Oregon had never won in Boulder.
Entering Thursday’s game, the Ducks had won seven of their last eight games, their only loss in that stretch to Colorado. They were able to get their revenge, sailing to a 66-51 win as Jacob Young led the way with 21 points.
“Every series is different,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We’ve struggled against these guys, but I don’t get too high after a win. I don’t get too low after a loss… Next thing we’re thinking about is we’ve gotta go get Utah.”
In a close back and forth game, the Ducks started to pull away halfway through the second half. Shortly after slowly taking their largest lead of the game (6), Will Richerdson dished the ball to Eric Williams who banged a 3-pointer, putting the Ducks up by 11.
As the Buffalos called a timeout, the Oregon bench erupted. Ducks center Franck Kepnang yelled and waved his arms as he walked on the court to celebrate the Ducks double digit lead.
The Ducks continued the momentum for the rest of the game as they rolled to a 15-point victory, getting revenge on their loss from a week ago.
After a tight first half, the Ducks’ ran a zone, helping them pull away from the Buffalos. Oregon sprang ahead, forcing 13 second half turnovers going on a 21-8 run to end the game, winning their first game ever in Boulder.
The first half started with a fast pace, with both teams scoring efficiently as Oregon took a quick 11-7 lead three and a half minutes into the contest.
Throughout the first half, the teams went back and forth with 10 lead changes and four ties in the first 20 minutes.
Towards the end of the half, Oregon slowed down, as its shooting started to regress. The Ducks went into the locker room shooting 13-34 (38%) from the field.
As the team started to get cold, Young was a bright spot, scoring 16 of his points in the first half on 6-of-9 from the field.
Despite Colorado shooting much better at 48%, the Ducks fortunately ended the first half up 36-35. With the Buffaloes’ Keeshawn Barthelemy scoring 16 in the first half, the Ducks were able to eliminate him from the game as Barthelemy was held to no points in the second half.
“We said he wasn’t getting anything anymore,” Young said. “We just got into him and wanted to shake him up a little bit and battle, we got him exactly where we wanted him.”
In the second frame, Oregon’s defense caused the Buffs’ shooting to slow down as they forced 13 turnovers.
“Our activity was better (in the second half), we found the post, our weak side was really active, our ball pressure was good,” Altman said. “Our activity in the second half I thought really gave us a big boost.”
As the Ducks’ offense began to take stride, they took their largest lead of the game with 11 minutes remaining, 51-43.
A minute later, Eric Williams Jr. nailed a 3-point jumper to bolster the Ducks’ lead to 11. The bench erupted as Colorado called a timeout.
The Ducks never slowed down after this, rolling to a 15 point win as fans headed towards the parking lot with time still on the clock.
Oregon will look to continue its hot stretch on Saturday when they face Utah at 5:30 p.m. PST in Salt Lake City.
