On Thursday night, Colorado hosted No. 4 Oregon and defeated the Ducks, 74-65 in a game that featured consistent high-level defense. The Buffs held Oregon to a 35% make rate in the first half while the Ducks managed to hit just 17% of their shots from the three-point line.

Senior guard Shane Gatling, who guarded the Ducks' most potent long range threat, grad transfer guard Anthony Mathis, played a sizable role in the Buffs' win and strong defensive effort.

Gatling's defensive effort against Mathis, who entering the game against CU, had shot 50% (36-of-72) from deep, was improvised. He took notes in the film room, knew Mathis' strengths, and worked during the game to thwart them, even if doing so deviated from Tad Boyle's game plan.

Gatling had said that the team's philosophy when PG Payton Pritchard would drive to the net was to crowd him — that's how head coach Tad Boyle instructed the team to defend against Pritchard.

But Gatling took some liberties with that and essentially improvised in order to neutralize Mathis, who was often cherry picking in the corner waiting to be dished the ball for a three-pointer in the event Pritchard got stuck in traffic.

“Our defensive principle was to jump to the ball and be in gaps, but I kind of cheated our principles," Gatling said. "I would jump to the ball but I wouldn’t be as much help because I knew (Mathis) is a great three-point shooter. My mindset was not let him catch the ball and get open threes. When he was one or two passes away from the ball, I would try to deny him so he couldn’t get the ball or come off the screen. I wanted to make sure he didn’t get going.”

In other words, Gatling played a bit of a mental chess match in doing his best to be a few moves ahead of Mathis and Oregon players wanting to feed him the ball. Of course, doing so meant a cleaner lane for Pritchard, but the way Gatling saw it, that was a necessary evil.

“I would reduce my help if Pritchard was going to the basket — I’d rather give up the two than a three to a 50% (three-point) shooter (in Mathis)," Gatling said.

Adopting that game plan came as things progressed and time went on against Oregon. Eventually, Gatling made up his mind on how he wanted to keep Mathis at bay at told his teammates.

“During the game, I adjusted and was telling McKinley (Wright IV) ‘I’m not going to help as much, I’m watching Mathis on the corner. I don’t want him to get going, so if (Pritchard) drives, I’m not going to help,'" Gatling said. "I told him that and we were all on the same page. (My teammates) knew what I was trying to do, and it worked.”

When the clock read all zeroes at the end of the second half, Gatling had limited Mathis to just one converted three-pointer.

Right now, a look at the offensive stat sheet isn't telling the full story in terms of how Gatling has been performing as of late.

He's shooting 29% from the three-point line and just under 33% from the floor in general. Shots aren't falling for him and he certainly knows it.

Yet Gatling continues to do a lot of under appreciated things for Colorado. Specifically, he has 11 assists over his past four games and has been playing excellent defense.

“He’s been assisting the ball and his defense on (Oregon’s Anthony) Mathis was superb," Boyle said. "He’s locked on defensively. There’s a lot of different things you can do to help the team and Shane’s figured that out. We’d like him to start shooting the ball like he’s capable of, because he’s better than a 29% three-point shooter and we all know that. When he’s open, we want him shooting. But he has figured out how to help this team when you’re not scoring. Shane’s really done a good job of that the last few games.”

Going hand in hand with his stout defense as of late has been Gatling's ability to dish the ball to others. Since the Buffs defeated Prairie View A&M on Dec. 19, Gatling's 11 assists trail only Wright IV, who has accrued 26.

For perspective, in the prior 10 games of the season before Prairie View, Gatling had just three assists.

Against Oregon, gatling had a great feed to Lucas Siewert for a dunk in the first half and another to Tyler Bey in the second, also for a dunk. Versus Dayton, he had a season-high four assists and while he failed to score a basket, Boyle nonetheless praised his minutes, effort and contribution.

Part of the equation as to how Gatling's been able to rack up a healthy amount of assists as of late has been his awareness as to how opposing teams prepare for and attack him.

“Especially when I’m not shooting well, I try to make plays for others," he said. "Coach always says think about your teammates. I would assume, other teams’ scouting reports on me is that I like to shoot, so they (try to) run me off the line. So when they do that, I can help make plays for others.”

With Gatling a likely starter tomorrow afternoon against the visiting Oregon State Beavers, he'll look to keep up the good work in the assist and defensive departments, while paying special attention to the Bears' dynamic duo of Tres Tinkle and Ethan Thompson.

Hopefully coming with that will be an offensive spark akin to his 20 points scored against the Rams about a month ago, an effort that saved Colorado from a disastrous non-conference loss.

“This will be a pretty good game," he said. "(Oregon State) is a good team. We just want to get Thompson and Tinkle out of the game — reduce their touches and stop them from scoring. If we do that, we’ll be in good shape."