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Late run sends CU Buffs men's basketball past first-place Oregon

pat rooney, daily times-call, longmont, colo.
·5 min read

Jan. 18—Fast break

Why the Buffs won: CU went 18-for-21 at the free throw line and held Oregon to a .412 mark from the floor in the second half.

Three stars

Cody Williams: The freshman standout set season-highs for made field goals (10), 3-pointers (three) and points (23) to pace the Buffs.

KJ Simpson: Went 3-for-5 on 3-pointers and 5-for-5 at the free throw line, finishing with 22 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals.

J'Vonne Hadley: Turned in another quietly efficient game, recording 11 points, six rebounds, two assists and no turnovers in 32 minutes.

Up next: The Buffs will attempt to secure a home sweep when they host Oregon State on Saturday (5 p.m., Pac-12 Network).

Oregon no longer is the sole undefeated team within the Pac-12 Conference.

The Colorado men's basketball team ended the Ducks' hot league start and picked up a crucial victory on Thursday night, finally pulling away from Oregon in the second half to post an 86-70 win at the CU Events Center.

CU snapped Oregon's six-game winning streak while improving to 11-0 at home for the fourth time in program history and the third time in 14 seasons under head coach Tad Boyle. Oregon fell to 1-12 all-time in Boulder.

"Really a good win over a quality team, quality coach, quality program. I've got a lot of respect for Oregon," CU head coach Tad Boyle said. "I was looking at the numbers today, game day, especially 8:30 tips you've got a lot of time to look at numbers. It's not like they've been dominating people. They've just been grinding and winning close games.

"Our guys really had a lot of grit tonight. Showed a lot of grit and a lot of toughness and a lot of competitiveness. I know that's what this team is made of. They showed it tonight when they had to."

The Buffs (13-5, 4-3 Pac-12) scored 11 consecutive points in a 17-2 run while building a 14-point lead late in the first half. Oregon scored the final five points of the first half and added the first seven points of the second half. After committing just three turnovers in the first half, CU committed turnovers on each of its first four possessions after halftime, with three of them charged to senior Tristan da Silva.

Oregon took one-point leads at three different junctures midway through the second half, but after the last of them, with the Ducks leading 57-56, the Buffs turned it on. Da Silva made amends for his earlier miscues by knocking down his lone 3-pointer of the night to start the Buffs on a 14-2 run that put CU in control.

Da Silva finished just 4-for-13 and recorded four of CU's 12 turnovers, but he scored seven of his 13 points during the late, game-breaking 14-2 run.

Freshman Cody Williams went 10-for-13 and hit three 3-pointers in a game for the first time in his career, finishing with a season-high 23 points along with three assists and two blocked shots. KJ Simpson recorded 22 points, five assists and five rebounds.

CU shot .508 and went 18-for-21 at the free throw line. Oregon shot .545 in the first half, but the Buffs limited the Ducks to a .412 mark after halftime. Oregon had shot .421 on 3-pointers through its first five conference games but went just 8-for-22 (.364) against the Buffs.

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy. Oregon's playing a lot of great basketball right now," Simpson said. "We knew coming in it was going to be a battle. We couldn't get down on ourselves. In the timeouts, in the huddles at free throws, we were just stressing we've got to play defense. No matter what happened on offense, as long as we guarded and got stops and ran in transition, that's when things started to open up for us."

OREGON (13-4, 5-1)

Evans 1-3 0-0 3, Dante 3-6 1-3 7, Shelstad 3-8 0-0 9, Rigsby 4-8 0-0 8, Couisnard 3-8 3-5 11, Tracey 5-10 3-3 14, Diawara 1-2 1-2 3, Barthelemy 4-8 0-0 9, Oquendo 2-3 2-4 6, Bittle 0-0 0-0 0, Cook 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-56 10-17 70.

COLORADO (13-5, 4-3)

Williams 10-13 0-1 23, da Silva 4-13 4-4 13, Lampkin 1-2 3-4 5, Hadley 2-4 6-6 11, Simpson 7-15 5-5 22, O'Brien 5-8 0-3 10, Hammond III 0-3 0-0 0, Diop 1-1 0-0 2, Ruffin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-59 18-21 86.

Halftime — Colorado 43-34. 3-point field goals — Oregon 8-22 (Evans 1-1, Shelstad 3-7, Rigsby 0-1, Couisnard 2-6, Tracey 1-4, Barthelemy 1-2, Oquendo 0-1); Colorado 8-19 (Williams 3-4, da Silva 1-5, Hadley 1-2, Simpson 3-5, O'Brien 0-3). Rebounds — Oregon 25 (Dante 5); Colorado 37 (da Silva 8). Assists — Oregon 9 (Shelstad, Couisnard, Tracey, Barthelemy 2); Colorado 16 (Simpson 5). Turnovers — Oregon 13 (Shelstad, Couisnard 3); Colorado 12 (da Silva 4). Total fouls — Oregon 20; Colorado 13. Fouled out — Diawara. Attendance — 8,177.