We’ve done that a couple of times this year,” Sprinkle said. “I wish we wouldn’t get ourselves in a hole like that. … We just dug ourselves too big of a hole, but I give our guys credit coming back and getting a three-point lead.”
The Ducks appeared to deliver an early knockout with a lethal three-point barrage that left the Huskies gasping. Oregon canned its first seven three-pointers while Washington was 0-for-8 on threes and fell behind 29-8 in the opening 10½ minutes.
Making matters worse, Steinbach collected his third foul with 7:04 left and sat out the remainder of the first half.
Considering the circumstances, Washington was fortunate to trail 44-30 at the break.
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Washington trailed by 18 points with 10:04 left when Steinbach and Peterson drilled consecutive three-pointers to pull within 68-56.
Trailing 72-61, the Huskies seized momentum with a 14-2 run that included a short jumper and free throw by Steinbach for their first lead 75-74 with 2:11 left.
Despite the foul trouble, the star freshman forward notched his 20th double-double (26 points and 13 rebounds), which leads major-conference players.
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After Oregon regained the lead, Diallo (14 points and six rebounds) put the Huskies back on top with a layup and Steinbach’s free throws gave them a 79-76 lead with 24 seconds left.
Washington, which beat Oregon 72-57 in January at Alaska Airlines Arena, was poised to sweep the series for the first time since the 2008-09 season before Evans’ big shot.
Wesley Yates III added 14 points and five rebounds and Peterson chipped in 11 points for Washington, which shot 46.6 from the field, 31% on three-pointers (9 of 29) and was 16 of 16 on free throws.
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Evans finished with 20 points while Takai Simpkins had 18 and Nate Bittle 15 for Oregon (12-19, 5-15 Big Ten). The Ducks shot 52.6% on field goals, including 11 of 24 behind the arc.
Washington fell to 15-16 and finished 12th in the Big Ten at 7-13.
The No. 12 seed Huskies face No. 13 seed USC in the second of the Big Ten tournament on Wednesday. UW swept the regular-season series against the Trojans.
“This one has got to sting until midnight,” Sprinkle said. “Tomorrow is a new day. We got to get over it and get on to the next game.”
BOX SCORE
Percy Allen: pallen@seattletimes.com. Percy Allen is a sports reporter for The Seattle Times, where he writes about the University of Washington Huskies men’s and women’s basketball teams and the Seattle Storm.