Fast break
Why the Buffs lost: N’Faly Dante was why the Buffs lost, but committing 13 turnovers against just three for Oregon loomed large as well.
Three stars:
1. Oregon’s N’Faly Dante: The Ducks’ center was unstoppable, finishing 12-for-12 with 25 points, nine rebounds and three steals.
2. Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad: The steady freshman went 8-for-10 at the free throw line with 17 points and five rebounds.
3. CU’s KJ Simpson: Ended a stellar late-season push by going 8-for-8 on free throws with 23 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Up next: CU likely has earned an NCAA Tournament berth but must wait for Sunday’s selection show at 4 p.m. MT.
LAS VEGAS — The Colorado men’s basketball team put together a clutch late-season run to likely play its way into the NCAA Tournament.
The Buffaloes, however, couldn’t quite finish the job in their final appearance at the Pac-12 Conference tournament.
CU fell short in its goal of bookending its tenure in the Pac-12 with a second tournament championship, falling to Oregon 75-68 in the title game on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Oregon, which upset top-seeded Arizona in Friday’s semifinals, officially steals a bid for next week’s NCAA Tournament, while the Buffs will wait for Selection Sunday to learn their postseason fate.
The Buffs had no answer for Oregon big man N’Faly Dante, who followed his 10-for-10 shooting performance against CU last week in Eugene by going 12-for-12 with 25 points and nine rebounds. Dante was named the tournamentap Most Outstanding Player.
The defeat ended CU’s season-saving eight-game win streak.
“I thought N’Faly Dante, he was the difference in the game,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “We were trying to double him tonight, and he scored out of double-teams. He played extremely well. He changed shots at the rim defensively. Oregon played better than us tonight. They deserved to win. We didn’t. We had our chances. We just didn’t play well enough.”
Even with Dante’s dominance, the Buffs played well enough defensively to win, as Oregon’s .459 mark included a 2-for-17 effort on 3-pointers and a .327 field goal percentage for every player not named Dante. CU shot .426 and went an impressive 21-for-23 at the free throw line. Yet as has often been the case this season when the Buffs have struggled, turnovers made the difference.
The Buffs’ 13 turnovers wasn’t a gaudy total by their standards this season, yet the final turnover margin proved critical. After forcing 19 turnovers Friday against Washington State, the most by any CU foe this season, the Buffs forced just three against the Ducks.
Oregon seemed to take advantage of every miscue, finishing with a lopsided 21-0 edge in points off turnovers.
“Turnover margin, we’re dead last in the Pac-12 in terms of how many times we turn it over versus our opponent,” Boyle said. “And tonight, that cost us the game, because we had 13 turnovers and they had three. Thatap 10 extra possessions that Oregon has that we don’t. And thatap the difference in a close game like this. We’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves. Credit goes to Oregon.”
CU led 62-61 with 4 minutes, 51 seconds remaining after Luke O’Brien’s third 3-pointer of the night, but the Buffs’ offense sputtered from there. Colorado committed its final two turnovers during a 10-2 Oregon run that gave the Ducks the final Pac-12 title. CU’s only points during that stretch came on an inside bucket from Eddie Lampkin, which kept the Buffs within 66-64 with 2:25 to play, but Dante answered with a dunk and a tip-in to push Oregon’s lead back to six going into the final minute.
KJ Simpson led the Buffs with 23 points, six rebounds and four assists, earning a spot on the all-tournament team alongside Tristan da Silva. It was a bittersweet Pac-12 finale for the program, with Boyle, da Silva and Simpson all battling tears during the postgame press conference. Yet within 24 hours, the Buffs will learn when, where and against whom they will play again.
“I feel like the last eight games we played the way we thought we were supposed to play all season,” da Silva said. “Kind of seeing the work that we put in pay off making that run. Finishing third in the Pac-12 kind of put us where we wanted to be. I have ultimate trust in each and every one of the players, each of my teammates. This is a fun group to be around, itap a fun group to play with. I’ll definitely miss them when all this is over. But we’ve still got some basketball ahead of us.”
OREGON (23-11)
Evans 1-4 2-4 4, Dante 12-12 1-1 25, Couisnard 5-19 4-5 14, Shelstad 4-12 8-10 17, Tracey 3-6 1-2 8, Oquendo 1-5 1-2 3, Rigsby 2-3 0-0 4, Diawara 0-1 0-0 0, Reichle 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-62 17-24 75.
COLORADO (24-10)
da Silva 3-10 2-2 9, Lampkin 3-5 1-2 7, Hadley 1-3 5-6 7, O’Brien 3-9 2-2 11, Simpson 6-12 8-8 23, Williams 3-6 3-3 9, Dak 1-2 0-0 2, Ruffin 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-48 21-23 68.
Halftime — Oregon 33-30. 3-point field goals — Oregon 2-17 (Tracey 1-2, Shelstad 1-4, Diawara 0-1, Rigsby 0-1, Evans 0-2, Oquendo 0-2, Couisnard 0-5), Colorado 7-22 (O’Brien 3-6, Simpson 3-8, da Silva 1-4, Dak 0-1, Hadley 0-1, Ruffin 0-1, Williams 0-1). Rebounds — Oregon 31 (Dante 9), Colorado 34 (Hadley 7). Assists — Oregon 14 (Couisnard 8), Colorado 16 (da Silva 5). Turnovers — Colorado 13, Oregon 3. Total fouls — Oregon 16, Colorado 21. Attendance — 12,912.
