Spencer Dinwiddie's Perfect Night Propels Colorado to Win Over Oregon State

In college basketball, or at any other level of basketball for that matter, it’s not often that you see a starting player have a perfect shooting night. There are plenty of factors that prevent said feat from happening but when it does happen it immediately provides a major boost for that player’s team.

That was the case Sunday evening for Colorado and guard Spencer Dinwiddie as they went into Corvallis and earned a tough 72-68 win over Oregon State.

Dinwiddie had one of the best games of his career, even while sitting out the majority of the first half due to foul trouble. The sophomore finished the night with 24 points after a perfect shooting performance from every area of the court. He was 6-6 from the field, 4-4 from beyond-the-arc and 8-8 at the free throw line, including four clutch FT’s in the final minute to salt the Colorado win away. The rest of Dinwiddie’s stat line was not half bad either as he finished with three rebounds, four assists and a steal.

Dinwiddie’s perfect night overshadowed freshman Josh Scott’s big 17 point, four rebound and two block game. A lot of Scott’s points came during the stretch while Dinwiddie was sidelined with the two early fouls. His performance paced Colorado in the first half, and it kept them within striking distance as Oregon State’s Ahmad Starks exploded for 17 points in the opening frame, including four three-pointers.

After dropping a tough road game to Utah last week the Buffs bounced back nicely with a huge sweep of the Oregon schools this weekend. For a really young team that’s dominated with underclassmen, the sweep in Oregon should really boost their confidence as they finish out their Pac 12 schedule.

As of Sunday night, Colorado sits in a four way tie for fifth place in the conference at 6-5. That fact makes this upcoming week’s games even more important to win, not that they weren’t big games already. Arizona comes into town on Thursday and it’s being dubbed the Valentine’s Day Massacre in light of their previous meeting, which if you remember had a very controversial finish.

The game against Arizona will most likely see the rowdiest home crowd of the season for Colorado but getting the job done on the road first was big for the Buffs. Spencer Dinwiddie had a major hand in their win over Oregon State and they’ll need a similar performance from him this coming week as they welcome the Arizona schools to Boulder.

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David LaRose is a College Basketball writers for Rant Sports covering the Pac 12 and the University of Colorado. He’s also a member of the USBWA. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Facebook page.