EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon earned its fifth straight NCAA Tournament bid and 17th in school history Sunday as it received the No. 5 seed in the Wichita Region.

 

The Ducks will face No. 12 seed Belmont in the opening round on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

 

“I’ve been doing this for a long time and even though we’ve known we were going to be in the tournament there’s always something magical about hearing your name called,” said head coach Kelly Graves. “We’re excited to be playing and hope to go down and play our best.”

 

Oregon finished the regular season 20-11 and 11-6 in Pac-12 play, finishing the year second in the overall league standings. The Ducks picked up back-to-back wins over top-10 teams in Matthew Knight Arena in January, knocking off then-No. 7 Arizona, 68-66 in overtime, before blowing out then-No.9 and current No. 6 UConn, 72-59.

 

UO had its Pac-12 Tournament run end in the semifinals, losing to Utah, 80-73 in the semifinals after beating UCLA, 63-60, in the quarterfinal round. Oregon beat 10 of the 12 Pac-12 teams at least once during the season, as the only teams the Ducks did not beat were No. 2 Stanford, who UO lost to twice, in addition to a loss at Colorado in the only meeting between the two schools this year.

 

The Ducks also knocked off Oklahoma during the regular season, winning 98-93 on Nov. 20 in The Bahamas, playing without starting guards Te-Hina Paopao and Endyia Rogers. Oregon has played 10 teams that are in the NCAA Tournament field.