COLORADO SPRINGS – Not even a rocky takeoff could detour the Colorado Buffaloes from defeating their Rocky Mountain rival Air Force. Eventually, the Buffs found their wings and brought the Falcons down from deep, splashing 10 threes in a 75-68 victory.
It was far from soaring and autopilot for Colorado as they once again looked to be going through the motions for a large portion of the contest. Early turnover problems, late free throw struggles and an inability to rebound plagued the Buffaloes in what was possibly a lucky road win.
“It’s always something, it’s always something with this team,” Tad Boyle spouted in a crowded hallway inside Clune Arena. “Look it was a good win, we found a way, we missed six free throws down-the-stretch, I felt like we should’ve been up 15 at the half but we weren’t because we turned the ball over. But we found a way to win. I’m really disappointed in the rebounding, three out of the last four games we have been out-rebounded, that’s not Colorado basketball, that’s not what we are about. We gotta fix that because guess what? We are going to play bigger more athletic teams than Air Force, ha. We gutted it out, we did enough to win the game, and we made enough plays. 12 turnovers in the first half against a zone, woohoo, that’s hard to deal with.”
Following a lackluster performance against division-II Fort Hayes State the Buffs came out and failed to dictate the game again. Letting the Falcons take an early lead whilst turning the ball over almost once a minute in the early going. It wasn’t until the startling realization from Wes Gordon, that he is indeed bigger than everyone else on the court, that the Buffs offense would look competent.
Even though their battle with butterfingers was a losing one, they eventually found a pace. But it was Colorado’s defense that started holding the home Falcons to just 29% shooting in the first half. While clearly, CU was more talented and athletic on each end of the ball they still lacked an overall edge to their game in the first half.
Following the break the Falcons shooters awoke, going on a 7-0 run within the first four minutes of the break to take a 33-32 lead. Zach Kocur took off for Air Force leading their vic scoring eight points in the first five minutes of the second.
But finally, the Buffaloes would answer with an 8-0 run, highlighted by a Derrick White three-point play that gave Colorado a five-point lead. It wouldn’t last and at the next media timeout, it remained a one-possession game.
The Falcons changed course and returned fire, deadlocking the battle at even. The upper-hand would be had by each team and was traded four times, tied four times.
“Just making the easy play and not trying to force things,” Dom Collier entailed why the Buffs finally got going in the second half, but failed to break away. “Making the easy play and I felt like we did that in the second half more but our defense went to shit, we can’t have that we have to put together a full effort.”
Deleon Brown sparked another Buffs attack with his own three-point play. White followed that up with a three ball of his own and the Buffs held a six-point lead at the under eight timeout. CU would slowly keep extending via triples, getting back-to-back jumpers from Xavier Johnson and Brown, which pushed the visitors’ lead to eight. A few minutes later saw Collier hit his third three of the game which gave the Buffs their first double-digit lead of the night at 11.
“We wanted to play inside out against that zone,” Boyle described. “We wanted to get the ball in the post. We didn’t do a very good job of getting the ball inside… Air Force is trying to make us beat them from three, we have some good shooters… and I thought we took good shots but we need to have better ball movement and make better decisions.”
Poor free throw shooting let the Falcons back into the game but ultimately the lead the Buffs built would be insurmountable as CU weathered the storm and cruised to victory.
“This team right now, it’s late December, not mid-December, we haven’t played to our capabilities yet, part of that is encouraging part of that is like what the hell are we waiting for. You can look at it two ways I guess. All I do as a coach is try to get these guys to play hard, play smart and play together, sometimes playing together and playing hard we’re doing but the playing smart tonight didn’t happen. We did not play smart tonight, down-the-stretch and in the first half, we have to play better.”
Notable
It was Collier’s first game since he hobbled off with a broken foot in the second game of the season.
“We needed Dom, played him a few minutes more than we expected him to but we love having him back out there.”
Bryce Peters did not play tonight as Boyle cut down his rotation.
Next
The Buffs host Eastern Washington at the Coors Events Center on Thursday in what is their last non-conference game.
