LAS VEGAS — For 24 minutes Thursday night, the Colorado men’s basketball team did everything it needed to give itself a chance to pull an upset.
Oregon needed less than five minutes to spoil that work.
A cluster of turnovers and a series of Oregon dunks did in the Buffs in a 93-85 loss during the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Colorado (15-17) officially saw its slim NCAA Tournament hopes come to an end. The Buffs needed to win this tournament to earn an automatic bid and get there for a fourth consecutive season.
CU’s season may not be over, however. The Buffs are likely to accept a bid to the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) if given one, and they fit the profile of other recent major conference teams to play in that event in recent years.
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In this one, CU got a career-best 14 points from freshman Dominique Collier and 16 points from Josh Scott, but they couldn’t contain Pac-12 player of the year Joseph Young and the high-powered Oregon (24-8) offense.
Young had a game-high 30 points and the Ducks made 75.9 percent of their shots in the second half (22-of-29).
The game was tied, 46-46, after Scott scored with 16:02 to play, but Oregon took over from there.
During the next 4:20, Oregon outscored the Buffs 16-1, getting half of those points on transition dunks. CU had five turnovers, three on Oregon steals, during that stretch.
Oregon’s lead stretched to 18, on a Young 3-pointer with 6:57 to play. At that point, Oregon was 18-for-21 in the half.
Colorado made it interesting late, though.
CU senior Askia Booker, who started 0-for-6 from the floor, finally hit a couple of 3-pointers and scored 10 points in a 20-6 run that cut the deficit to 80-76 with 2:14 to go.
Booker finished with 12 points, just two of them before that late surge. He also had five assists before fouling out in what may have been his last game as a Buff.
While the Buffs made it close late, Oregon put the game away at the free-throw line, sinking 11-of-12 free throws in the final 86 seconds.
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