The University of Colorado Boulder’s men’s basketball team takes a time-out at the game against Cal at the CU Events Center on Thursday, February 2, 2023. (Rachel Glazer/CU Independent)
Coming off their exciting upset win against ASU on Thursday, the Colorado men’s basketball team couldn’t hold on against the star power of #8 Arizona, losing 68-78. Despite a great start from the Buffaloes, the top-ranked Wildcats dominated as the night went on, scoring 40 points in the paint and going up by as much as 17 in the second half.
With the Saturday loss in Tucson, the Buffs fall to 15-13 overall, dropping to ninth place in the Pac-12 with a 7-10 record in conference play. After playing their final road game of the season, CU finishes with a 2-9 record in games away from Boulder.
“I was really pleased with our guys’ fight,” Head Coach Tad Boyle said. “But we got to thinking scoring was going to be easy because we played so well offensively out of the chute. Then we came down and we took four or five quick jump shots and those jump shots turned into transition points for them. Their offense got going off of our bad offense.”
Colorado started the game on one of their best stretches of the season, as after forcing five quick Arizona turnovers, they saw themselves up 18-6 going into the first media timeout. However, after that first break, the Wildcats started to play like a championship contender and, with Tristan da Silva on the bench in foul trouble, Arizona swiftly tied the game back up at 18 all.
After that strong response from the team in Tucson, the Buffaloes had trouble finding success at either end of the court. With da Silva on the bench for the last 11 minutes of the first half after their 18-6 start, the Wildcats went on a commanding 40-16 run to end the first up 46-34.
“We got off to a good start, we were moving the ball, really playing well inside out and getting those shots that we wanted,” Luke O’Brien said. “Then we kind of got a little selfish towards the middle part of the first half and started jacking up shots that we shouldn’t have.”
After finding a few points and Wildcat turnovers in the opening minutes of the second half, the Buffs seemed to have all of their momentum drained by the Arizona crowd. Colorado only made three of their first 14 shots to open the half, at one point missing eight in a row. Throughout the second half, Arizona maintained a 10-point lead, as the Buffaloes only managed to shoot 28% in the first 15 minutes of the second period, while getting dominated in the paint by the Arizona big men. The Wildcats kept control until the final whistle, finishing the game with a 10-point lead the Buffaloes never seemed like they could catch.
“When we went to our bench, it was a feeding frenzy offensively for them,” Boyle said. “Which was disappointing, because I thought they played so well for us on Thursday [at Arizona State]. Our starters got us off to a good start. They made their run when we subbed.”
In spite of his foul trouble early, Tristan da Silva once again led the way for Colorado. The junior opened the game strong as before he sat with two fouls, da Silva had nine of CU’s 18 points in that opening run. After playing all of the second half, he finished the game with 18 points, five rebounds and two assists, which didn’t seem to be enough against the Pac-12’s top competition. Despite not matching his recent scoring highs, da Silva still leads all Pac-12 players in scoring since the start of the new year.
On only 3/13 shooting, K.J. Simpson tried to find other ways to impact the game on Saturday night. The sophomore collected five rebounds and seven assists, along with 12 points. Colorado’s point guard hasn’t seen as much success as he did earlier in the season, as later teams have been more prepared to defend against him. However, Simpson is still currently ranked seventh in the Pac-12 in scoring, at 15.9 points per game.
Javon Ruffin continued to show his improvement in Tucson, as the freshman finished with 13 points, four rebounds and an assist. Though he has the least amount of game time experience on the team, Ruffin’s confidence in shooting the ball has been much needed on this CU team, who is currently eighth in the conference in 3-point shooting.
In the absence of J’Vonne Hadley, junior Luke O’Brien is showing how important of a role he can bring to this Buffalo team, finishing with nine points, nine rebounds and two assists on Saturday night. In the past four games, since Hadley has been out, O’Brien has been averaging 7.4 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. With only three career starts, O’Brien is making the most of this opportunity, proving himself in the starting lineup and someone Tad Boyle can rely on on both sides of the floor.
After that extraordinary start to the game, Colorado was hit with the same problems they’d faced all season. As a team, they shot 38% (24-62) and missed 17 of their 24 3-point attempts, while at that same time, Arizona shot 49% from the field and 38% from three. The Buffaloes gave up 24 points off turnovers and a season-high 40 points in the paint, with 78 total points being tied for the third most they’ve given up all season. The Buffaloes have now lost their last 13 games in Tucson and haven’t won since joining the Pac-12 conference.
“I told our team in the locker room after the game, and I truly believe this, what our fans need to understand is we have three home games that are all winnable,” Boyle said. “They’re not going to be easy. USC isn’t going to be easy on Thursday. UCLA is not going to be easy on Sunday and Utah the following week is not going to be easy. But we need to finish strong and understand that we can beat any team in this league on any given night when we go to Las Vegas (for the Pac-12 tournament).”
After going 1-1 on their final road trip of the season, the Buffaloes return to Boulder as they host USC, UCLA, and Utah for their final stretch of the regular season. The first of those games will be when Colorado hosts USC at the CU Events Center, on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. MST, on ESPN2.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Eli Gregorski at elgr9735@colorado.edu.
