EUGENE, Ore. (AP) Up by three with less than a minute to play and the shot clock down to four seconds, Oregon looked to a freshman to make something happen.
Tyler Dorsey responded, taking Casey Benson's inbounds pass in the left corner and nailing his fourth 3 to give the Ducks a six-point lead and some much-needed breathing room.
Chris Boucher scored 18 points and Dorsey had 17 as Oregon held off California for a 68-65 victory on Wednesday night.
''I just came to be open and Casey found me,'' said Dorsey, who's now shooting 49.1 percent from long range, second best in the Pac-12. ''He made a great pass and I just knocked it down.
''That separated the game right there and we just had to knock down our free throws.''
Dorsey's dagger gave the Ducks (12-3, 1-1 Pac-12) a 63-57 lead with 58 seconds to play. They then sealed the win by hitting 5 of 8 free throws to finish the game.
''Good play, big basket,'' said Oregon coach Dana Altman, whose team was coming off a 13-point loss to Oregon State on the road to open Pac-12 play.
''As disappointed as I was Sunday, I'm equally as proud tonight, because we didn't play well offensively, but we kept competing, we kept fighting and our guys found a way.''
Jaylen Brown led the Golden Bears (12-4, 2-1) with 20 points and nine rebounds. Ivan Rabb had 17 points and eight rebounds, and Tyrone Wallace added 16 points.
Oregon won despite shooting 40.7 percent from the field (24 of 59) and 50 percent from the foul line (13 of 26).
California dominated inside by a 46-32 margin on points in the paint and finished with a 38-35 edge in rebounds, but it missed all 12 of its 3-point attempts and came within one of its season high in turnovers with 18.
However, the biggest difference might have been the performance by junior guard Jordan Mathews, who came in averaging 13.7 points per game but was held scoreless. Mathews missed all eight of his attempts, including four from 3-point range, the last of which was swatted into the stands by Boucher late in the game.
''We were really fortunate tonight because he's always killed us,'' Altman said of Mathews. ''He got 32 against us his freshman year here and we didn't even know who he was, and it's still his career high.''
Boucher, who had four blocks, said the last one against Mathews was his favorite.
''He was our main focus and he can shoot the ball,'' Boucher said. ''I really enjoyed blocking his shot.''
California coach Cuonzo Martin said his team's struggles from long range were just ''part of the game. Any time (Jordan) Mathews shoots, I think it's going in, but I don't think there were any 3s that were really tough or contested, off-balance 3s.''
The Ducks also snapped Cal's nine-game streak of holding opponents to fewer than 65 points and below 40 percent shooting.
Oregon opened a 13-7 lead before Sam Singer came off the bench to spark a 9-0 run for California. The teams traded the lead six times in the first half, which ended in a 27-27 tie.
The Ducks stayed close despite shooting just 32.4 percent for the half and missing 10 of 12 3-pointers. Dorsey hit both of Oregon's 3s as he and Boucher each had eight points.
The Golden Bears were hampered by 10 first-half turnovers and a 21-18 rebounding deficit. Brown had seven points and five rebounds at the break.
TIP-INS
California: Tyrone Wallace passed Russ Critchfield for 12th on the Golden Bears' career scoring list with 16 points to give him 1,440. No. 11 is Justin Cobbs at 1,469. . Cal came into the game tied with Stanford for fewest turnovers per game in the Pac-12 at 11.9. The Golden Bears had 10 by halftime and finished with 18. . Cal is now 11-2 when it wins the rebounding battle.
Oregon: The Ducks will be without senior guard Dylan Ennis for the rest of the season after he aggravated a foot injury in Sunday's loss at Oregon State. Ennis, a graduate transfer from Villanova, played 21 minutes in two games after missing the first 12 recovering from surgery on his left foot. . Oregon, next-to-last in the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting at 32.1 percent, made 7 of 21 (33.3 percent) in the victory.
FINDING THE HANDLE
California coach Cuonzo Martin said he thought his team handled Oregon's press well and it wasn't much of a factor in the Golden Bears' turning the ball over 18 times. ''It's strange because normally when a team presses you that much, you turn it over in the back court,'' he said. ''We just had bad turnovers. Sometimes trying to feed the post, handing the ball over, handling the ball.''
DOWN TO NINE
With the injury to Dylan Ennis and freshman forward Trevor Manuel's decision this week to seek his release in order to transfer from Oregon, coach Dana Altman is down to nine available scholarship players, and eight played Wednesday night. ''Those guys are going to have to play,'' Altman said. ''We're going to have to get focused.''
UP NEXT
California plays at Oregon State on Saturday night.
Oregon hosts Stanford on Sunday night.
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