After flying high its last seven games, the University of Colorado men’s basketball team’s loss to No. 7 Oregon on Saturday echoed trends seen earlier in the season, as the Buffs fell, 101-73.
Throughout non-conference play, the Buffs rested on a good amount of success ,as they finished 10-3. But as Pac-12 slate broke open, so did the floodgates of every weakness ailing this veteran team.
Although Colorado (16-12, 6-9) ultimately fell in some contests early in its early Pac-12 games, many were decided by just a handful of points.
Moral of the story: despite a strong showing in the first half of their season, the Buffaloes crumpled under the pressure in the second half, much like they did in Eugene on Saturday at the hands of the revenge-seeking Ducks (24-4, 13-2).
At the start of play, the Buffs’ tight defense and high-paced offense kept the Ducks in check, but as history would have suggested, that fight didn’t last long for the Buffaloes. Through the end of the first half and into the second, the Ducks sparked a 29-2 run, to bury the Buffs for good.
From there on out, that was all she wrote.
For the game, the Buffs shot fair enough at 43 percent, but their second-half defense ultimately led to their downfall; as they allowed the Ducks to shoot 58 percent with a barrage of threes adding to their total (16-of-29).
Four players carried the load offensively for the Buffaloes, as George King (18 points), Dom Collier (13), Josh Fortune (11) and Derrick White (10) led the way. They had no answer for Oregon’s Dillon Brooks and Dylan Ennis, who added 23 and 20 points, respectively, to the Ducks’ efforts.
With the three-ball flying high in the first half, the Buffs kept pace with the white-hot Ducks despite their inability to guard the perimeter. Until the last four minutes of the half, the Buffs kept in line with their opponents before going ice-cold, allowing the Ducks to ignite a 10-0 run.
At the half, the Buffs trailed 45-32.
Throughout the second, the Ducks kept pounding on the Buffs as they went up by as many as 36 points with four minutes to go, 96-60.
The Buffs battled back ever so slightly, as the game panned out as 101-73.
