While it felt like Arizona had momentum on its side going into Saturday night's game with Oregon in Eugene, it would be ab it of fool's gold as the Wildcats would end the evening with the lowest amount of points scored under Sean Miller.

Oregon wasn't spectacular, but the Ducks forced UA into many mistakes and held Miller's team to just 47 points at Matthew Knight Arena. The Wildcats (17-13, 8-9 Pac-12) had just three players score in the second half in a game that featured several scoring droughts for UA.

The 'Cats had to play without big man Chase Jeter who ended playing just six minutes off the bench as he showed signs of being less than healthy during his time on the floor. Jeter bruised his knee in Thursday's game against Oregon State and he simply didn't look ready to play in Saturday night's loss.

It meant UA had to use a different lineup than anticipated and when power forward Ryan Luther picked up his fourth foul with plenty of time to go in the second half it compounded the problems.

Eventually, UA didn't have the right mix of players to stop the bleeding as Oregon continued to score points resulting in the second loss of the season to the Ducks.

"You know they overwhelmed us in the second half," Miller said during his postgame radio interview. "... They wore us down. ... Ryan Luther picks up his fourth foul whenever that time came midway through the second half. You run out of bodies and it's kind of like being in LA against UCLA and SC.

"You can do the best that you can and I felt very fortunate to be tied at the half. We had a group of guys that fought for the last eight minutes of the first half, and really didn't give in. ...We can get through 20 minutes, but what starts to happen in the situation we're in is it's like death by inches."

The Wildcats did most of their scoring in the first half as the group had just 16 points in the second 20 minutes. Only three players scored in the second half with Brandon Williams doing most of the heavy lifting with 10 points in that part of the game. Justin Coleman and Jake DesJardins were the other two players to score in the final 20 minutes with four and two points, respectively.

Luther's foul and subsequent technical foul changed the course of the game for UA as it forced Miller to have to go small and play DesJardins more than usual. It was an unusual game for the Wildcats overall with UA keeping the game close throughout the first half.

There were several runs by both teams, but hot shooting from deep helped the Wildcats overcome those 12 turnovers in the first half. UA made seven 3-pointers in the first half with seven different players getting involved with the scoring.

Miller was pleased with that part of the game, but as his group's depth took a hit it proved to make the work in the first half mostly irrelevant as the Wildcats simply didn't have enough firepower to make baskets.

"One thing that I know is it's not just who Chase is as a player, but it's also who you have if he doesn't play," Miller said. "There's just a real big drop off. ... We do the best we can, and what starts to happen is different players like Brandon Randolph and Dylan Smith they're guarding players like Paul White and Louis King that are 6-8, 6-9 and that obviously really hurt us.

"That's the way it works and that's the team we have."

The night was so strange offensively for UA that Smith, who scored all 14 of his points in the first half, ended up as the team's leading scorer by the time the final buzzer went off. His 14 points tied King for the most points in the game by either team.

Smith and Williams were the only two UA players to score more than six points Saturday night.

The loss moves UA into 10th place in the conference standings, but a win next week against Arizona State could put the Wildcats back in play for a top four seed if several other things fall into place considering there are a number of 8-8 teams just ahead of the Wildcats heading into the final week of play.

For now UA will focus on getting all the pieces back on the floor for the final game of the regular season next Saturday at McKale Center.