Oregon’s three-game winning streak came to an end on Sunday when Colorado upended the Ducks 76-66 at the Coors Event Center in Boulder.
Ruthy Hebard paced the Ducks with 24 points, Sabrina Ionescu had 16 points and Mallory McGwire finished with 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Colorado had its largest lead, 22 points, with 5:01 left in the first. Though the Ducks closed the game on a 14-2 run, they deficit proved to be too large late in the game.
The Ducks are now 18-10, 8-8 Pac-12 after a weekend split.
“They earned it tonight,” head coach Kelly Graves said in his postgame radio appearance. “I think our kids wanted to win but they just wanted it more. They played like it. They played with that kind of intensity. We knew what we were getting into. We weren’t ambushed or anything tonight.”
Colorado opened the game with a 25-8 lead after the first quarter. Both teams were even in the second quarter, 17-17. Colorado, which forced 11 Oregon turnovers, shot 50 percent from the field in the first half while Oregon shot 39.1 percent.
“Really just kind of disappointed in the effort defensively,” Graves said. “Especially when it counted, early on in the game — when the game was for all and intents and purposes, won and lost.”
After halftime, Hebard powered the Ducks back into the game, helping Oregon trim the Colorado lead to 12 points with six seconds left in the third. She scored 16 of the Ducks’ 23 third-quarter points.
“She was a warrior tonight,” Graves said of Hebard. “She worked her butt off. She did. Unfortunately we just didn’t have enough people with that same kind of intensity or enthusiasm.”
Colorado opened the fourth quarter on a 5-0 run before Morgan Yaeger hit a 3-pointer. The Buffs again pieced together a run, 6-0, for a 22-point lead with 5:01 left.
“I thought we tried to get back into this thing and we just couldn’t make enough stops,” Graves said. “I though offensively we were better in the second half but defensively we couldn’t make enough stops.”
The Ducks outrebounded the Buffs 34-29. Colorado’s Kennedy Leonard had a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists. Haley Smith paced the Buffs in scoring with 23 points.
Oregon returns home for its final homestand of the regular season against California and Stanford next weekend. The Ducks will honor their two seniors on Sunday.
“Going into the final weekend here, we can certainly get two,” Graves said. “We need to get one, in my opinion.”
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne