Oregon men's basketball sees win streak halted in home loss to Colorado

The win streak is over for Oregon, collateral damage in Colorado’s come-from-behind victory Tuesday night.

Despite a double-digit lead for most of the first half, the Ducks could neither stop the Buffaloes’ rally nor take advantage of late opportunities in what became an 82-78 loss in their Pac-12 men’s basketball game in front of an announced crowd of 6,176 at Matthew Knight Arena.

It was the first loss for Oregon (12-7, 5-3 Pac-12) since then-No. 1 Baylor beat it 78-70 at home on Dec. 18. Five of its wins since then were against Pac-12 opponents following an 0-2 start to conference play.

“Really disappointing,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “I thought we had put some things together but we got outworked tonight.”

Related: Click here for a box score from Tuesday's game against Colorado

Forward Quincy Guerrier had a season-high 22 points, point guard Will Richardson had 17 points and guard De’Vion Harmon scored 14 to pace the Ducks, who led 10-0 and then 20-5 as they opened the game making eight of their first 10 shots from the field.

But Colorado didn’t relent.

After cutting the Ducks’ lead to 42-37 by halftime, the Buffaloes took their first lead with 9:21 left on a 3-pointer by Evan Battey that made it 62-61 and started a 10-2 run for Colorado.

A layup by Jacob Young and a pair of free throws by Harmon brought the Ducks to within a basket of the lead, 69-67, with 5:44 to play but they never got any closer as they immediately followed with a four-minute stretch where they made just one field goal and committed four turnovers.

“It was a bad stretch,” Altman said. “I should’ve taken every time out I had there. Our ball movement was poor, our spacing was poor, it looked like we were out of gas.”

Colorado, meanwhile, was 2-for-3 from the field and 9-for-11 from the free-throw line in the last five minutes.

It was a still frenetic final 1:35 as three times the Ducks got within three points.

“We had out chances there,” Altman said. “We just had poor possessions.”

Despite making just one basket in the first 13 minutes of the game and opening 1-for-7 from the field, the Buffaloes finished shooting 50% from the field (27-for-54) and 53.3% from the 3-point line (8-for-15).

Jabari Walker had a double-double to lead Colorado as he scored 24 on 9-of-11 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds. Keeshawn Barthelemy also scored 19 and Tristan da Sliva had 15 points.

The Buffaloes outrebounded the Ducks 30-22 and scored 18 points off offensive boards.

It was the fewest rebounds in a game for Oregon since also getting 22 against Washington on Jan. 24, 2019 — a span of 97 games.

Guerrier led the Ducks with six rebounds and center N’Faly Dante had five, though reserves Eric Williams Jr. and Franck Kepnang had no rebounds in 20 and 15 minutes of playing time, respectively.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t run some things better, but if you give up 82 points at home, and you get beat eight on the boards and a team shoots 50% against you, you’re probably not going to win many games,” Altman said. “Offensively we could’ve done better things, no doubt, but 78 points at home should be enough to win.”

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.

Up next

Oregon vs. Oregon State

7 p.m. Saturday at Matthew Knight Arena. TV: ESPN2. Radio: KUJZ-FM (95.3)

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon men's basketball sees win streak halted in home loss to Colorado