Xavier Johnson had a career-high 22 points, Spencer Dinwiddie added 17, and Colorado beat No. 19 Oregon, 76-53, on Thursday night in Boulder, Colo., completing a season sweep and thwarting the Ducks’ bid to gain a share of the Pacific-12 Conference title.
The Buffaloes (20-9 overall, 10-7 Pac-12) played without the nation’s leading rebounder, Andre Roberson, who sat out with a viral illness. Gone with the athletic junior forward were 11.5 rebounds and 10.8 points a game.
Arsalan Kazemi, Jonathan Loyd and Ben Carter each had 10 points for Oregon (23-7, 12-5), which fell into a first-place tie with UCLA. The Ducks hold the tiebreaker after beating the Bruins in their only meeting in January. Oregon can wrap up a share of its first league crown since 2002 — along with the No. 1 seed for the Pac-12 tournament — with a win at Utah on Saturday.
Little-used backups Xavier Talton and Jeremy Adams played big minutes as they helped pick up the slack in Roberson’s absence. Adams’ thunderous dunk early in the second half gave the Buffs a 52-29 lead and brought the fans in the capacity crowd to their feet. So loud were the fans that Oregon players went on playing right through an official’s whistle for a timeout.
From there, the Buffs cruised to reach the 20-win mark for the seventh time in school history, including three straight seasons under coach Tad Boyle.
The Ducks couldn’t find any sort of offensive rhythm, shooting 37.5 percent from the floor and 41 percent from the free throw line.
At Utah 72, Oregon State 61: Jordan Loveridge scored 17 points and had 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season to help the Utes (12-17, 4-13) run away from the Beavers (13-17, 3-14), who committed 15 turnovers.
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
Washington State 48, Arizona State 41: In Seattle, Lia Galdeira scored 17 points, and the eighth-seeded Cougars (11-19) beat the ninth-seeded Sun Devils (13-18) without coach June Daugherty, who had surgery Thursday night for acute appendicitis. WSU now plays No. 1 seed and fourth-ranked Stanford today.
The school said Daugherty was expected to be discharged this morning.
USC 64, Oregon State 57: Cassie Harberts had 16 points and 14 rebounds to lead the seventh-seeded Trojans (11-19) past the 10th-seeded Beavers (10-21). USC, which advanced to the quarterfinals against Pac-12 co-champion California, was 35 of 46 from the free-throw line while Oregon State was 7 of 12.
Utah 66, Arizona 48: Michelle Plouffe had 24 points and nine rebounds to help the Utes (18-12) beat the Wildcats (12-18). Sixth-seeded Utah meets No. 14 UCLA, the third seed, in the quarterfinals today. Davellyn White scored 23 points — 17 in the first half — and also had eight rebounds to lead ASU.
At Washington 69, Oregon 62: Jazmine Davis scored 28 points, Federal Way’s Talia Walton added 19 points, and Aminah Williams had 17 rebounds to go with her 11 points as the Huskies (20-10) overcame a 39-28 halftime deficit to defeat the Ducks (4-27) at KeyArena.
The Huskies will face No. 18 Colorado (24-5) in the quarterfinals at 8:30 tonight.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.