Riding a five-game win streak and eyeing a first-round bye in the soon-to-arrive Pac-12 Tournament via a top-four finish in the regular season standings, the Buffs instead tripped on their own shoelaces, falling hard at home to Arizona State Thursday, 82-65.

A win, coupled with an Oregon loss vs. No. 12 UCLA, would have given CU sole possession of fourth place (albeit by 0.5 games) over the Ducks in the Pac-12 standings.

Bobby Hurley’s Sun Devils had other ideas, however, dominating the Buffaloes on Sox Walseth Court and handing CU its worst home loss since a 28-point defeat at the hands of Utah on Jan. 7, 2015.

The Ducks took care of the Bruins, too, winning in Eugene, 68-63, solidifying their fourth place position in the Pac-12.

With a pair of 15-point home losses already this year to Tennessee and Oregon, the Buffs have now suffered three of the worst such losses in Boulder under Tad Boyle this season alone.

“Well, we just got our ass kicked tonight, guys,” Boyle said, opening up his postgame press conference. “There’s just no way to sugarcoat it. I wish I could…we just got kicked tonight, in every sense of the word. We weren’t ready to play.”

ASU was red hot offensively all night, shooting 49% and 53% from long range. The Sun Devils won the battle of the boards easily, 38-26.

Four Arizona State players, led by Jay Heath with 18, scored in the double digits.

The Buffaloes by comparison, shot 39% from the floor and were ice cold on three-pointers, posting just a 26% (7-of-27) make rate.

Those numbers were far worse until the Buffs managed to hit some baskets during garbage time late in the second half, when things were way out of hand.

All things considered, the Buffs were beaten convincingly and thoroughly, dropping to 18-10 (10-8 Pac-12) following the loss.

"I'm angry," Boyle said. "I'm going to get angry for three reasons: one is lack of effort, which we showed tonight — unacceptable. Two is lack of concentration, which we showed tonight, which is unacceptable.

"And three is selfishness...I don't think we were selfish tonight, although, I think we took more bad shots tonight than we've taken maybe in the last three games combined."

Colorado took an early 5-0 lead a few minutes into the first half and at the 10:18 mark, things were tied at 12.

But from there, the Buffaloes’ troubles started to mount.

ASU’s Marreon Jackson, a transfer from Toledo, proved to be an early thorn in the team’s side, scoring 13 points (of 17 total) in the first half.

An 11-0 run by ASU later in the opening half gave it a 25-16 lead over CU with 7:26 before the half.

CU showed some fight in the ensuing minutes, lowering their deficit to three with 5:37 to go before halftime, but immediately thereafter, ASU went on a 9-0 run to take an 11-point lead.

The Sun Devils kept up the pressure to close out the first half, taking a 37-26 lead into the locker room.

By the first media timeout of the second half, with 15:49 to play, Arizona State led by 16.

The Buffaloes proved incapable of preventing shots from falling as the second half went on, and they wouldn’t come closer than within 12 points of the visiting Sun Devils for the remainder of the game.

“We didn’t come out with energy, defensive pride — it boils down to a lot of things,” Nique Clifford said. “We just weren’t ready to go on the defensive end. We couldn’t get stops. Our ball screen coverage — we couldn’t get through screens and they were just knocking down shots. It hurt us at the end of the day.”

Evan Battey led the Buffs with 13 points on 4-of-10 from the floor, with Jabari Walker adding 12 and Keeshawn Barthelemy scoring 10.

Thursday’s loss provides for an ominous precursor to Saturday, when the Buffaloes host No. 2 Arizona, which will be the highest-ranked opponent to ever play in Boulder during the Boyle era.

With just one day to watch film, practice and get over the post-ASU hangover, the Buffs will need to make a major turnaround before the second-ranked Wildcats come to Boulder Saturday night for a 6 p.m. showdown with Colorado.

“I’m disappointed, because this was an opportunity for us to get in position to have a bye in the first round (of the Pac-12 Tournament),” Boyle said after the loss. That’s going to be really difficult. We’re going to have to really suck it up and beat (No. 2) Arizona and Utah to make that happen.

“After games like this, you’re wondering, “Will we ever win another game?’ The way we played tonight — the answer’s no. We won’t win another game if we play the way we did tonight.”