Junior guard Xavier Talton celebrates with his teammate Askia Booker after Booker hit consecutive 3-pointers forcing Oregon State to take a timeout. CU defeated Oregon State 78-71. (Matt Sisneros/CU Independent)
One game.
One game, on one brisk night, in one undying city. One game is all that the Colorado Buffaloes were guaranteed when they charged into the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas on Wednesday. One game that could have been the last they played this season, and the last that Askia Booker played in his career.
Could have been.
But now the Buffs play on.
Colorado darted past Oregon State in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament—a 78-71 win that promises the Buffs nothing more than the opportunity to survive through Thursday. It was not an easy win, nor a pretty one, but it was egalitarian like Colorado’s games rarely have been this season. Four Buffs scored in double figures: Booker led the way with 20 points, Josh Scott had 16 and pulled in 14 rebounds, Tre’Shaun Fletcher scored 12, a career-high, and grabbed five boards, and Dustin Thomas dropped 10.
“I was really pleased with out fight and our desire,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “You know what, we found a way. And that’s what you have to do in tournament basketball.”
They found a way despite 17 points each from Gary Payton II and Malcolm Duvivier, and an Oregon State team that had dominated them earlier in the season. The Beavers came out in the matchup zone that so flummoxed the Buffs when they played in Corvallis a month and a half ago. Colorado handled it better than it did in that first contest—the ball rarely stuck in anyone’s hands, and the Buffs’ side-to-side ball movement and dribble penetration were as good as they’ve been all season, and they assisted on six of their 11 first-half field goals.
Xavier Johnson was dynamite off the bench. He gave Colorado instant energy with his driving, his rebounding and, surprisingly, his passing. He scored a finger roll, dimed Scott for a dunk and drew a foul immediately after he stepped on the court for the first time.
“I don’t wanna be off the bench, but it is what it is,” Johnson said. “I guess it’s my job, to come in and create energy. So I’m just gonna play.
Colorado forced Oregon State into dumb fouls, all of which incensed Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle a little more. Tinkle was animated and angry, and with good reason—the Buffs converted all 14 of their free-throw attempts in the first half. Booker baited Payton and forward Daniel Gomis into fouling him on three-point attempts. The second time that happened, Tinkle stomped and flailed and shouted, “How many times have we said to stay on the f-ing ground!?”
“It’s something that you learn over time, especially being a senior, you see other guys do it in the league,” Booker said. “It’s been done to me, so this past summer I practiced it a little bit, and I know coaches hate it because they tell their guards not to leave the ground.”
Oregon State, meanwhile, was unusually hot—the Beavers were the Pac-12’s worst offensive team in the regular season but Wednesday they shot nearly 50 percent from the field in the first half and made seven threes, one off of their season high. And, though Colorado undid Oregon State’s zone with its sharp passing, the Beavers had an ace up their sleeve—Payton, newly minted the conference’s defensive player of the year. Booker could do nothing against him—his only points the first half came when he was fouled one those threes. Booker didn’t make a field goal until he buried back-to-back threes 10 minutes into the second half. Still, despite Booker’s cold shooting night, despite Oregon State’s scorching half, the Buffs went into the break trailing only 40-38.
“I think give the credit to my teammates because I played like crap in the first half, but they kept the game close,” Booker said. “They played well. They scored the ball.”
It started to look like Colorado’s night on the first possession after the teams returned from the locker rooms—the Buffs turned it over, but Langston Morris-Walker missed an easy layup in transition and Payton couldn’t put home the uncontested offensive rebound. Then, of course, Oregon State swung things its way. Duvivier threw down a one-handed hammer on Josh Scott (Colorado’s bigs have a thing for getting dunked on this season), the Beaver faithful erupted, and Colorado looked to be in trouble.
Try as it might, though, Oregon State couldn’t put the Buffs away. They inched ever closer, then Booker, confronting the idea that he could be playing the last game of his college career, drilled his first three from the left wing. He did the same thing from the same spot the next time Colorado touched the ball. Everyone knew what would happen next—Booker took his heat-check shot, a pull-up from 25 feet. This one he bricked, but Thomas glided in from the baseline for the offensive rebound and put-back. Then Xavier Talton picked off Payton’s pass as he advanced the ball past half-court, and Booker was waiting in that familiar place, the left wing, for his third trey in minutes. That was when the night felt like it belonged to Colorado, and the Buffs never trailed again.
The squad that prides itself on defense and rebounding defended and rebounded as if its life depended on it, because it did. Colorado held Oregon State to 36 percent shooting in the second half and doubled the Beavers’ 11 boards. Then the Buffs exploded in transition, where Fletcher is developing into a dynamic attacker with a Eurostep that few can stop.
Colorado will need to be brilliant in transition against its next opponent, the second-seeded Oregon Ducks, who are led by Pac-12 Player of the Year Joseph Young. The Ducks have one of the conference’s most explosive offenses and they, like the Beavers, blew the Buffs out at home in their only matchup of the year.
“They cannot guard us inside,” Booker said. “Josh Scott should have his way down there almost every time. Also, Wesley Gordon. Xavier Johnson. We also have to push the ball in transition.”
Oregon is all there is now. The Ducks, and the grind. Booker has ground it out before. So has Boyle. They ground through four games in four days three years ago, when Booker was a freshman and a loss meant the end of his season, not the end of his career.
“I don’t want that feeling,” Booker said. “I don’t know what that feeling feels like. I’ve though about it but I try to stay positive with myself. I don’t wanna dwell on that feeling too much. When the time comes, the time comes, but it’s not right now because we have another game tomorrow.”
During the post-game press conference, Booker subtly held up one finger as his coach extolled that Colorado came to Vegas to win a single game, not four. So the Buffs survived one night. Now they keep grinding. One game at a time.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Tommy Wood at thomas.c.wood@colorado.edu
