Colorado head coach Tad Boyle loses it following a call during the first half of play at Arena Auditorium. (Nigel Amstock/CU Independent)
Dec. 10, 1996: the last time Colorado basketball won at Wyoming. After Saturday night, the Laramie curse seemed doomed to continue. Not only did the Buffs fall in their first road game of the season 56-33, but they also scored the least amount of points ever in a Tad Boyle coached game.
Earlier this week, head coach Tad Boyle mentioned playing against Wyoming was similar to going to the dentist. On Saturday night, the Cowboys drilled out a root canal as they completely embarrassed Colorado in its first true road game.
“First of all, my hat goes off to Wyoming tonight,” Boyle said. “It wasn’t even close… They whipped us in every conceivable way… I can say we were bad, but Wyoming had a lot to do with that. For us to beat good teams, we’re going to have to play better than we did tonight. It’s embarrassing.”
The last time the Buffs scored 33 points or less in an outing was on Jan. 24, 1949 when the Buffs fell 40-31 to Iowa State. Not only that, but the last time CU scored in single digits in a half occurred against Missouri on Jan. 23, 1980 when it only scored four.
Not one Buffalo managed to score in double digits, as Xavier Johnson led the way with nine points, two rebounds and two assists. The Cowboys, on the other hand, had three players in double digits with junior guard Josh Adams on top with 14 points, three rebounds and seven assists.
Adams had more assists by himself than the entire CU squad. The Buffs finished the night with six, while Wyoming had far more with 22.
At the start of the game, Colorado had a hard time finding its rhythm at 7,220 feet of elevation. Early in the first half, the Buffs only managed to shoot 3-11 from the field (27.3 percent) while their counterparts improved to 5-11 (45.5 percent). Colorado went down by eight points before they kicked it into gear and got themselves back into the game.
After going down 17-11 with just under nine minutes left in the half, Johnson hit a three-point jumper and signaled a major momentum shift for the Buffs. Not only did the Buffs close the gap after that, but they also took the lead after an 11-point run. Despite the big comeback late in the first half, the Cowboys still managed to take a 26-24 lead by halftime.
For the first time in his collegiate career, freshman guard Dominique Collier took the floor. He started his college basketball debut extraordinarily well. By the end of the first half, Collier was shooting 100 percent on his career, both his makes being three-pointers.
“It felt good to be out there and just play out there with my teammates for my first college game,” Collier said. “It didn’t end the way that we all wanted it to end, but we have to bounce back fast because we have a game on Tuesday.”
By the end of the half, the Buffs managed to improve their shooting from the field to 10-23 (43.5 percent), 3-9 from the three-point range (33.3 percent), and 1-3 from the foul line (33.3 percent). The Cowboys shot slightly better, going 11-23 (47.8 percent), but their three-point shooting declined significantly from the start of the half with 4-13 (30.8 percent). They did not take any free throws.
At the start of the second half, the Buffs had even more trouble finding their rhythm on offense and defense. The Buffs allowed dunk after dunk to the Cowboys.
“When they start the second half like that, you know the team is in their own building and the crowd was great, you knew they were going to make a run,” Boyle said. “You let them move and run their offense side-to-side and you’re eventually going to break down and we did. Mentally we weren’t very tough tonight. You don’t get beat like that on the road if you are mentally tough.”
The Colorado offense was even worse. In the second half, the Cowboys outscored the Buffs 30-9 as Wyoming shot 11-19 from the field (57.9 percent). The Buffs barely managed to shoot 10 percent, going 2-20 from the field.
“We just learn to play through it, just learn to keep fighting,” Johnson said. “We’ll learn from our mistakes, you know, our heads aren’t down that much… We’ll be fine.”
The Buffs return to their home court against the Air Force Falcons on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in the hopes of redemption.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Alissa Noe at Alissa.noe@colorado.edu.
