Tad Boyle upset as Colorado gives up lead to Oregon late in 1st half of Pac-12 Championship Game

Going into the halftime down, 33-30, in the Pac-12 Tournament Championship Game, Colorado head coach Tad Boyle was a bit miffed with his team. After leading by as many as nine in the first half, his squad had let Oregon back into the game over the final 10 minutes of the half.

Oregon finished the first half on a 14-4 run to take the lead in the final 5:09, as Colorado went cold. Boyle lamented the lack of focus and patience from his team in the latter part of the first half.

“We gotta guard,” Boyle said to Fox Sports’ Allison Williams. “We gotta have some patience on offense. We’re trying to score off of one pass, dribble the ball too much. We just get the ball moving, we’ll get any shot we want. But we’re so impatient on offense and defensively we’ve let them get loose.”

Things changed for Oregon when head coach Dana Altman opted to put star big man N’Faly Dante back in the game with two fouls with about 10 minutes left in the first half. Dante managed to avoid picking up a third foul and finished the half with nine points. Oregon guard Jackson Shelstad also added nine points in the first half.

Colorado opened as a slight favorite over the Ducks

FanDuel spread: Colorado -2.5 points
FanDuel money line: Colorado (-138), Oregon (+115)
FanDuel over/under: 143.5 points

Colorado gets the slight nod from FanDuel as just over two-point favorites to end the Ducks’ mini-cinderella run in the Pac-12 tourney. Meanwhile, the over-under is a little bit up there at 143.5 with the teams needing to average roughly 72 points to hit that over.

Final score predictions

KenPom final score: 76-72 Colorado
KenPom win probability: Colorado 65%

KenPom is also riding with Tad Boyle’s group in this game, but not by much, as they still assign Oregon a 35% chance of pulling yet another upset to steal a bid and make the big dance. Obviously, the entire bubble will be watching this one and pulling desperately for the Buffaloes, who are already safely in the field.

BPI prediction: Colorado by 2.9 points
BPI win probability: Colorado 61.7%
BPI matchup quality: 85.6 (7th best of the day)

The BPI is in line with FanDuel and KenPom with predicting a slight Colorado victory. However, ESPN’s numbers have Oregon slightly closer to the Buffs than the other two as less than three-point underdogs while also possessing a nearly 40% chance to win the ballgame outright.