Turnovers and paint struggles doom Colorado against Oregon

BOULDER — Colorado held Oregon to 60 points on Saturday but couldn’t overcome a sloppy offensive performance.

“Our inability to pass and catch and come meet passes was pathetic by some veteran players,” head coach Tad Boyle said after the game. “It’s not like we’ve got a bunch of freshmen out there.”

Passes flew wide of some targets and off the hands of others and by the end of the game Colorado’s 17 turnovers far exceeded the 11-or-less goal that Boyle had set.

And the turnovers were far from the only problem the Buffs encountered on Thursday

“When the three balls not going, we talked about getting post touches for our bigs inside which we did tonight,” Boyle said. “We got post touches to our bigs. We weren’t able to finish the post touches, but we got post touches. Then the other thing we’ve got to be able to do is get the ball to the rim. And that’s something we really struggled with tonight.”

Colorado was outscored 36-22 in the paint.

“Look at our two starting bigs. I mean, they were rushing it for whatever reason,” Boyle said. “(Oregon’s) not an exceptionally big, shot-blocking team. I thought we got sped up all night long. They were just rushing the ball, Dallas (Walton) and Evan (Battey) and all of our guys. Tristan (da Silva) got in there. You can’t let Oregon speed you up.”

Battey, in particular, struggled against Oregon. He missed all five of his shots and turned the ball over four time.

“Sometimes he’s had trouble finishing this year against certain teams. Tonight was one of those nights but he’s also had games where he’s been a great finisher for us,” Boyle said. “I just thought tonight Evan got a little bit sped up and made some questionable decisions with the basketball as many of our guys did. I mean, he’s not the only one but yeah, it wasn’t Evan’s best night.”

Even though Battey, and plenty of others, struggled, Boyle isn’t worried about the Buffs going forward.

“But again, Evan Battey, I believe in him. I believe in every one of our guys,” Boyle said. “I believe in Dallas Walton. I believe in Tristan da Silva. I believe in all the all the guys. Maddox Daniels is one of the best shooters that we’ve coached but he just didn’t have it tonight. I believe in Jeriah Horne. I believe in Keeshawn Barthelemy. I mean, the belief that I have in this team is unwavering. And it was it was confirmed tonight even though we didn’t win the game tonight. And I thought we can take some good things out of it. We’re never going to be satisfied with a loss, that’s for damn sure. But we’ve got to regroup and come out with that kind of fight.”

With three more games on the schedule and Stanford breathing down their backs in the conference standings, Colorado’s back is up against the wall.

“It’s a must when times three,” D’Shawn Schwartz said. “At this point of the year is, we remember what happened last year, and we gotta make sure that doesn’t happen again. We can do that starting on Saturday if we come out with that same energy effort. We got to play 40 minutes like we did in our first (game against Oregon State) we can pull it out.”