For an 11-point, non-conference win against the Air Force Falcons, the Colorado men’s basketball team sure made their Wednesday night home game exciting, with a final score of 81-70.
“One of the challenges that we laid out for our guys for the game was, ‘Let’s play 40 minutes of Colorado basketball.’ And I thought for the most part we played that way for about 37 minutes. I don’t think we finished as strong as we need to finish,” head coach Tad Boyle said.
Sophomore forward Tory Miller bit a man. Senior reserve guard Brett Brady, who last year only saw playing time in blowouts, played late in the first half and made the most of his minutes with a three-point shot.
“Tory’s an emotional player. There was something in the scrum there in the jump ball situation, and they saw something, Air Force player said something, and [the officials] felt like they confirmed something, and they booted him,” Boyle explained after the game.
He did say, however, that the small incident does not reflect Miller’s overall character.
“Tory’s a great kid,” Boyle added. “I’m not talking about a good kid, Tory’s a great kid. He’s an emotional player, he’s a competitive player, and he needs to learn to keep those emotions and those competitive juices in check. Tonight they maybe got the best of him, but he’ll be fine.”
Despite going up 26 points five minutes into the second half, the Buffs couldn’t hold their defense to last the rest of the game. Not that their defense was on point much throughout the other 35 minutes.
The Buffs shot 25-48 from the field (52.1 percent) and 13-25 from the three point range (52 percent). Shots from deep certainly weren’t a strong point of this team last season, but it appears the tides have turned.
The Buffs boasted three players in double-digit scoring with senior forward Josh Scott leading the herd with 21 points, followed by junior guard Josh Fortune (18) and sophomore guard George King (16).
“I’ve been in the gym almost every night trying to get my rhythm back,” Fortune said of his shooting throughout the season so far. “With that being said, it’s just playing with an open mind, and just playing free, playing as a team. Look at the things that happened.”
The Falcons only shot 41.9 percent from the field (26-62), but hit 45.5 percent from three (10-22).
Wednesday night’s game got off to a bit of a rough start for the Buffaloes, who allowed the Falcons to go up 5-0 on them before they were able to respond. For the first few minutes, the Buffs couldn’t score inside the arc at all.
Luckily, Tre’Shaun Fletcher and Dominique Collier made a three each to keep the Buffs in the competition early, regardless of Air Force shooting the lights out. The triple threat became a theme for the Buffaloes for much of the rest of the half, as they dominated from downtown. At just under the 15-minute mark, the Buffs tied up the score at nine. They gained their first lead of the game a couple minutes later and never looked back. By the time the buzzer sounded for the break, the Buffs had amassed a 16-point lead, 46-30.
For the half, the Buffs fired on all cylinders from the three-point range. They made 57.1 percent of their attempts (8-14) and fared even better from the field, where they shot 15-26 (57.7 percent). Fortune made three of the team’s deep shots, and Brady even contributed a triple for the Buffs.
“Brett can shoot. He’s a shooter. And in years past, you’d kind of have to coax Brett into shooting in games, but in practice, boy, he’d be lighting us up,” Scott said of his teammate. “He’s a zone breaker. He’s a good shooter so it helps us a lot.”
The Falcons, on the other hand, weren’t as efficient on offense. They went 11-27 from the field (40.7 percent) and their 45.5 percent three-point shooting couldn’t keep up with the Buffs.
The hurt locker continued well into the second half, figuratively and literally. As the Buffs increased their lead, Miller took his aggressiveness a step too far when he bit an opponent on the shoulder. He immediately picked up a flagrant two foul and was ejected from the game.
Regardless of Miller’s early exit, the Buffs kept stuffing the Falcons all night. No matter how hard they tried, Air Force couldn’t climb out of the hole they dug themselves into early in the second half, but they got closer than expected.
By the end of the contest, the Falcons closed the gap to 11, but the Buffs still walked away with an early Thanksgiving victory, 81-70.
The Buffs return to their home court on Sunday, Nov. 29 at 1 p.m., when they’ll take on the Bears of Northern Colorado.
“This team can be a lot better than the way we’ve played since we came home from our first two road games,” Boyle said. “We got to build on the positive and keep getting better. Our guys have to understand that.”
