It would have been an understandable finish to a frustrating season if Oregon had simply played out the string Friday evening after falling behind by 14 points in the first half of its Pac-12 semifinals matchup with top-seeded Arizona.

The Ducks didn't carry much momentum into this tournament, needed a second-half surge the day before to slip past a middling UCLA team and had lost to this same Wildcats squad by 20 points just two weeks ago.

But then, suddenly, freshman Jackson Shelstad couldn't miss, senior Jermaine Couisnard kept making plays of his own, and always impactful big man N'Faly Dante shook off a first-half injury to deliver when his team needed it most.

Suddenly, this erratic and depleted Oregon team was taking it to the No. 6 team in the country as that substantial deficit flipped into a 13-point lead late before the Ducks finished off the stunned Wildcats with a 67-59 win at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Suddenly, the Ducks (22-11) are reigniting NCAA tournament hopes and just one more win away from forcing their way into March Madness as they'll face No. 3-seeded Colorado (25-9) in the Pac-12 championship game Saturday at 6 p.m. PT on FOX.

"I'm really proud of our team. We kind of lost our composure in the first half when Dante went down. We talked all night about playing through Dante and going to him early, and he went down the second or third play of the game and we did lose our composure -- had some bad turnovers, took some quick shots. Fortunately, they missed some and we were able to stay in the game," Ducks coach Dana Altman said. "Then the second half, I think we outrebounded them by 10. I thought our activity was good. Guys that usually shoot it well for them didn't shoot it good, and we finally got some shots. ...

"Dante and Jermaine, they play so hard and our guys just kind of fed off that. Those three -- Jackson, Jermaine and Dante -- really did some great things. So we live another day."

Oregon had shot just 33.3 percent from the field, including a woeful 1 of 12 from 3-point range, while also losing the rebounding battle. As Altman noted, that deficit that peaked at 32-18 late in the first half could have been even worse if Arizona (3 of 9 from 3 in the first half) had hit a few more shots of its own.

Instead, the Ducks saw their opening despite all that had gone wrong early.

"Just belief. I just felt like we had to keep believing," Couisnard said. "As you all watch all these games that's going on, people, they up, they down -- that's all it was, we knew it was going to come down to a close game. I just told them in the locker room, 'Just keep believing.'"

Shelstad, who was 1 of 6 from the field (0 for 3 on 3s) in the first half, scored 17 of his team-high 21 points in the second half, hitting 6 of 10 shots (including 3 of 4 3-pointers) after halftime. Couisnard scored 13 of his 20 points after the break, including hitting 3 of 5 3-pointers while dishing out 4 of his team-high 7 assists in that second half. And Dante, who played just 9 minutes in the first half after taking a hard fall on his back when he was undercut going for a block early in the game, finished with 14 points and delivered a pivotal swat to help preserve the lead late.

Altman addressed Dante's situation after the game.

“Dante took a terrible fall there, and they took him back for X-rays. Everything was negative, but he’s got a bad bruise on his tailbone. So he’ll be a little stiff in the morning. Hopefully by 6 o’clock he'll be loose," he said.

Arizona (25-8) led 33-23 at half, but that duo of Shelstad and Couisnard keyed the second-half turnaround from the start, scoring four quick points out of half time, and the rest of the way the Ducks had an answer for just about every Arizona basket.

Couisnard later capped a 7-0 Ducks spurt with a 3-pointer to give the team a 43-41 lead just 7:27 into the second half.

After the Wildcats scored the next three points to briefly regain the lead, Shelstad played one of the best stretches of his impressive freshman season, scoring seven straight points over 1:26 on a layup, jumper and 3 before Couisnard added a 3 of his own to cap the 10-0 run and put Oregon up 53-44 with 8:12 remaining.

"I just tried not to lose my confidence the first half. I was missing a couple open looks. My teammates and coaches do a good job of instilling that confidence in me -- take good ones and they're eventually going to drop," Shelstad said.

Indeed, Shelstad added two more 3s over the next few minutes to push the Ducks lead to 61-48 with 5:18 remaining.

There would be some late drama, though, as a technical foul was called on Oregon's bench with 4:10 on the clock, contributing to a four-point possession for the Wildcats as Pelle Larsson hit both ensuing free throws and KJ Lewis also made two free throws resulting from the foul on the floor.

Lewis then stole the ball from Couisnard and fed Larsson for a fast-break 3-pointer that cut the Ducks' lead to 61-57 with 2:40 left to play.

But Oregon was resilient and would find the final burst needed to close out the win.

Coming out of a timeout called by Arizona, Dante threw down an alley-oop dunk from Jadrian Tracey and then blocked Lewis on the other end.

Arizona got to within four points again, 63-59, on a Jaden Bradley jumper with 1:26 left, but the Wildcats missed their final three shots -- all from beyond the arc -- as the Ducks sealed the win at the line with two free throws each from Shelstad and Kario Oquendo.

Oregon had lost both regular-season meetings with Arizona -- and also lost both meetings with the Colorado team it will match up with Saturday -- but the Ducks have found a relentless resolve in their first two games in Las Vegas this week and now need to deliver just one more win to put themselves in the NCAA tournament.

"Games like this, I live for it and always dreamed about playing in," Couisnard said.