Colorado crushes No. 25 Oregon

Buffaloes complete season sweep of Ducks

By The Sports Xchange
 UPDATED 3:41 AM HST Mar 08, 2013
basketball on court

iStock / 33ft

Freshman forward Xavier Johnson scored a career-high 22 points on Thursday night as the host Colorado Buffaloes rolled to an easy 76-53 win that prevented the No. 25 Oregon Ducks from clinching the Pac-12 regular-season title.

Spencer Dinwiddie added 17 points for Colorado (20-9, 10-7 Pac-12), which has won 20 games in three straight seasons for the first time in school history. The Buffaloes cruised despite being without national rebounding leader Andre Roberson, sidelined with what school officials described as a viral illness.

Arsalan Kazemi, Johnathan Loyd and Ben Carter all scored 10 points apiece to pace the Ducks (23-7, 12-5), who are tied for first place with UCLA. Oregon will win the crown Saturday if it defeats Utah no matter how the Bruins fare that day.

Colorado pulled away early and led 20-6 on Johnson's free throw with 9:19 left in the first half. The Ducks went 7 1/2 minutes between field goals and later pulled within 27-18 on Damyean Dotson's basket with 5:07 left in the half before the Buffaloes closed with a 10-3 burst for a 37-21 halftime lead.

The onslaught continued in the second half and the lead reached 52-29 on a dunk by Jeremy Adams with 13:25 to go. Colorado's advantage topped out at 25 points.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Roberson's upcoming status is unclear and there are published reports saying he contracted mononucleosis. … Oregon's Waverly Austin was handed a flagrant 1 foul for delivering a low blow to Colorado's Shane Harris-Tunks with 12:31 remaining. … Johnson hit all seven of his field-goal attempts, including three 3-pointers.

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