Colorado won a "separation game" on Monday. Can the Buffs win another against Stanford?

BOULDER — When Colorado took a 40-27 lead into halftime Monday night against Oregon State, head coach Tad Boyle knew he had to keep his foot on the gas.

Colorado had blown 15-point leads in back-to-back games prior to Monday.

First, Utah used a 31-9 run in the final eight minutes to eek out a three-point win over Colorado last Thursday.

Then on Saturday, Colorado got off to a hot start against Arizona, eventually building a 19-2 lead. By halftime the lead was only nine, and with ten minutes left in the game the Wildcats had taken their first lead since 2-0. Colorado battled back and won, but the trend of blown leads was concerning nonetheless.

On Monday, Boyle’s Buffs didn’t allow a comeback, in part because of an emphasis on winning each four-minute stretch between TV timeouts in the second half.

“At every media timeout we kept saying we want to win this next four,” Boyle said after the game. “We had one stretch there, I think from the 16 to the 12, where we were minus two, and then we challenged our guys and they responded.”

Senior forward Jeriah Horne led the way for Colorado with a game-high 16 points. The last time he was chosen to speak with the media after the game was after the Utah loss, when he said the team had to focus on finishing games and that there would be an emphasis on that in practice.

On Monday, he was proud of the progress.

“I feel like tonight that was our main focus going to halftime, and just making sure that we did all we could to keep that lead and extend it,” he said.

Horne was also proud of freshman forward Tristan da Silva, who scored 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field, while playing 20 minutes in a single game for the first time in his career.

“Tristan has definitely stepped up,” Horne said. “He continues to work hard each and every day in practice. He’s always trying to learn. I do my best to talk to him and make sure that he’s caught up to speed. But the performance that he had tonight, it doesn’t surprise me. It was an honor to see his confidence really start to grow. You know he’s going to be a really really good player in this conference.”

With Jabari Walker, another freshman forward, still sidelined da Silva figures to play a significant role at least through this weekend. Thursday will be a big game for da Silva, as he’s taking on his brother Oscar da Silva, Stanford’s star forward.

The first time the brothers faced off was last month, when the Buffs got the better of the Cardinal in Boulder and Tristan da Silva contributed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer — the second of his career — to give Colorado a 14-point lead at half.

Round two will be another big moment for the da Silva family.

“They loved the first game,” Tristan da Silva said. “They were watching that back home. It’s just awesome, all the feedback you get from back home, from family and friends. And I really look forward to that next game. It was awesome seeing my brother again, playing against him. So, I’m really looking forward to flying over there.”

And the game isn’t just a big one for da Silva.

With only seven games left on the schedule (and the potential for a postponed home game against Arizona State to be made up) the Buffs need every win they can get, especially against teams like Oregon State and Stanford that are trying to overtake the Buffs in the standings.

Boyle called Monday’s game a “separation game” and he said that Thursday would be another.

“(Oregon State) had five losses in league play. We’ve got four,” Boyle said Monday. “So if we don’t win tonight, we both have five and we’re falling back in the Pac. They’ve got six, we still have four and we’re gonna be facing the same thing on Thursday against Stanford.”

Now, the Buffs are 9-4, with only USC and UCLA (both sitting at 9-2) in front of them in the standings.

Stanford, at 8-5, is hot on the Buffs’ heels and looking for a couple of statement wins down the stretch to get back into the NCAA Tournament picture.

“February is kind of a separation month,” Boyle said. “You either play yourself into the top half or to the middle or to the bottom half, and we want to be in that top half and we want to compete for a championship. For us to do that, we have to win on Thursday.”

McKinley Wright IV and Evan Battey are still “banged up,” according to Boyle, so they may need to rely on production from depth players, like da Silva, to complete the season sweep over the Cardinal. There’s at least one reason to think it can happen.

“When you score 78 points and you shoot 55% from the field and Evan and McKinley combined for 7 points, you got some firepower,” Boyle said.

Everything worked out for Colorado as they beat Oregon State by 29 points, but can Colorado replicate the effort?

“It was a good team victory and you wish they could all be like that, but that’s not the case,” Boyle said. “It sure won’t be that way on Thursday night in Palo Alto.”