Wright, who almost had a triple-double in Colorado’s win over ASU on Wednesday, had eight points, five assists and four rebounds in 22 minutes before departing.
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Colorado moves on to face No. 15 Arizona in the quarterfinals. Updates with Arizona’s opponent.
OR briefly had the lead early in the second half, then went cold.
Colorado’s game plan was clear at T-Mobile Arena, take Ayton out of the game and make everyone else beat it.
Colorado’s first-round magic in the Pac-12 tournament remains strong under coach Tad Boyle.
Thursday’s game is scheduled to tip off at 9:30 p.m. MT and will be televised on FS1.
Utah (19-11) was in control well into the second half of a foul-filled game behind its shooting. “Hopefully we are a little better than we were”.
Both teams shot poorly from outside, the Huskies missing 15 of 21 threes and Oregon State 17 of 22.
Wednesdays loss marks the ninth straight year WSU has failed to advance past the first day of the Pac-12/10 tourney, dropping the Cougars to 0-7 in Las Vegas and 0-4 under Kent.
Dallas Walton started the burst with a bucket inside, D’Shawn Schwartz had a pair of 3-pointers and Wright had a bucket, four assists and a steal as Colorado took command of a game that had been back and forth to that point. Despite finishing with just 8 points, Troy Brown pulled down an important 11 rebounds. Oregon State will face two seed Southern California in the Pac-12 quarterfinals on Thursday.
“I thought our ball screen defense was good”, Miller said. Weve beaten teams with the zone defense, we have beaten teams with the 1-3-1 trapping defense. We had a lot of players working together. “When we didn’t execute anything, we looked really bad”. Colorado dropped to 17-5.
With the Buffaloes up nine in the final seconds and the shot clock about to expire, McKinley Wright connected with Tyler Bey for a needless alley-oop dunk.
Mathews had 10 points for the Trojans while Thompson had seven for the Beavers. I think all that we have been through, as hard as we fought the last few weeks, it kind of all caught up to us.
What It Means: The Ducks won at least one conference tournament game for the 12th time in 15 appearances, and now look to reach the semifinals for the fourth year in a row.
Miller’s job appeared to be in jeopardy late in the season, when an ESPN report alleged he was caught on an Federal Bureau of Investigation wiretap discussing a $100,000 payment to lure Ayton to the school. When the Trojans lost to UCLA in their regular-season finale last Saturday, they had six days off beforehand, seemingly giving their legs all the rest that was needed.
WSU left a potent OR offense anguished in the first half, holding the Ducks to just 17 points on 7-of-24 shooting from the field.
After Sean Miller timeout Arizona responded with a 13-2 run midway through the half that put the Wildcats up by as much as eight.
In the first half, Arizona took a 35-33 lead over the Buffs after Trier scored 12 points.
When Oregon State and Washington went to overtime in the first game of the evening session, the Ducks and Cougars were pushed back to a 9 p.m. start. He had to be helped off the court and didn’t return.
On December 30, Arizona State was 12-0 and sitting at No. 3 on the country. “So, great for Colorado that they shot that well today from three”. Almost half of his rebounds were on the offensive glass. “I feel like we are good now”.
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Colorado could end up in a smaller postseason tournament.
