After losing six of their past seven matchups, the University of Colorado men’s basketball team needed a win on senior night to send it on its final road trip with confidence. It was only fitting that senior guard Askia Booker scored 29 points to send his team to a nail-biting 87-81 victory over Arizona State in his final home game in a Colorado uniform Sunday night.
“It means a lot,” Booker said. “The first thing I did, I brought my team in and I told them thank you. I couldn’t thank them anymore. I really appreciated it. They played big. Credit goes to those guys, too.”
Head coach Tad Boyle, obviously pleased with the offensive and defensive performance from his team, said he couldn’t have asked for more from his senior guard.
“That’s how you want your senior to go out on senior night,” Boyle said. “I’m really proud of him.”
In the final four minutes alone, the lead changed three times before the Buffs sealed the deal as ASU went into desperation mode and fouled the Buffs left and right. In the end, the 61 total fouls helped the Buffs take home the “W.”
For the night, the Buffs shot 59.2 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from three-point range. On the other side of the ball, the Sun Devils shot 48 percent from the field, which they complemented with 40 percent three-point shooting.
To put those numbers in perspective, the Buffs haven’t shot over 38 percent in the past seven games. They clearly were not in the mood to send their seniors off with a poor offensive performance.
“It’s nice to be able to make some shots,” Boyle said. “I thought it was really good that Arizona State came out and ran with us. It was a physical game.”
While Booker was the clear leading scorer at 29 points, junior forward Josh Scott and sophomore forward Dustin Thomas complemented him with 14 and 12 points respectively.
“I think when we play together like that—I think offensively we’re talented,” Scott said. “It kind of showed our talent that we haven’t been showing lately.”
Prior to the start of the game, the team honored seniors Geoff Bates, Kevin Nelson, and starting point guard Booker. While Bates and Nelson didn’t see much playing time the past few years, in his time at CU, Booker led the Buffs to a Pac-12 tournament title, three straight NCAA appearances, and plenty of fun on and off the court.
The Buffs got off to a bit of a rocky start by letting the Sun Devils get six points on the board before Booker was able to put up a mid-range jumper to get his team on the board three minutes into the game.
That didn’t settle right with the Buffs, who followed up by scoring eight unanswered points to take their first lead of the game. For much of the rest of the half, it was a game of back and forth with nine lead changes.
With roughly three minutes left in the half, the Buffs led by as much as nine points, but that lasted all of a minute. Over the next 70 seconds, Arizona State hit three straight three-point shots to completely eradicate the Buffaloes’ lead and took the lead back on a pair of free throws not long after.
Despite the tumultuous last few minutes before the break, the Buffs managed to secure the lead after Booker hit a layup to give the Buffs the 40-38 edge.
For the half, Booker led his squad with 11 points as the team went 51.9 percent from the field and 60 percent from deep. The Sun Devils shot slightly better, however, as they went 56 percent from the field and an even 50 percent from the three-point range.
“It’s nothing new,” Scott said. “It’s just resiliency. You have to have it and we haven’t had it for the past few games.”
Midway through the second half, the Buffs gained two more nine-point leads that they let slip away once more. They even allowed the Sun Devils to regain the lead with four and a half minutes remaining.
But the Buffs were not about to let their seniors go out on a sour note. After a heart-attack filled final few minutes with many, many foul shots on both sides of the ball—thanks to some whistle-happy officials—the home boys managed to hold on for the much-needed win.
At the end of it all, the final score read 87-81 as Askia Booker finished his home career with 29 points.
The Buffs visit the Washington Huskies on Thursday, March 5 as they begin their final road trip of the regular season. Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m.
“Our guys went out and won this tonight and did what they had to do,” Boyle said. “Hopefully this can maybe give us a little bit of a mojo.”
Contact CU Independent sports staff writer Alissa Noe at Alissa.noe@colorado.edu
