Advertisement

Home history: CU Buffs improve to 13-0 at Events Center in win against ASU

pat rooney, daily times-call, longmont, colo.
·5 min read

Feb. 8—Fast break

Why the Buffs won: CU shot 40% on 3-pointers, went 26-for-29 at the free throw line, and outrebounded ASU 37-29.

Three stars:

1. J'Vonne Hadley: Posted his first double-double with the Buffs, scoring 19 points with a CU career-high 11 rebounds.

2. KJ Simpson: Another fine all-around game for CU's point guard despite a 5-for-14 mark from the field, as he finished with 17 points, a career-high-tying eight assists and six rebounds.

3. Tristan da Silva: Hit a pair of key 3-pointers early in the second half before finishing with 15 points and four rebounds.

Up next: A huge opportunity arrives for CU on Saturday with a visit from No. 8 Arizona (8 p.m., ESPN).

Throughout the run of inconsistent play sparked in part by continuing injury issues, the Colorado men's basketball team has remained formidable at home.

On Thursday, the Buffaloes made a little history at home.

Cody Williams returned to the starting lineup and the Buffs returned to the win column after back-to-back losses on the road, topping Arizona State 82-70 at the CU Events Center.

With the victory, the Buffs became the first CU men's basketball team to start 13-0 at home.

"Conference wins in February are like gold. They're really valuable," CU head coach Tad Boyle said. "Our guys did a good job tonight. We didn't play our best offensively. We had a few breakdowns defensively. But we did what we had to do and put away a really competitive, hard-playing Arizona State team. They do not make it easy."

It might have looked too easy early for the Buffs, who sprinted to a 21-3 lead while ASU missed its first seven shots. CU's lead remained 18 points at 31-13 when ASU rallied behind 11 consecutive points, eventually cutting the Buffs' lead down to four before seven straight points from CU helped the Buffs take a 44-35 lead into halftime.

CU committed five of its eight first-half turnovers in the final 8 minutes, 31 seconds of the frame, providing a little juice for the Sun Devils' comeback. After CU's 31-13 lead, the Sun Devils outscored the Buffs 22-13 over the remainder of the first half.

"I just feel like a lot of it was kind of our offense," CU guard KJ Simpson said. "We kind of stopped getting the ball moved. Had a couple turnovers. They're a team that thrives in transition and we kind of let them get some easy transition buckets. They started hitting threes and they started feeling good, started feeling confident. One thing about that team is no matter what the score, they're going to play their heart out.

"It was more on our end. We didn't necessarily take our foot off the gas. It's just kind of hard when you're turning the ball over and just playing transition defense. But I'm glad we was able to dig in and realize what was going wrong and get right back to it."

ASU remained within seven points with 3:06 remaining, but a J'Vonne Hadley three-point play with 2:38 left gave the Buffs much-needed breathing room down in the final minutes. Hadley posted his first double-double with the Buffs, finishing with 19 points and a CU career-high 11 rebounds. Although reserve Luke O'Brien missed his second consecutive game due to an ankle injury, Williams went 4-for-9 with 11 points after missing last week's loss at Utah.

Hadley also finished 7-for-7 on free throws, leading the Buffs' 26-for-29 night at the line. It was a season-high-tying total for CU in free throws made and a season-high in free throws attempted. The Buffs also outrebounded ASU, 37-29.

The victory sets up the unbeaten-at-home Buffs with a huge opportunity on Saturday against No. 8 Arizona, which needed triple overtime to escape Utah with a victory on Thursday night.

"We had eight turnovers in the first half. Six of them were steals by Arizona State," Boyle said. "Didn't think we did a great job there. We talked about it at halftime and guys did a much better job in the second half."

ARIZONA ST. (11-12, 5-7 Pac-12)

Gaffney 2-6 0-0 6, Phillips 5-8 0-0 10, Collins 8-14 2-4 18, Miller 5-7 2-4 14, Neal 3-11 4-4 12, Perez 1-9 0-0 2, Lands 1-3 1-2 4, Selebangue 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 27-61 9-14 70.

COLORADO (16-7, 7-5)

C.Williams 4-9 2-2 11, da Silva 4-9 5-5 15, Lampkin 3-4 2-4 8, Hadley 5-8 7-7 19, Simpson 5-14 5-6 17, Hammond 3-6 2-2 9, Diop 0-1 0-0 0, Dak 0-0 0-0 0, Ruffin 0-0 3-3 3. Totals 24-51 26-29 82.

Halftime — Colorado 44-35. 3-point field goals — Arizona St. 7-22 (Miller 2-3, Gaffney 2-5, Neal 2-8, Lands 1-1, Perez 0-1, Collins 0-3); Colorado 8-20 (Hadley 2-2, da Silva 2-4, Simpson 2-7, Hammond 1-3, C.Williams 1-4). Rebounds — Arizona St. 29 (Gaffney 6); Colorado 37 (Hadley 9). Assists — Arizona St. 14 (Neal 4); Colorado 13 (Simpson 8). Turnovers — Arizona State 9 (Gaffney, Miller 2); Colorado 13 (Simpson 4). Total fouls — Arizona St. 24, Colorado 13. Attendance — 7,109.