The Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball finally found out who their opponent would be Wednesday afternoon. The Oregon Ducks held off the Oregon State Beavers and came away with an 86-72 victory in Las Vegas, Nevada.
To no surprise the Ducks held off the Beavers on Wednesday, but it didn’t come without a fight. Oregon started the game on a 12-0 run but Oregon State battled and clawed the rest of the way.
The Ducks ended up winning by 14.
Oregon was without their leading scorer Will Richardson as he will miss the entire Pac-12 Tournament due to a non-COVID19 illness. They appeared to be just fine without him as Jacob Young scored a game-high 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including seven rebounds and 11 assists.
Four of Oregon’s starting five scored in double-figures against Oregon State, accounting for 77 of Oregon’s 86 points.
Colorado will have their hands full Thursday afternoon.
The Buffs are coming off an impressive road win in Utah — a place where they usually struggle.
Colorado senior Evan Battey put on a show, scoring a game-high 27 points while achieving a career-high six three-pointer’s made. Jabari Walker chipped in 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting, adding 12 rebounds and five assists.
If Colorado is going to make a run in this tournament, they’re going to need those two players at their best. The Buffs had one of their best games of the season against Utah in terms of taking care of the ball.
They turned it over just nine times in their 13-point victory.
That’s something they need to build off of heading into this tournament.
Colorado will essentially be running eight players deep in this tournament, maybe nine if Battey and Walker get into foul trouble. Expect to see major minutes off the bench for freshman guard KJ SImpson as his role continues to expand in Tad Boyle‘s offense.
If Colorado continues to take care of the basketball and win the rebound margin, I think this team has a good chance to advance past a pesky Oregon Ducks team.
Colorado and Oregon split their season series.