Colorado
20-6,9-4Pac-12
Oregon State
15-10,5-8Pac-12
Buffs Roll Past Beavers For Big Road Win To Stay Atop Pac-12
February 15, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
CORVALLIS, Ore. — This time around, the Colorado Buffaloes took care of business down the stretch against Oregon State.
The Buffaloes built a nine-point by the half, expanded it to 20 with under eight minutes to play and then protected the cushion in crunch time Saturday to collect a 69-47 win at Gill Coliseum.
The Buffs improved to 20-6 overall and 9-4 in Pac-12 play and guaranteed themselves of at least a share of the conference lead heading into next week. The Beavers fell to 15-10, 5-8.
The victory also gave the Buffs their 11th 20-win season in program history, with CU coach Tad Boyle now owning seven of them in his 10 years in Boulder.
In their first meeting this year, the Buffs allowed the Beavers to come back from an 11-point deficit with under eight minutes to play to collect a win. In Saturday's second meeting, Colorado dominated the Beavers on their home court — especially in the second half.
Junior Tyler Bey bounced back from a season-low four points against Oregon to produce a dominant 21-point, 15-rebound double-double, his 10th of the season and 29th of his career. Junior McKinley Wright IV added his fifth double-double of the season (10th career) with 13 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and no turnovers.
Ethan Thompson led OSU with 17 points while Beavers leading scorer Tres Tinkle had just 10.
The Buffs finished with just eight turnovers in the game (they had 15 in the first meeting), matching their Pac-12 low this season, while also holding OSU to just 33.3 percent shooting (19-for-57), including a 1-for-17 night from 3-point range.
Colorado shot 22-for-54 in the game and held a 45-35 edge on the boards and a 22-6 edge in bench points. The win was CU's second-largest margin of victory on the road in its Pac-12 history, surpassed only by a 74-50 win at USC in 2012.
Coming on the heels of Thursday's loss at Oregon, it was CU's fifth win after a loss this year, with those wins coming by an average of more than 21 points per game. The Buffs have lost two in a row just once this season, in late December to Kansas and Northern Iowa.
"They're a resilient group, they're a confident group," Boyle said. "Before we took the floor, our two words — we wanted to have our confidence and energy … When your two best players play like that, you have a chance to win. That's why this team can be so good. We've got a couple guys that can lead us like that. But we have other guys that are weapons and we had that as well tonight."
HOW IT HAPPENED: After taking a nine-point lead at the half, 31-22 — thanks to an 8-1 run and then six straight points from Bey — the Buffs made sure not to let history repeat itself and allow the Beavers back in the game.
Instead, Colorado used a 12-2 surge midway through the second half to put the game away. Maddox Daniels and Wright had 3-pointers and Eli Parquet wrapped up the run with a dunk off an assist from Wright to give Colorado a 53-34 edge with 9:23 to play. CU pushed the margin to 20 two minutes later on a Parquet 3-pointer and the Buffs never let the Beavers back in the game after that.
The Buffs were stellar on defense all night long, limiting Tinkle to just 10 points on 3-for-15 shooting. The Buffs switched up their defensive game plan, putting the 6-foot Wright on the 6-7 Tinkle, and CU's point guard harassed and hounded Tinkle all night long.
Meanwhile, they used 6-7 D'Shawn Schwartz on Thompson. While the Beavers guard did finish with 17 points, he needed 7-for-17 shooting, including an 0-for-5 night from 3-point range.
Then, when the Buffs hit some foul trouble, they slapped what Boyle calls "the four-letter word" on the Beavers.
"The second half we had foul trouble with our big men and they started spreading us out and just driving it, so we thought the zone (defense) would help," Boyle said. "The plan was we're going to stay in the zone until they score. It worked so well we just stayed with it. It made them use clock on offense."
Indeed, the Beavers never mounted anything resembling a comeback in the second half. The Buffs kept the pressure on from both ends of the floor, and OSU's 47 points ended up being the fewest by a Pac-12 opponent on the road since a 64-47 CU win at Washington five seasons ago.
"Oregon State's a good team," Boyle said. "They're not chump change by any means. They beat Oregon, they beat Arizona, they beat us on the road. We had tremendous respect for them."
Colorado started slowly, hitting just one of its first seven field goal tries, and trailed 6-4 just more than five minutes in.
But the Buffs then picked up the pace, using an 8-1 run to take a 12-7 lead midway through the half, getting 3-pointers from Wright and Lucas Siewert. Four minutes later, Bey scored six straight points for Colorado to give CU an 18-12 lead with 7:45 to go in the half.
The Beavers managed to shave the lead back to four, 26-22, but Colorado scored the last five points of the half to take a 31-22 lead into intermission. Bey finished the first half with 10 points and six rebounds, Shane Gatling had eight points on 3-for-3 shooting and Wright had six points, four rebounds and a pair of assists.
TURNING POINT: Late in the first half, OSU pulled to within four, but the Buffs answered with the final nine points of the half. The Beavers never came closer than nine again, and Colorado put it away early in the second half with a 12-2 run.
WHAT IT MEANS: The victory keeps the Buffs in at least a tie for the conference lead — depending on the Oregon-Utah game Sunday. But the Buffs now play three of their final five on the road.
CU STANDOUTS: Junior Tyler Bey had a dominant 21-point, 15-rebound double-double, his 10th of the season and 29th of his career ... Junior McKinley Wright IV added his fifth double-double of the season (10th career) with 13 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and no turnovers … Shane Gatling had eight points, two assists and no turnovers … Evan Battey had five points and six rebounds.
KEY STATISTICS: The Buffs limited OSU to just 33.3 percent shooting (19-for-57), including 1-for-17 from 3-point range … CU also had a 45-35 edge on the boards … The Buffs shot 45 percent from 3-point range 9-for-20.
QUOTEWORTHY: "Two really good teams coming up. USC is as talented as a team as there is in our league and UCLA beat us in Westwood. We have to make amends for that, but we have to figure out how to beat SC on Thursday. I told our team to feel good about where you are, but in no way feel satisfied because there's a lot ahead for this team." — CU coach Tad Boyle
UP NEXT:Â The Buffs return to Boulder next week for their final two home games of the year when they host USC on Thursday (7 p.m.) and UCLA on Saturday (2 p.m.).
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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