At the top of the arc, Oregon guard Jermaine Couisnard squatted, one hand covering his pained face and the other on the ground.
Five days after putting up 39 points against Arizona, it was once again the senior’s game to decide. This time, though, it wasn’t to be. Seconds earlier, his deep 3-point effort, which would’ve tied the game, fell short. Oregon (19-11, 11-8 Pac-12) dropped its penultimate Pac-12 matchup, 79-75, to the Colorado Buffaloes (21-9, 12-7 Pac-12), and heads into Senior Night looking to break a two-game losing streak before the Pac-12 Tournament.
Missing freshman forward Cody Williams — a projected top-10 pick in this summer’s NBA Draft — and guard Julian Hammond, the Buffs would rely on guard K.J. Simpson to drive their offense. The junior averaged 19.9 points per game prior to Colorado’s trip to Eugene, and finished Thursday night’s matchup with 17 points on 7-17 shooting. Meanwhile, two of his teammates — J’Vonne Hadley and Tristan da Silva — broke 20 points.
Jackson Shelstad’s confidence was on display early, as he pulled up for the 3-point shot in transition and then grabbed a rebound that became a lay-in on back-to-back possessions. He’d finish with 23 points, but it wouldn’t just be the freshman who influenced the game. A broken possession, caused by an N’Faly Dante trip, somehow became an Oregon basket. The Ducks opened up a 11-0 run — courtesy of those baskets and four-consecutive Buffs misses — and looked fully in control.
Save Jadrian Tracey, Oregon’s starters stayed on the floor for seven minutes, in hopes of opening up that lead. Faced with long possessions, it was down to the Ducks’ passers to navigate their way through a stout herd of Buffaloes. A Shelstad jumper-turned-assist dissected Colorado’s defense, and it seemed like everything was going Oregon’s way. Particularly successful was Oregon’s interior defense: multiple times, it forced a turnover as a Buffs’ player looked to lay it in, and by the time Tracey and Mahamadou Diawara entered, the score was 18-8 to the Ducks.
With those starters off the floor, though, Oregon began to weaken. Colorado began to make its chances — orchestrated by Simpson — and it was a one-point game barely two minutes later. The easy shots looked all-of-a-sudden painfully difficult, and it was the Buffs’ mistakes rather than Oregon’s successes that were keeping the Ducks in the lead. With half the period gone, Colorado had eight turnovers, and yet still hung with the home team.
The second half, whilst punctuated by moments — a Dante alley-oop amongst them — was defined by wasted possessions and an inability to grab rebounds (Oregon finished with just 24 while Colorado grabbed 36). The two teams stayed within a possession of each other for the vast majority of the period, and Oregon couldn’t take advantage of a dry spell to begin the half: Colorado was 1-8 from the field, but the Ducks couldn’t advance more than two points ahead of their opponents.
“In one (or) two possession games, every one counts,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “Those are things that we can use to get a break down the stretch.”
Any time that Oregon looked to build its advantage — a Dante dunk and swat on consecutive possessions gave it a brief lead — preventable mistakes held it back. A tiring defensive possession finally ended, only for a foul to restart the shot clock and turn zero points into three. “A lot of the [3-point shots] were our mistakes,” Altman said. “I’m so disappointed. We had our opportunity.”
The same could be said for Colorado, though. A shot-clock violation without an attempt hoisted saw a minutes-long Buffs advantage looked endangered. But the Ducks couldn’t benefit, and the Buffs rebuilt a five-point lead heading into the final four minutes. The drought had arrived at the worst time for Oregon — and it lasted over three minutes before Couisnard (17 points) severed it with a bucket. Out of the media timeout, Oregon drew within four, and then fell away again. An emphatic Dante dunk — his third of the game — cut the lead to three, then two.
The mistakes came again, though. A hotly contested foul on Shelstad left Simpson shooting a one-and-one. He made both.
“Oh my God! We made so many defensive mistakes!” Altman said, his frustration palpable postgame.
As the Buffs’ lead wavered, Oregon battled to make a stand at home. Colorado drove down the court and laid it up with 15 seconds to play, but it was rejected by a flying Dante, who finished with 20 points on perfect 10-10 shooting and 12 rebounds.
“I hate it for Dante,” Altman said. “He played so hard and played so well…they push on him all night. It’s embarrassing.”
Faced with a three-point deficit and eight seconds, Couisnard saw his 3-point shot hit the rim. Posed on the floor where his shot failed to fall as the Buffs scored the final points, the senior waited. As the buzzer sounded without an effort from the home side, he exited quietly, as did his team, stunned by a loss it couldn’t afford to take
Oregon Center N'Faly Dante #1 (right) and Forward Kwame Evans Jr. #10 (left) fight for a rebound with Colorado Center Eddie Lampkin Jr. #44 (center.) The University of Oregon Ducks Men's Basketball team was defeated by the University of Colorado Buffaloes 79-75 in a home game at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore., on March 7, 2024. (Eric Becker/Emerald)
