Colorado dominates Oregon State, moves to 12-0 at home: ‘This altitude is no joke’

When opponents come to the CU Events Center, they physically feel it.

The altitude is no joke, and neither is the Colorado men’s basketball team at home.

“Towards the end of the first half, you’ll hear guys talking about ‘this altitude is no joke,’ so the second half, it really starts to kick in,” Colorado star freshman Cody Williams said. “We’re a team that likes to get up and down the floor, so as the game goes on, I definitely see we start to get more transition layups, transition buckets, and I think the altitude is really something that just wears down teams.

“I think we really do have a great advantage with this altitude.”

Colorado (14-5, 3-3 Pac-12) used its home-court advantage Saturday to improve to 12-0 this season at the CU Events Center for the first time in more than 50 years. The dominant, 90-57 win over Oregon State (9-9, 1-6 Pac-12) was the Buffaloes’ third consecutive win, and it’s their best home start since the 1968-69 season.

Whether it was the altitude or Colorado’s smothering defense, the Beavers shot just 33% from the field (20-for-60), went just 3-for-17 (18%) from 3-point range and turned the ball over 10 times.

The Buffaloes shot 52% from the field (32-for-61) and had six players reach double-digit points, but 19 assists to just eight turnovers as a team was Colorado coach Tad Boyle’s favorite stat of the night, he said postgame.

“Very few teams have five or six guys that can get double figures any night. We’re one of them, and that makes us difficult, I think, to prepare for,” Boyle said. “That’s what I want our players to understand: it’s going to be someone else’s night on different nights, and you have to understand that, but you can still chip in and be a part of it.”

Tristan da Silva scored a game-high 19 points on 6-for-10 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and four assists. Eddie Lampkin Jr. had a near double-double, scoring 17 points and grabbing eight rebounds, while Williams chipped in 16 points and six rebounds.

Luke O’Brien, who started in place of J’Vonne Hadley (out with a knee injury), had 10 points, as did freshman Assane Diop. It was a career high in both points and minutes (16) for Diop, a good sign for a young player who will be counted on down the stretch of the season.

“Number one, I’m so happy for him because you see day to day how hard Assane works,” Boyle said. “You see how selfless that he is — he’s all about the team, he’s not about himself and he just works his tail off. His growth has come incrementally in practice. This is the first time he’s really experienced it in a game.

“I’ve said this, Assane Diop and Bangot Dak are both going to be really good players in this program, and I think you saw just a glimpse of that from Assane tonight.”

Colorado led by as many as 37 points and never trailed Oregon State, which suffered its fifth straight loss.

The Buffaloes will be back on the road next week for matchups with Washington (11-7, 3-4 Pac-12) and Washington State (13-6, 4-4 Pac-12), two teams they have already beat this season.

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