Written by Yaniv Horenstein. Audio Story by Leo Schulhof.

EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon men’s basketball took on Colorado in a Thursday
night showdown at Matthew Knight Arena. The Ducks entered the match-up with a 19-10 record, after suffering a loss on the road against No. 6 Arizona. The Buffaloes entered at 20-9, with hopes of making the March Madness tournament for the second time in eight seasons.

Colorado faced Oregon without their star forward and projected 2024 NBA lottery pick, Cody Williams. In the previous match-up of these two teams in Boulder in mid-January, Williams scored 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting. Oregon also remains shorthanded, dealing with the same injuries they’ve had all season to key players like Nate Bittle, Keeshawn Barthelemy, and Mookie Cook.

Oregon opened the first half playing aggressive on both sides of the ball. They
got off to an extremely hot start, building a lead of 12, but it quickly disappeared when Colorado began hitting their shots. The Buffaloes closed the half on a roll, shooting 61% from the field in the first half. Colorado dominated Oregon in the paint, out-rebounding the Ducks 17-to-11, and outscoring them 30-to-20 in the paint. Their rebounding was surprisingly led by 6-foot-6-inch guard, J’Vonne Hadley, who reeled in eight boards before the break.

Despite Colorado’s strong finish to the half, Oregon continued to fight, and went into halftime tied with the Buffaloes at 37. Oregon’s success can be attributed to their defense, headlined by the aggressive play of N’Faly Dante who had two steals and two blocks. As a team, Oregon forced Colorado to commit eight turnovers, but were only able to score five points off their opponent’s mistakes.

Oregon’s first half scoring was led by Dante and Jackson Shelstad. Shelstad
went into halftime with 16 points on seven-of-ten from the field, to go along with three assists. Dante added ten points on perfect field goal shooting, while also grabbing six boards and two assists of his own.

The second half began as a tight battle between both teams, with neither building a very big lead. Both teams remained aggressive, but Oregon had some detrimental defensive breakdowns that led to easy buckets for Colorado. Despite their second-half shortcomings, the Ducks finished the game with nine steals and seven blocks, thanks to Dante, who closed the game with a massive five blocks and three steals.

The last ten minutes of the game were as dramatic as it gets. First, the crowd at Matthew Knight Arena got very loud after a few beautiful baskets from Shelstad, a couple nasty blocks by Dante, and some questionable calls by the referees. Shortly after, the Ducks went through a scoring drought that lasted around four minutes, and Colorado capitalized by building their largest lead of the night of nine points with roughly three minutes to go.

Oregon did not stop fighting. The Ducks, led by Dante, Shelstad, and Jermaine Couisnard carried the team all the way to a one-point game. Unfortunately, when the Ducks played defense, the refs were quick to blow their whistles, giving the Buffaloes 11 free-throw attempts in the second half. With the Ducks trailing by three with five seconds remaining, Couisnard missed a deep shot behind the arc for the tie. Colorado won the close game, 79-75.

The Buffaloes second half scoring was led by the previously mentioned Hadley, who caught fire from deep and began the second half with four straight threes. He finished the game with 20 points and 12 rebounds. The Buffaloes overall scoring was led by Tristan da Silva who had 22 points on 9-of-17 from the field.

Oregon’s scoring was led by Jackson Shelstad, who finished with a career-high, 23 points, on an efficient 10-of-15 shooting. He also added a team-high six assists and three three-pointers. Jermaine Couisnard contributed 17 points, 14 of which came in the second half. Lastly, N’Faly Dante put up a monster performance of 20 points on 100% shooting from the field (10/10), 12 rebounds, and four assists.

Oregon’s hopes of making the March Madness tournament get slimmer with
each loss, as the Ducks fall to 19-11 on the season. Fortunately, an opportunity still exists through winning the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas. Until then, the Ducks have two more regular season games, with the Utah Utes up next at MKA on Saturday.