Ducks rebound when they have to.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

They survived, the Ducks did. Survived on a night when it seemed that the clock wouldn't run fast enough and a big lead wouldn't be big enough.

Survived on a night when, in the second half, their shooters couldn't seem to get shots. Survived cramps, fouls called and uncalled, and turnovers forced and unforced. Survived to win another game without their starting point guard. Survived with tenacious defense, and some hugely important offensive rebounds.

Survived to claw their way into a tie for second place in the Pac-10 Conference with undefeated Stanford visiting Saturday afternoon to end the first half of the league season.

Final score: Oregon 68, California 56, before 9,087 Thursday night in McArthur Court.

If there was a night that underscored the importance of winning at home in this league, and the coincident difficulty of winning on the road, it was Thursday night.

The Ducks are now 36-2 at Mac Court over the past three seasons, but as a 23-point lead shrunk to a meager six in the second half, you recognized how doubly crushing a loss that would have been.

On the flip side, up the freeway in Seattle, Arizona was falling to the Huskies, and in the Palouse, Arizona State couldn't get past Washington State. For now, the Washington defeat of the Wildcats leaves Oregon and Arizona tied for second in the Pac-10 at 5-3, with UCLA a half-game behind at 5-4.

And, yes, the Washington trip - soberingly difficult now - looms for Oregon in a couple of weeks.

As improbable as some of Thursday night's outcomes, so was the Cal-Oregon boxscore.

That was past Duck-killer Amit Tamir held to 0-of-8 from the floor, and sharp-shooting point guard Richard Midgley also held without a field goal, 0-for-7. You would never, ever have bet that, or that the Ducks would commit only 12 fouls in that kind of a grinding defensive game, or that they would outrebound the Bears, or that against all that Cal pressure the Ducks would commit only six turnovers in the second half.

Or that the Ducks would have more offensive rebounds than the Bears, at 10-7; the Bears were averaging 13.1 offensive rebounds per game, and the Ducks were dead last in the Pac-10, averaging just 9.5.

Arguably, four offensive rebounds in particular saved the Ducks, when their lead was shrinking and their offense sputtering some against one of the league's best defensive teams, and the Bears were charging in the second half.

With 12:22 remaining, and the Oregon lead down from 23 points to 10, center Ian Crosswhite rebounded Jay Anderson's miss and scored on a layup. On Oregon's next possession it was Anderson rebounding Luke Jackson's miss, and Jackson feeding Jordan Kent for a score. At the 9:14 mark, that was Anderson rebounding Crosswhite's missed shot and sinking a pair of free throws to get the Oregon lead back to 15.

Oregon's most important offensive rebound was its last - Andre Joseph's rebound of Jackson's forced shot, leading to Crosswhite's free throws that gave the Ducks a 63-54 lead with 1:23 remaining, and the game safe for Oregon at last.

Consider it this way: From 12:22 left in the game through 1:23, a span of almost exactly 11 minutes, the Ducks scored only 14 points, and eight of them were set up by offensive rebounds by a team that hadn't been getting that done.

Of course, there were other factors in the Oregon win. Freshman Mitch Platt struggled, but Anderson, the senior, came off the bench to give the Ducks 30 solid minutes, a career high. Senior guard James Davis got his first career start at the point and continued to be a steadying influence; when he was forced to the bench with cramps a couple of times in the second half, the Ducks missed him a lot.

And, of course, when the Ducks dearly needed a shot to go down, their go-to guy got one down; Jackson's back-rim floater for an eight-point lead with 2:46 remaining stopped a 9-1 Cal run.

Against a Cal team fueled by some very talented freshman, the Oregon seniors - Jackson, Anderson, Davis and Joseph, with a season-high eight rebounds - were difference-makers.

Difference-makers in a win that, until Saturday at least, helped the Ducks give a different look to the Pac-10 standings.