The Colorado Buffaloes awoke from a nightmare four-game stretch Saturday night, but not in their wildest dreams could the 9,500-plus in the Coors Event Center have imagined an outburst of this magnitude.
It was a night of career milestones and personal bests, of cohesion and teamwork, and Colorado was utterly dominant. The Washington State Cougars never had a chance, never led, and trailed for all but the 12 seconds it took the Buffs to score their first bucket. The final tally — 90-58 — was the most lopsided of Colorado’s season.
“Coach said to play pissed off,” freshman forward Tory Miller said. “I guess that’s what it was.”
The game felt over in minutes. The Buffs hit their first five shots, all of them assisted, three of them from downtown. Junior guard Xavier Talton, starting in place of Askia Booker, hit two threes and dished two dimes in that opening run. Talton hadn’t started since last December but it didn’t matter — his 10 points were a season best and his six assists were a career high.
Colorado dropped 25 assists as a team, the most they have had in the Tad Boyle era. The worst qualities of the Buffs’ offense in their 52-50 loss to Washington on Thursday were nowhere to be found. Colorado shot 54 percent from the field and 50 percent from deep and the scoring came from everywhere and everyone.
“I don’t know how many people scored double digits tonight,” Talton said. “Everybody contributed. I think that says it all.”
Well, six Buffs scored in double figures. Four dimed at least four assists.
“One of the things we talked about before this game is to play with a free and uncluttered mind,” Boyle said. “We have good players and basketball is such an instinctual game, when we play with a free and uncluttered mind, good things happen.”
Miller uncorked his midrange jumper early and set his career high with his eighth point less than 10 minutes into the game; he finished with 10. Those last two points came off of a baseline cut against Washington State’s zone — he slipped behind the defense and dunked over everybody, and had CUI photographer Matt Sisneros marveling, “Tory Miller is a grown-ass man.”
Fellow freshman Dom Collier played as confidently as he had all season — his eight points were also a career high, and he consistently created his own shots for the first time.
“People in this building over the last two to three days have seen Xavier in the gym,” Boyle said. “I know that he and Dom were in here last night, so he’s been putting in some extra time. It’s really nice to see when kids do that, there’s a payoff and tonight there was a payoff.”
Talton took Booker’s place in the starting lineup because Booker was late to shootaround. Booker started cold — he missed his first four shots — but his fifth, a three above the break, made him the ninth Buff to score 1,500 career points.
The Cougars’ defense was the worst in the Pac-12 before the game, and nothing it did worked against Colorado — Washington State switched between man and zone, but it couldn’t stick with the Buffs one-on-one and Colorado exploited the zone with its outside shooting and passing.
“There’s nothing we could do to slow them down,” Cougars’ head coach Ernie Kent said.
They could do nothing against the Buffs’ defense, either. Washington State shot just 38 percent as a team and Colorado held Cougars’ leading scorer DaVonté Lacy to 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting. Washington State dropped only 25 percent of their threes and shot an abysmal 45 percent from the free-throw line. Every time the Cougars shot free throws facing the C-Unit, they saw a different kind of cougar — giant cardboard cutouts of Courtney Cox, Kris Jenner and the Sex and the City crew.
But middle-aged women had a less devastating effect on Washington State’s game than Wes Gordon did. The sophomore forward continued his reign of terror in the paint and put together one of the more complete stat lines you’ll ever see — 10 points, 14 rebounds, five assists (a career high), four blocks and two steals.
At one point Gordon took a shot to the groin while battling for a rebound. He got up in pain, walked it off, sat out a possession and, upon returning, swatted one of Lacy’s shots into the front row.
Every Buff chipped in defensively, and that energy translated to the other end of the court. Booker went down hard going after a steal, then drained back-to-back threes. Then Gordon buried one, then sophomore guard Jaron Hopkins. It was that kind of night for Colorado, and it speaks to how complete a game the Buffs played that it took 800 words to even mention Hopkins or fellow sophomore Tre’Shaun Fletcher. Hopkins’ offensive game has improved exponentially over the past few games; tonight he scored 13 points and was perfect from deep.
Fletcher tied his career high with 10 points and missed only one shot. The Eurostep is becoming his go-to move and he executed it flawlessly three times in transition. By the time he capped the scoring with a dunk, he was sharing the court with the Buffs’ walk-ons — Brett Brady, Josh Repine and Geoff Bates. Gordon had checked out to a standing ovation with about five minutes left, Booker a few minutes after that.
As Booker walked off the court for the final time, Boyle pulled him aside, gave him a hug and whispered in his ear.
“I was really proud of the way he responded to not starting,” Boyle said. “I just wanted him to know that I believe in him, and I know going home means a lot to him, playing well in front of his friends and family means a lot to him, and that’s where we’re heading next, so get ready.”
After the blowout, after the happiest postgame press conference this team has had in some time, Booker’s hometown of Los Angeles looms large. The Buffs face USC on Jan. 29 and UCLA two days later. Colorado beat them both comfortably to open conference play, but when the Buffs return to Boulder no. 12 Utah will be waiting.
But L.A. is a week away and Utah is in the distant future. Colorado deserves to be happy about tonight, and about the Cougar pelt that is going up on the wall.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Tommy Wood at thomas.c.wood@colorado.edu and follow him on Twitter @woodstein72.
