EUGENE, Ore. -- What are the chances that the Buffs will get to make another NIT run at the Coors Events Center?

"I like our chances to win the Pac-12 Tournament," athletic director Mike Bohn said after watching Colorado's 90-81 loss to Oregon on Thursday night at Matthew Knight Arena.

Bohn put in a request for CU to host games in NIT before Tad Boyle's team slipped to fifth-place in the Pac-12.

The Ducks (21-8, 12-5) moved into a tie for third place with Arizona (21-9, 12-5) with one game remaining in the regular season.

The top four teams will receive a first-round bye at next week's conference tournament in Los Angeles.

"We want to win this league," Boyle said after the Buffs were officially eliminated from contention for the regular-season title. "Right now we're in fifth place, so there's a lot of room for improvement."

The Buffs (19-10, 11-6) -- who committed a season-low five turnovers in the impressive 70-57 win over Cal on Sunday -- allowed Oregon to score 27 points off of 15 turnovers.

The Ducks have won 10 of their last 13 games. One of those losses was on Feb. 4 when Nate Tomlinson's free throw with one second left was the difference in CU's 72-71 win on Feb. 4 in Boulder.

Oregon shot 61.5 percent in the second half while outscoring CU 54-40.

"We broke down guarding the ball," Boyle said. "That's what cost us the game."

Oregon scored seven of its first 10 points in the second half at the free-throw line and went on a 12-0 run to seize a 56-47 lead with 13:06 to play.

Devoe Joseph, scored 13 of his game-high 24 points down the stretch. He finished 11-for-16 from the field.

"That seems to be the trend of the year. When everybody plays Colorado they make every shot they can," Carlon Brown said. "Same thing with Stanford, same thing with UCLA, it seems to be the trend.

"Give them credit. They made shots when they needed to make shots. Their best player stepped up when he needed to step up."

CU led 47-44 after a basket by Austin Dufault, who eclipsed 1,000 points for his career.

But the Buffs did not make another field goal for the next 7:20. Oregon took its largest lead, 71-57, with 7:33 to go.

"Our team is playing good basketball right now," Ducks head coach Dana Altman noted.

Brown played his best offensive game in a month and helped slice into the deficit with an old-fashioned three-point play.

Spencer Dinwiddie brought CU to within 80-76 in the final minute with two tough layups in the paint.

But the 6-foot-5 freshman guard missed a couple of 3-pointers that could have made things even more interesting.

"We got a turnover and we missed a 3. That was the turning point," Boyle said. "We needed that one extra shot to go in."

Oregon closed the game out by making all 10 of its free-throw attempts in the final 60 seconds.

Brown finished with 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting. Dinwiddie had 12 points and Andre Roberson added 12 points and eight rebounds.

The Buffs led 41-36 at halftime after shooting a season-best 63 percent (17-for-27) from the field and getting 10 points from the bench.

Shane Harris-Tunks knocked down all three shots he took, including a basket with one second left to give CU the five-point cushion at the intermission.

Three turnovers by the visitors in the first three minutes of the game allowed Oregon to score nine unanswered points.

The Buffs regrouped and led 17-15 after a dunk by Jeremy Adams.

Jeremy Jacob gave the Ducks a 23-22 lead with 7:18 remaining in the first half, but CU answered with a 10-0 run that included 3-pointers by Dufault and Tomlinson.

Oregon, which hosts Utah on Saturday, clinched a top-four seed because it owns the tiebreaker on CU. The Buffs have to beat Oregon State on Saturday to lock up the No. 5 seed.

"Every loss is disappointing and that just adds extra disappointment to it," Harris-Tunks said of missing out on a bye at the staples Center. "The benefit of them getting the four and us getting the five is we'd have to play again probably."

The No. 4 seed will play the No. 5/12 winner next Thursday at the Pac-12 Tournament.

"Anything can happen next week," Brown said. "That's why it's called March."

Oregon 90, Colorado 81

COLORADO

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Robrsn 34 5-8 2-3 2-8 2 1 12

Dfault 20 4-6 0-0 2-3 0 4 9

Tmlnsn 32 4-8 0-0 0-0 3 4 11

Dwde 34 2-7 8-9 0-2 2 2 12

Brown 35 8-11 3-3 1-5 3 2 20

Bookr 21 3-9 3-4 1-1 2 1 9

H-Tnks 12 3-3 0-0 2-2 1 0 6

Chen 4 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

Adams 8 1-2 0-0 0-1 0 3 2

Totals 200 30-55 16-19 8-25 13 17 81

Percentages: FG .545, FT .842.

3-Point Goals: 5-17, .294 (Tomlinson 3-6, Dufault 1-1, Brown 1-2, Chen 0-1, Roberson 0-1, Booker 0-2, Dinwiddie 0-4).

Team Rebounds: 2.

Blocked Shots: 6 (Roberson 3, Booker, Brown, Chen).

Turnovers: 15 (Tomlinson 5, Roberson 3, Booker 2, Harris-Tunks, Dinwiddie, Dufault, Brown, Chen).

Steals: 7 (Tomlinson 2, Dinwiddie 2, Booker 2, Dufault).

Technical Fouls: None.

OREGON

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Jacob 16 4-6 1-3 2-5 0 1 9

Singler 36 2-6 6-6 2-4 2 1 10

Woods 14 2-5 0-2 1-2 0 0 4

Sim 39 6-10 2-2 1-3 2 1 19

Joseph 36 11-16 0-1 1-5 5 1 24

Ashaolu 11 1-3 0-2 0-2 0 4 2

Loyd 5 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 2

Nared 16 0-2 6-6 3-5 1 3 6

Emory 27 4-7 5-5 1-2 1 4 14

Totals 200 31-57 20-27 11-29 12 15 90

Percentages: FG .544, FT .741.

3-Point Goals: 8-14, .571 (Sim 5-7, Joseph 2-4, Emory 1-2, Singler 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 1.

Blocked Shots: 2 (Nared, Ashaolu).

Turnovers: 11 (Jacob 3, Emory 3, Singler 2, Sim, Ashaolu, Joseph).

Steals: 12 (Singler 3, Joseph 2, Woods 2, Sim 2, Nared 2, Emory).

Technical Fouls: None.

Colorado 41 40--81

Oregon 36 54--90

A -- 10,056.

Officials -- Michael Irving, Bobby McRoy, Gregory Nixon.