The Colorado men’s basketball team is three months into its season and still looking for a road win. The Buffaloes (9-8, 2-3) fell to the Arizona State Sun Devils (9-9, 1-4) 78-72 Saturday afternoon.
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have won this basketball game,” coach Tad Boyle said.
The game marked the third straight loss for the Buffaloes.
The absence of junior forwards Josh Scott and Xavier Johnson meant other players had to step up. Sophomore guard Jaron Hopkins certainly did. Hopkins had a breakout performance and filled out every part of the stat sheet. He finished with 20 points (a career high), seven rebounds, five assists and four steals.
Wesley Gordon and Tre’Shaun Fletcher both added 10 points. This tied a career high for Fletcher, who had all his points in the second half.
The two halves had stark differences. ASU outscored the Buffs 29-28 in the first, but the offenses picked up and the Sun Devils ultimately had a 49-44 advantage in the second.
The Sun Devils out-shot the Buffaloes by a significant margin, with ASU shooting 55.3 percent from the field and CU going 46.4 percent. Arizona State shot 71 percent in the second half. And that’s no typo.
“It’s always something, and tonight it was our defense in the second half, it let us down,” Boyle said. “They shot 71 percent in the second half, it’s amazing we were in the game.”
At the end of the first half Colorado would have had at least a one-point lead going into halftime, but Booker turned the ball over with just three seconds left and Shaquielle McKissic had a wide-open dunk to give ASU the lead instead.
What did Colorado in was the Sun Devils’ three-point shooting. They went 10-20 from beyond the arc and 5-7 in the second half. Senior guard Bo Barnes hit four of six threes for Arizona State.
ASU relied on a balanced scoring attack in the win. Five players finished with double-digit points for the Sun Devils with senior forward Shaquielle McKissic leading the way with 16. McKissic also had one of the highlights of the game when he dunked over Colorado freshman forward Tory Miller in the second half.
Askia Booker, while still committing four tournovers and taking a few questionable shots, lead the Colorado offensively. His 21 points brought his Pac-12 average up 20.2 per game. He’s been the one consistent player Colorado has had with Johnson and Scott out with injuries. Booker also added four assists.
It looked like the Buffs would go down quietly trailing 70-60 with just 1:14 to play. But four three-pointers kept Colorado close and got the Buffs within three points near the end. Junior three-point specialist Brett Brady, who almost never sees playing time, checked into the game with under a minute left to give the Buffs some hope. But it was all too little, too late for Colorado. Arizona State made its free throws to ensure its victory.
The Buffaloes host the Washington Huskies at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports One. Colorado also plays Washington State at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Coors Events Center.
Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Editor Jared Funk-Breay at Jared.funkbreay@colorado.edu and on twitter at @jaredfunkbreay.
