3 takeaways from Colorado’s 60-58 loss to Washington

BOULDER — Just like that, the win over Oregon is erased.

The Colorado Buffaloes fell 60-58 to the Washington Huskies late Friday night in Seattle. The loss drops CU to 13-7 overall and 5-5 in conference play. It was Colorado’s third loss in four games and second loss to an unranked opponent this season. Washington now sits in sixth place in the Pac-12 with a 5-3 record.

Here’s what we learned:

The Buffs can’t finish the comeback

Somehow, Jabari Walker had a shot at the buzzer to send the game to overtime. Keeshawn Barthelemy dribbled around the perimeter for awhile, before dishing the rock to Walker in the post. He tried a couple of moves but couldn’t get a good look. The shot missed.

But that shot shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

Colorado trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half. CU’s win probability, according to ESPN’s FPI, was as low as 1.4%. The 19-3 run that Colorado gave up should have ended the game.

To CU’s credit, it pulled off a 20-8 run of its own down the stretch and came close to extending the game. Elijah Parquet and Julian Hammond knocked down key 3-pointers. Hammond also nailed both free throws on a one-and-one to pull within two points.

The story of the game isn’t the comeback, though. The story is the mistakes that left CU facing a massive deficit after leading at the half. The Buffs shot 1-for-10 from the field in the first 10 minutes of the second half. They turned the ball over 17 times.

Colorado has climbed back into games after facing huge deficits in three consecutive games, and pulled off the comeback once. While it’s good to know that CU isn’t out of the game until the clock hits triple zeros, the Buffs can’t expect much success the rest of the way if they’re alway trying to claw their way back into games.

Jabari can’t keep it up

Jabari Walker was coming off one of the best performances of his career.

In Colorado’s upset win over Oregon, Walker made nine of his 11 shots on his way to 24 points and his ninth double-double of the season. He didn’t miss a shot for the final 30+ minutes of the game. He was unguardable. He was stellar.

On Friday, Walker struggled. He took 15 shots and only made four of them.

In fairness, offense was a struggle for all of the Buffaloes. The team combined to shoot 34% from the field and Walker was the only Buff in double-figures.

But Colorado needs Walker to be their offensive centerpiece, and he’s filled that role fairly well more often than not. But his struggles against Washington are a big part of the reason that CU couldn’t pull off another road win.

Tristan is absent

It’s been a rough week of injuries for CU.

First, Eli Parquet missed the homestead against the L.A. teams with a lower-leg injury.

Then we learned that Lawson Lovering will likely miss the rest of the season with a torn meniscus.

And on Friday, starting forward Tristan da Silva was absent because of a non-covid illness.

Da Silva should be back quickly, but the Buffs could have used his scoring touch during the sustained droughts that occurred at various points in the game. Hopefully he will be good to go when the Buffs take the court Sunday against Washington State.

And if not, we could be seeing more Will Loughlin minutes.