Free throws cost Buffs in battle with Rams

BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes disappointed tonight. After four games of sparse crowds, Coors Event Center finally had the basketball atmosphere that makes “The Keg” so special. Unfortunately for the fans, the Buffaloes basketball team didn’t look as good as the crowd and fell to the Colorado State Rams 72-58.

“Zero positives to take away tonight,” head coach Tad Boyle said after the game. “Absolutely zero positives. Except for our crowd.”

It took a little while for everyone to get going. The Buffs were missing a lot of their shots early including their first three three-point attempts. The fourth attempt was courtesy of Derrick White and that three would prove to get the Buffs and the CU fans going. But the Colorado State Rams weren’t going anywhere.

The Rams seemed to have a good gameplan going in as the Buffaloes were unable to create good looks throughout the first half. The Buffaloes we’re able to stretch their lead to six points at around midway point in the first half but directly after that the Rams would turn the tide. Behind Emmanuel Omogbo’s nine points before the break the Rams had the lead at halftime 30-27.

The difference in the first half was the free throws. CU was an abysmal 3-for-9 from the stripe while CSU was able to go 9-for-9. White was 2-for-2 from the three-point line and accumulated himself 11 points in the half.

The rest of the game would be more of the same. Neither team would be able to find much of a rhythm on offense maybe due to all the foul calls slowing the game down quite a bit. Had this not been a rivalry game, it was the type of game to find some fans asleep in the stands.

Colorado was unable to get their offensive going at any point in the game. During the second half, they shot 8-for-34 from the field including 1-for-12 from downtown. That kind of offensive performance in the second half will never win a basketball game, especially if they can’t shut the visitors down on the other end of the floor.

“Nobody is going to give you anything in division one basketball. We earned the loss, and Colorado State deserved to win.” Boyle said.

Free throws were the story of the game as Colorado State continued to sink their shots at the free throw line and Buffs continued to struggle at the stripe. CU finished the game 17-for-31 from the line while the Rams were 26-for-33 and at one point in the game were 17-for-17.

CSU’s sophomore guard J.D. Paige would drain a three ball to put his team up 60-51 with three minutes left in the game and that would be the dagger into the heart of the Buffaloes.

White led the team in scoring with 17 points on 5-for-15 shooting. Wesley Gordon was right behind him with 11 points and also added nine rebounds.

“We lost to a team we should’ve beat and if we don’t come out to play that’s going to happen every night,” Gordon said.

The Buffs will look to rebound on Saturday with a game against Portland and then have the No. 7 Xavier Musketeers coming to Boulder next Wednesday.

PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Nico Carvacho
14 points (5-for-7), 9 rebounds and 2 assists

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME:

Three-pointer from J.D. Paige with three minutes left in the game

BY THE NUMBERS:

Colorado-Colorado State
FG : 32.2%-38.5%
3FG : 15.8%-40.0%
FT : 54.8%-78.8%
Turnovers: 14-10
Rebounds: 46-37

Highlights:

Tough loss to CSU today…Buffs will be back in action Saturday night at 8 p.m. as they travel to Oregon to take on Portland #GoBuffs pic.twitter.com/sq1MXRscKs

— Colorado Basketball (@CUBuffsMBB) December 1, 2016