Xpelled: Johnson's ejection hurts Buffs on the road

CURTAIN OF RECAPTION – The Colorado Buffaloes fell to 0-2 in Pac-12 play with a 78-77 loss in Tempe to the Arizona State Sun Devils. Not even a monster game from Derrick White could inspire CU to beat an underwhelming ASU squad.

Johnson and White were on fire in the first half finishing with a combined 23 points in the period. Outside of those two the rest of the squad was only able to muster up 13 points. This gave the Devils a 41-36 halftime lead, behind a strong team effort.

However, a donnybrook broke out with 1:27 left in the first which expelled both Johnson and ASU’s Jethro Tshisumpa. While it appeared that Tshisumpa was at fault the refs didn’t see it that way and it resulted in a major hit to CU’s odds at a conference road win.

With Johnson gone the Buffs lacked a second option but that didn’t hold White back in the second half. The fifth-year senior kept command for the Buffs and kept it close. CU even came back to take a 56-55 lead on a White three-pointer with just over 10 minutes to play, but they’d never lead by more than a bucket.

The Buffs and Sun Devils traded leads around 60, then 70 and finally 80. The ball ended up in White’s hands who had already manufactured 33 to that point, needing a basket trailing by one with less than 30 seconds left, he hit an off-balance layup to give the Buffs a 77-76 lead and give himself 35. ASU got the last shot, the Buffs got the stop—but they fouled on the rebound. ASU hit the front and back ends of the one-and-one. Colorado couldn’t hit the heave, and in the game that featured 17 lead changes and 10 ties Arizona State ended atop after 40 minutes.

The ejection of Johnson makes one wonder what the result would’ve been if he was able to stay in the game. The Buffs never found a secondary scoring option to White, as everyone else on the Buffs combined for just 15 in the second frame.

Colorado continues a stretch of five-of-seven on the road against Arizona on Saturday, the game tips off at 7:30.