LAS VEGAS — Colorado’s bid for a Pac-12 tournament championship came up just short Saturday night as the Buffaloes dropped a 75-68 decision to Oregon at T-Mobile Arena.
Tad Boyle‘s Buffs saw their eight-game win streak come to an end while falling to 24-10 on the season. CU must now wait until Sunday afternoon to see if the Buffs are awarded a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Oregon improved to 23-11 and earned the Pac-12’s automatic NCAA tourney bid.
The Buffs led early but trailed by three at the half. CU fought back to take the lead two different times in the second half, including a one-point edge with under five minutes to play. But the Ducks each time had an answer to come away with the win.
KJ Simpson led Colorado with 23 points and Luke O’Brien added 11.
N’Faly Dante led Oregon with 25 points on 12-for-12 shooting.
Neither team shot particularly well. CU finished 20-for-48 (42%) while Oregon was 28-for-62 (46%).
But the big difference came in turnovers. Colorado committed 13 miscues that led to 23 Oregon points while the Ducks turned the ball over just three times for zero Colorado points. Oregon also had nine offensive rebounds that yielded 10 second-chance points.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Boyle said. “I’m proud of what they’ve done over the last four, four and a half weeks, and we’re not going to let this one game define us because what these guys have done over that period of time is nothing short of amazing. We’ve really come together. We’ve played well, well enough to win. Unfortunately tonight we didn’t. Oregon had a lot to do with that.”
Most tournament projections had the Buffs safely in the NCAA Tournament headed into Saturday night’s game but nothing is definite until the selection committee announces the bracket.
“It doesn’t really matter what I think, quite frankly,” Boyle said. “It matters what the committee thinks. And here’s what I do know: Being at Colorado for 14 years now, we’ve coached teams that have deserved to be in the tournament that weren’t. I’ve also coached teams that didn’t deserve to be in but got in. And so it really doesn’t matter. All that matters is what that committee thinks. I look at our metrics. I look at these guys, and there’s no doubt in my mind this is an NCAA Tournament team. I’ve known that from day one. We had some hiccups and injuries along the way. Hopefully they’ll look at the whole body of work and recognize we’re one of the best of 37 at-large teams. I can’t think of 36 or 37 better than us. But that’s for them to decide.”
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Buffs led by nine midway through the first half but the Ducks closed with a 14-4 surge to take a 33-30 lead into intermission.
Colorado fought back to a tie early in the second half when a KJ Simpson 3-pointer knotted the score at 35-35. But the Ducks regained the lead and maintained a narrow edge over the next eight minutes.
CU couldn’t completely shake the turnover bug and the Buffs’ offense missed some good opportunities.
“We got some good looks,” Boyle said. “The looks we got we didn’t convert. We had some turnovers there. You can’t turn the ball over, especially when your opponent is not turning it over. So it gets down to execution. You’ve got to be able to finish plays when you have plays to be made, and you can’t turn the thing over.
The Buffs finally regained a 53-52 lead on two Simpson free throws with 9:07 to play but Oregon surged back in front and led by four with just more than six minutes to play.
But Colorado again battled back to take the lead when a Luke O’Brien 3-pointer off a nice feed from J’Vonne Hadley gave CU a 62-61 lead.
But the Ducks answered again with a 5-0 burst to take a 66-62 lead with 2:41 to play. The Buffs managed to close the deficit to two on an Eddie Lampkin Jr. basket with 2:26 to play but the Ducks answered with two unanswered baskets and a free throw to take a 71-64 lead with less than a minute to play and CU couldn’t close the gap over the final minutes.
“The game was there to be had,” Boyle said. “We just didn’t finish it off.”
Oregon’s Dante proved to be unstoppable. Colorado tried to double-team him but the Buffs couldn’t contain him,
“Oregon played better than us tonight,” Boyle said. “They deserved to win. We didn’t.”
Now the Buffs must play the waiting game and hope the NCAA Selection Committee respects their resumé.
“We believe we’ve got more basketball left,” Simpson said. “Obviously everyone’s disappointed, but we can’t dwell and we can’t sit and mope around about this one loss. There’s more basketball left to be played and we’ve got to give it our all.”
Colorado looked ready to take control early, using a 13-0 run to take a 20-11 lead with 8:51 to play in the first half.
Simpson started the run with a 3-pointer and added a pair of free throws a minute later. O’Brien then drained a corner trey and Tristan da Silva buried a 3-pointer from the wing to give the Buffs a nine-point lead.
But the Ducks took a gamble and brought Dante back in the game with two fouls. Dante was out during Colorado’s run and he immediately helped fuel an Oregon comeback. The Ducks big man scored six points in the final 8:29 of the half and UO put up a closing 14-4 run to take a 33-30 lead into halftime.
DECISIVE MOMENT: After the Buffs went up 62-61 with less than five minutes to play, they came up empty on their next three possessions, including a pair of turnovers. Oregon regained the lead and CU could never completely close the gap again.
WHAT IT MEANS: Now the Buffs must wait to see if they earn their sixth NCAA bid in the Boyle era.
KEY STATISTICS: Colorado committed 13 miscues that led to 23 Oregon points while the Ducks turned the ball over just three times for zero Colorado points. Oregon also had nine offensive rebounds that yielded 10 second-chance points.
ALL TOURNEY: Colorado’s Simpson and da Silva were named to the All-Tournament team, along with Arizona’s Oumar Ballo and Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard and Jackson Shelstad. Dante was named the Most Outstanding Player.
NEXT UP: The Buffs will await Sunday afternoon’s NCAA Tournament bracket reveal to learn who and when they will play next. The bracket reveal is scheduled for 4 p.m. MDT on CBS (KCNC-TV, Channel 4 in Denver Metro).
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Story by Neill Woelk, Contributing Editor for CUBuffs.com. Content courtesy of the University of Colorado at Boulder.