Colorado head coach Tad Boyle reacts following a good Xavier three point basket at Cintas Center. Dec. 9, 2017 (Nigel Amstock/CU Independent File)
The Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team had its three-game win streak snapped after suffering a loss to Washington State Thursday night.
Colorado (15-12, 7-8 Pac-12) continued its Washington trip as the Buffs took on the Washington Huskies (18-9, 8-6 Pac-12) on Saturday evening at Alaska Airlines Arena hoping to secure a much-needed victory.
The last time these two teams faced off was on Jan. 20, when UW snagged 50 rebounds en route to a 72-62 win at the Coors Event Center.
Unfortunately, this time around was worse. The Buffs were defeated by a bigger margin of 82-59 behind Washington’s forward Matisse Thybulle’s 26 points, which ended a three game loss streak for the Huskies.
Colorado now sits at 1-9 on the year away from Boulder.
The Buffaloes needed to win these road games to stay in the Pac-12 hunt, perhaps placing a top-four finish. Instead they lost both, and the Buffs now will likely finish the season at the bottom half of the Pac-12 Conference standings.
The Buffs were outplayed all night long as they couldn’t spoil newly acquired Los Angeles laker Isaiah Thomas’ Huskies jersey ceremony night.
The brightest spot of the night for the Buffs was their 9-0 explosion to start off the game, which was short lived when the Huskies rallied back for an 18-4 run.
It looked like it was going to shape into a battle with the game going into the half with the Huskies only leading by five, 39-34.
However, the Huskies had other plans going into the second half as they built their lead to double digits not too long after play began. The Buffaloes never got back into sync, having only two players who scored in the double digits, with freshman guards Tyler Bey contributing 11 points and McKinley Wright IV adding 10.
The Buffs didn’t have their shooting to blame for the loss, as CU shot 24-of-60 from the field, but the Huskies were just hitting from all cylinders throughout the night, making 30-of-63 from the field. Washington also managed a 43 percent make rate from deep.
In what turned out to be a new rendition of familiar struggles, the difference in the game was the turnover margin.
The Buffs have been struggling with taking care of the ball all year and those struggles continued as they committed 18 turnovers which turned into an easy 26 points for the Huskies.
Up next for the Buffs is a homestand vs. USC and UCLA, beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 22 vs. the Trojans. Tipoff is at 8:30 p.m. MST.
Contact CU Independent sports staff writer Dylan Rutigliano at dylan.rutigliano@colorado.edu
