Pac-12 basketball: No. 24 Colorado defeats Stanford; Oregon State tops No. 14 Oregon
A classic comeback by Colorado, a five-point play by Stanford, a valiant effort by the short-handed Cardinal and an historic start by the 24th-ranked Buffaloes.
All of that was overshadowed by the unity the teams showed after a scary scene in which Stanford leading scorer Oscar Da Silva slammed his head on the floor while trying to prevent a breakaway basket by 262-pound Colorado center Evan Battey.
“Being with another team like that in the middle of a game? I think it was pretty cool that the other team showed a lot of affection, a lot of emotion when Oscar went down,” Stanford’s Jaiden Delaire said.
Da Silva needed several stitches to close a deep cut above his left eye and missed the rest of the game, which Colorado won 81-74, storming back from a 16-point deficit in the third-largest second-half comeback in the Buffaloes’ history.
UCLA goes on a 14-0 second-half run en route to a 65-52 win at No. 23 Arizona — the Bruins’ third consecutive victory over the Wildcats in Tucson.
“Accidents happen in basketball,” said McKinley Wright IV, who led Colorado with 21 points. “I’ve known Evan for three years now, dude has the biggest heart of anybody I’ve ever met, including my family. I’ve never met someone with a heart like his, so he didn’t do it on purpose at all.
“It was emotional, because I looked back and was seeing Oscar’s head bleeding, his eyes starting to roll back, so I didn’t know what happened. I got down on my knee and said a prayer.“
At first it appeared Battey was also injured on the play, but the sophomore forward who had a stroke two years ago said he was just emotional.
“I wasn’t banged up at all,” Battey said. “The fact that I had my eyes closed running up, I think I elbowed him in the face. But I just saw his reaction, I saw the way he was landing, and I just broke down.”
After several minutes, Da Silva was helped to his feet and taken to get stitches, and a crying Battey comforted several of Da Silva’s teammates — and vice versa at midcout.
After leading by 13 in the first half and eight at halftime Saturday night, USC came undone down the stretch in Tempe, losing 66-64 to the Sun Devils.
Colorado coach Tad Boyle asked Wright to call both teams together in prayer, and Stanford coach Jerod Haase asked “for both teams to keep playing hard,“ Wright said.
“Our coach told both teams that Oscar was going to be OK, and he told both teams to compete as hard as they can and just finish up the game,“ Delaire said. “So he tried to make the other team not feel as bad and give us some encouraging words to continue the game.“
Former Indiana coach Bob Knight, 79, made an emotional return to Assembly Hall for the Hoosiers’ game against Purdue on Saturday.
After the huddle, Battey also left to get a medical evaluation but returned a few minutes later and played a big role in Colorado’s comeback.
“I had to go in the locker room for like five, 10 minutes, just kind of debrief,“ Battey said. “You could see as the game went on, I was still crying, shedding tears. When I made that three, I was shedding tears as well. It was an emotional game for me the whole way through. I don’t know what happened when I was in the locker room, I don’t know how we played after that, how Stanford played, but all I know is after that, I played for Oscar.“
Battey’s runner gave Colorado a 51-49 lead, and his fourth three-pointer of the season made it 56-54. The Buffs took the lead for good on Bey’s two free throws with 7:44 remaining that made it 58-56.
“We just knew we couldn’t afford this loss,“ Wright said.
D’Shawn Schwartz added 20 points for Colorado, and all of Tyler Bey’s 11 points and nine of his dozen rebounds came in the second half when the Buffaloes shot 70% from the field, 100% from behind the arc and 85% from the free-throw stripe.
Wendell Moore’s putback as time expired lifted No. 7 Duke to a 98-96 overtime win at North Carolina; No. 4 San Diego State prevailed at Air Force.
That followed an awful first half in which the Buffs shot 28% from the field, 23% from three-point range and 54% from the line.
At 19-5 overall and atop the Pac-12 Conference at 8-3, the Buffaloes are off to the best start in their history, topping the 1954-55 and 1968-69 squads that started out 18-6.
Stanford (16-7, 5-5), which led 39-23 early in the second half, got 18 points from Tyrell Terry, 14 from Spencer Jones 14 and 12 from Isaac White.
at Oregon State 63, No. 14 Oregon 53: Zach Reichle hit a key three-pointer down the stretch, and the Beavers (14-9, 4-7) overcame a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat the Ducks (18-6, 7-4) in Corvallis, Ore.
It was the third consecutive win for Oregon State in the 353rd edition of the Civil War, which is the most contested rivalry in college basketball.
The Beavers hit six consecutive free throws in the final minute to seal the win.
Ethan Thompson, whose dunk with three seconds left punctuated the victory before a sellout crowd at Gill Coliseum, led Oregon State with 15 points. Kylor Kelley added 14 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, and leading scorer Tres Tinkle had 13 points.
Payton Pritchard paced Oregon with 16 points, but the Pac-12’s leading scorer was just seven for 21 from the field.
at Utah 60, California 45: Timmy Allen scored 21 points to help the Utes (14-9, 5-6) defeat the Golden Bears (10-13, 4-6) in Salt Lake City.
Eight players scored to help Utah earn its second consecutive Pac-12 victory. The Utes also beat the Bears for the third straight time in the series.
Matt Bradley scored 13 points and collected seven rebounds to lead California. The Bears are winless in seven true road games this season.
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