Contact CU Independent Men’s Basketball Beat Writer Alissa Noe at alissa.noe@colorado.edu and follow her on Twitter @crazysportgirl1.
At the end of a road trip to Oregon in week 13, the University of Colorado Buffaloes found themselves on the wrong end of a sweep as they fell to Oregon State 60-56 on Saturday after battling back from a deficit.
At the beginning of the week, Colorado had been competing for the top spot in the Pac-12 conference. But after this disastrous road stretch, it now sits solidly at fifth place.
Despite the final score, the most unsettling factor of the game came with a minute left in the first half when senior forward Josh Scott rolled an ankle after planting his foot awkwardly and sat out for the remainder of the game. He scored only one point.
Oregon State led by as much as 13 late in the first half but after the Beavers amassed an 11-point lead by halftime, Colorado found a second-half spark in junior guard-forward Tre’Shaun Fletcher, who scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds in the second half alone.
Fletcher may have led all scorers, but junior forward Wes Gordon led all Colorado players in overall effort as he recorded his eighth career double-double and third of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
In the end, however, the loss could be attributed to Colorado’s absolute lack of taking care of the ball as they finished with a season-high 24 rebounds to eight total assists.
For the game, the Buffs shot 37.7 percent (20-53) while sinking just 29.4 percent of their threes (5-17). The Beavers, on the other hand, 35.3 percent (18-51) and made six of 19 triple attempts (31.6 percent). Oregon State senior guard Gary Payton II led all scorers with 17 points.
Both teams got off to an incredibly slow start, as no player scored until more than two minutes on the game clock had expired. The Buffs were able to get on the board first thanks to an early layup from Gordon, and after that, they were able to control the pace of the game as they held the lead for the first nine minutes.
After a series of unfortunate turnovers and slightly slacked defense, the Buffs couldn’t regain a first-half lead from the moment they relinquished it. On top of a large Oregon State lead near the end of the first — which climbed to 13 with a minute left before the break — things went from bad to worse when Josh Scott limped back to the locker rooms.
By the midway-point buzzer, Oregon State led 30-19.
Throughout the first 20 minutes of play, Colorado’s offense only managed to muster 30.8 percent shooting from the field (8-26) with 14.3 percent from long range (1-7). Worse than that, though, was its ball-handling, as the Buffs finished with 13 turnovers in the first half alone. To put that number into perspective, they’re averaging 13.4 per game.
On the other side of the ball, the Beavers shot 35.5 percent from the field (11-31) and 26.7 percent from deep (4-15). They only managed to commit four turnovers, but Payton put on a clinic against the visiting team with 12 points early on.
Once play resumed in the second half, senior guard Xavier Talton sparked a Colorado 8-0 run after two consecutive three-pointers to pull within three with 18 minutes left, 30-27. When the clock hit 9:55, the Buffs regained the lead after a nice steal from Tre’Shaun Fletcher, a behind-the-back pass from Thomas Akyazili and a subsequent three from Fletch, 38-36.
From there on out, it was a good ol’ game of back and forth.
And, just as one would expect at this stage of the conference play season, this game went way down to the wire. As with many close games for Colorado this year, the Buffaloes just couldn’t get it done. They eventually fell 60-56.
The Buffaloes return to their home court on Thursday, Feb. 11 to play the Washington State Cougars at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
