Written and Audio Stories by Austin Ota

The Oregon Men’s basketball team took on the Colorado Buffaloes in a matchup of two teams that began the night with a 12-6 record. Colorado, who were coming off of the two Los Angeles programs that Oregon famously beat on the road, was looking to rebound from those performances and cool down the hot Oregon Ducks. In the end, Colorado came back from their early deficit and won by a final score of 82-78.

At the beginning, Oregon was rocking with the energy that came in Matthew Knight Arena, as the Pit Crew have rewarded their Ducks with two consecutive massive audiences. De’Vion Harmon started the scoring for the Ducks, pulling up and swishing the three over his taller defender. Following this, triples by Will Richardson and Quincy Guerrier sandwiched an N’Faly Dante dunk and Jacob Young floater. Within the first 3:12 of the game, all of Oregon’s starters had points, which has been extremely key to their win streak of late. With 14:22 left in the half, Oregon gained what would be their biggest lead of the half, as Guerrier, who led the team with 12 first half points, converted the and-one after he floated for a right handed layup. However, Colorado seemed to put a lid on Oregon’s basket following that, and with two separate three minute stretches without scoring, the halftime lead sat at just five, 42-37. 

The end of the first half would foreshadow the Ducks struggles in the second. In particular, Jacob Young struggled, as he had five of his six steals in the second half but also went just 3-9 from the field, missed both of his threes, and, after the Ducks brought it within three points with 28 seconds left, Young made arguably the biggest mistake of the night. He stole the ball away off of the inbound, and instead of letting the offense reset, Young took an ill-advised fifteen foot jumper that hit off front iron and stalled any momentum the Ducks may have had. From then, it was a game of free throws, and though Harmon hit a very deep three, Evan Battey’s free throw with four seconds to go all but ended it for Oregon.

Following the tough loss, Oregon will take on in-state arch-rivals Oregon State on Saturday night in Eugene.

Audio Story

Postgame Audio

Dana Altman