The University of Colorado men’s basketball team was able to get revenge and keep their Pac-12 tournament dreams alive after beating Oregon State on Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas, 74-68.
The Buffs had played the Beavers on Saturday for Colorado’s last home game, losing 58-64.
CU head coach Tad Boyle says that the team was looking to get the win after OSU beat them at home.
“Having them come into our building and beat us on senior day got our guy’s attention,” Boyle said. “We’ve got respect for Oregon State. You put their record aside and look at their players; they have great players.”
The win takes the Buffs into the second round, where they will face No. 4 seeded Arizona. Sophomore guard Spencer Dinwiddie says he is just taking it game by game and trying not to look at the whole picture.
“We came here with one goal in mind and that was to beat OSU and survive and advance,” Dwinddie said. “We did that first step and we are just going to try to move forward form here.”
Boyle says that is what their team tries to do, focus on the next game first.
“We don’t talk about winning four games in four days,” Boyle said. “It is not on our minds.”
[nggallery id=167]
It was not the Buffs’ best offensive game, as they shot only 43.8 percent from outside the three point line and 39.3 percent inside. Sometimes you are going to have off games, Boyle said.
“Sometimes in tournament basketball, you got to win ugly and today, offensively, we did not have our best game,” Boyle said. “But our program is defense and rebounding, [because of] games like this.”
The Buffs struggled and were outrebounded last Saturday in their loss against the Beavers, but were able to out-rebound OSU Wednesday 43-30, with junior forward Andre Roberson back in the lineup. Boyle says it felt good to see him back on the court.
“It was not his best outing, but we are certainly a better team with him than without him,” Boyle said. “It is good to have him back.”
The first half went back and forth, but the Buffs took a lead and closed out the half 32-26 after a buzzer beater from Dinwiddie.
“That half-court three at the buzzer is the reason why we won the game,” C-Unit fan Mike Ryan said. “We had the momentum.”
The Beavers stuck with them throughout the second half. And with three minutes left in the second half, Oregon State started to foul just to keep them in the game. Dinwiddie was able to make his free throws, and close the game for the Buffs.
“The game got kind of close, so we did not do a good of a job as we could have,” Dinwiddie said. “But like coach said, we had just enough to survive tight basketball.”
C-Unit fan Liam Enright says that he was nervous the whole game but he knew his Buffs would pull out the win in the end.
“They made me hold my breath the whole way, but in the end, I knew they could do it,” Enright said.
Boyle was pleased that the team hung on and pulled out the win against the Beavers.
“To get this win against a talented team and be able to live for another day and play Arizona, we are excited about that,” Boyle said.
The Buffs will face No. 4 Arizona on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Las Vegas.
Contact CU Independent Sports editor Jillian Arja at Jillian.Arja@colorado.edu.
