Bell of the ball: Ducks forward comes up big
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Chris Boucher went down, it was unclear whether Oregon could make it past the second round, let alone reach a second straight Elite Eight.
Without the team’s leading shot-blocker, third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder, the co-champions of the Pac-12 hardly seemed like a Final Four contender anymore, a three-seed in name only.
But that was before junior forward Jordan Bell showed he was capable of so much more.
Behind Bell’s 16 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks, the Ducks ended Michigan’s magical run with a 69-68 victory in Thursday night’s Midwest Regional semifinal at the Sprint Center.
It was Bell’s second doubledouble of the tournament.
“Do whatever you can to win,” Bell said. “Get every rebound, offense or defense, help my team out as much as possible.”
Bell was tremendous defensively, slowing the surging Moritz Wagner to seven points on 3-of-10 shooting, and the 6-foot-9 junior saved the season with one of the biggest offensive rebounds in school history.
Though the Ducks (32-5) led for most of the game, Michigan had all of the momentum after coming back to take a three-point lead with less than two minutes remaining.
Then, Oregon’s Dylan Ennis missed the front end of a oneand-one free throw, but Bell snatched the rebound and quickly scored, putting the Ducks down 68-67 with 1:47 remaining.
“We have a play that we practice on, if one of us misses a free throw,” Bell said. “We executed it perfectly. Dillon Brooks, he went in and crossed and caused [Michigan] to look at him. I just pushed my guy out of the way and got the rebound.”
And pushed the Ducks one win from their first Final Four since 1939.