EUGENE — Johnathan Loyd’s performance in a loss to California on Thursday was so dismal it spurred a late-night call of concern from his coach.
“I was worried about him," Oregon coach Dana Altman. “But he bounced back tough."
He certainly did.
Loyd had his best game of the season with 15 points and nine assists to lead No. 23 Oregon past Stanford 77-66 on Saturday, keeping the Ducks (22-6, 11-4 Pac-12) tied with No. 12 Arizona atop the league standings.
Carlos Emory led the Ducks with 19 points and Arsalan Kazemi had 15 as Altman got his 600th career win.
E.J. Singler added 12 points and Tony Woods had nine points and nine rebounds for Oregon.
“Lots of guys played well but Johnny was the guy who stirred the drink," Altman said.
Loyd, making his ninth start in place of injured point guard Dominic Artis, was six of eight from the field for a season high in points and a career high in assists.
It was a much different performance than his zero-for-six, no-point effort in a 48-46 buzzer-beating loss to the Golden Bears.
“It felt great tonight," Loyd said. “I needed it. My teammates had faith in me. They kept telling me they believed in me so I just stepped up."
Dwight Powell led the Cardinal (16-12, 7-8) with 16 points and Josh Huestis had 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Oregon led 30-26 at halftime but outscored the Cardinal 11-4 early in the second half to go up 46-34 with 13:50 to play, and Stanford never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
The Ducks shot a season-worst 27.6 percent against California on Thursday, and it looked like things were on the same track when Damyean Dotson and Singler air-balled shot attempts in the opening minutes against the Cardinal.
But after falling behind 14-7, Oregon heated up.
The Ducks scored eight straight points, two on a short jumper from Loyd that put them up 15-14 with 11:01 to play in the half.
Stanford regained its lead 3:09 before halftime when Huestis capped a 6-0 run with a rebound dunk to make it 24-23.
Loyd followed with a 3-pointer, then dished to Kazemi for a dunk and made two free throws to help Oregon take a 30-26 halftime lead.
Powell was a force for the Cardinal in the first half, scoring 12 points on four-of-six shooting. But the junior forward picked up his third foul right before halftime and then added his fourth two minutes into the second half attempting to block Woods from stuffing back a miss by Singler.
That sent the Cardinal’s leading scorer and second-leading rebounder to the bench for a six-minute stretch, and the Ducks took advantage, going on a 14-6 run to push their lead to 46-34.
Oregon led 48-36 when Dawkins was hit with a technical foul with 10:13 to play for arguing a foul called against Cardinal guard Gabriel Harris.
Singler made one of the two free throws for the technical, then both free throws for the original foul call to put the Ducks up 51-36.
Oregon’s lead grew to 66-42 with 5:27 left to play.
The Ducks finished the game shooting 48.4 percent and made 25 points off Stanford’s 17 turnovers. They outscored the Cardinal 42-18 inside.
Also on Saturday:
Wake Forest 80
No. 2 Miami 65
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — C.J. Harris scored 23 points and Wake Forest (12-14, 5-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) snapped the Hurricanes’ 14-game winning streak. Durand Scott had all 17 of his points in the second half for the Hurricanes (22-4, 13-1), the last of the schools in the six BCS conferences to get its first league loss.
No. 3 Gonzaga 81
San Diego 50
SPOKANE, Wash. — Kevin Pangos scored 18 points for Gonzaga (27-2, 14-0 West Coast Conference), which is in position to rise to second in the AP poll.
No. 5 Florida 71
Arkansas 54
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Mike Rosario scored 15 points and Patric Young added 14 as Florida (22-4, 12-2 SEC) rebounded from one of its two Southeastern Conference losses.
No. 11 Georgetown 57
No. 8 Syracuse 46
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Otto Porter scored a career-high 33 points and Georgetown put an emphatic stamp on the impending end of an era before an imposing Orange crowd. It was the final game between Georgetown (21-4, 11-3) and Syracuse (22-5, 10-4) in the Carrier Dome as members of the Big East Conference.
No. 9 Kansas 74
TCU 48
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Jeff Withey scored 18 points and Ben McLemore added 14 as Kansas (23-4, 11-3 Big 12) avenged a stunning loss to the lowly Horned Frogs just over two weeks ago.
No. 10 Louisville 79
Seton Hall 61
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Gorgui Dieng scored a career-high 23 points on 10-of-11 shooting to lead Louisville (22-5, 10-4 Big East).
No. 12 Arizona 73
Washington State 56
TUCSON, Ariz. — Kevin Parrom matched his career best with five 3-pointers — in six tries — scoring a season-high 19 points for Arizona (23-4, 11-4 Pac-12). Brock Motum scored 20 points but missed six free throws for the last-place Cougars (11-17, 2-13), who lost their eighth straight.
No. 13 Kansas State 81
Texas 69
AUSTIN, Texas — Rodney McGruder scored 20 points and Kansas State (22-5, 11-3 Big 12) stayed in the race for its first regular season conference championship since 1977.
No. 14 Oklahoma State 73
West Virginia 57
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Le’Bryan Nash and Markel Brown scored 16 points apiece to lead five Oklahoma State (20-6, 10-4 Big 12) players in double figures.
No. 16 New Mexico 91
No. 22 Colorado State 82
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Kendall Williams made a Mountain West Conference-record 10 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 46 points and New Mexico (23-4, 10-2 MWC) ended a 27-game home-court winning streak for Colorado State (21-5, 8-4).
Villanova 60
No. 17 Marquette 56
VILLANOVA, Pa. — Darrun Hilliard scored 22 points to lead Villanova to the upset over Marquette (19-7, 10-4 Big East).
No. 21 Memphis 89
Southern Mississippi 73
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Chris Crawford and Shaq Goodwin scored 19 points each and Memphis (24-3, 13-0) claimed its second straight Conference USA regular season title.
No. 24 VCU 75
Xavier 71
CINCINNATI — Troy Daniels scored 19 points, and VCU (22-6, 10-3 Atlantic 10) intensified its full-court defense and overcome a 17-point deficit in the second half.
Washington 68
Arizona State 59
TEMPE, Ariz. — Scott Suggs scored 16 points and hit a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left, helping Washington (15-13, 7-8 Pac-12) hold off Arizona State (20-8, 9-6). The Huskies led by 12 midway through the second half and nearly blew it, allowing the Sun Devils to pull within one point.
