Pac-12 roundup: No. 16 Oregon rolls past Colorado

Oregon is off to its best start in conference play in 14 seasons, but the toughest person to sell on the No. 16 Ducks being the Pac-12’s best team might be their own coach.

“If we had some better depth and we knew how to handle some possessions, I’d give them a little more credit,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said, “but with the balance in our league, it’s hard to get full of yourself.”

The Ducks were anything but that Thursday night as Elgin Cook scored 18 points and Chris Boucher had 12 rebounds and blocked six shots to lead them to a 76-56 win over Colorado at Eugene.

Tyler Dorsey added 13 points and Dwayne Benjamin had 11 for the Ducks, who won their their fifth straight and 21st consecutive home game for the second-longest streak in school history.

Josh Scott led the Buffaloes with 17 points, and George King had 16 and eight rebounds. Colorado had a 42-38 advantage on the boards.

Oregon had given up a season-high 91 points in a four-point road loss to Colorado last month. This time the Buffaloes didn’t hit double digits as a team until 12 1/2 minutes had been played.

Benjamin said the difference for the Ducks this time wasn’t a matter of talent.

“It’s all effort,” he said. “You’ve just got to work harder than the next man. We try to play like a team on defense, so it’s not really just one man. I think that’s the biggest deal with us.”

Boucher, the nation’s leading shot blocker at 3.3 per game, played a huge role in that regard before exiting late the game with an injury to his lower left leg. It was his 11th game that he had at least four blocks.

“I think he’s going to be all right,” Altman said. “It’s just a little bit of a tweak hopefully. He’s become such an important part of our team, and even though his offense was a little bit off (with seven points), he just changed the game.”

Oregon led by as many as 23 points late in the game and finished with a 21-4 edge in points off turnovers, with Colorado committing 14.

“The kinds of turnovers we had, they were just lazy passing, bad footwork, just ridiculous turnovers,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “This time of the year, I know we’re not going to have zero. You cut those numbers in half, and you’re right in the ballgame.”

The Ducks also held the Buffaloes, the conference leaders in 3-point accuracy at 41.2 percent, to 8 of 24 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc.

Colorado got within 10 at 50-40 midway through the second half, but Oregon answered with a 7-0 run and pulled away.

USC 77, UCLA 61: Julian Jacobs scored 17 points and the Trojans led all the way to beat the Bruins in Los Angeles for their 14th consecutive home victory that moved them into a tie for second in the Pac-12.

Elijah Stewart added 16 points and Katin Reinhardt had 13 for the Trojans, who tied idle Washington in the standings. They equaled the second-longest home winning streak in school history and are off to their best start since 1991-92 when they were 18-4.

Aaron Holiday led UCLA with 15 points before fouling out in the closing seconds. Tony Parker added 13 points and Thomas Welsh had 12 rebounds for the Bruins, who have lost three of their last four. They shot a season-low 35 percent.

Oregon State 71, Utah 69: Gary Payton II had 20 points, seven assists and six rebounds as the Beavers made a furious second-half rally and defeated the Utes at Corvallis, Oregon.

The Beavers trailed 69-68 when Stephen Thompson Jr. was fouled on a last-second half-court shot. He made all three free throws.

Thompson scored 13 points for the Beavers. Jakob Poeltl had 20 points and nine rebounds and Kyle Kuzma added 17 points for the Runnin’ Utes, who had a five-game winning streak snapped.