Coming off of a big win Thursday night over Oregon, Colorado was able to carry that momentum over to Saturday, routing Oregon State from start to finish and earning a 90-57 victory.
“Really good win, workmanlike effort,” head coach Tad Boyle said postgame. “I thought our guys were pretty dialed in on the defensive end, which is what we’ve been challenging them about over the last week, week and a half of practice or so. Holding a team in the Pac-12 to three three-point field goals–guarding the three point line is something we’ve talked about–we haven’t done a great job of it at times but tonight we were terrific… Not a lot to complain about as a coach in this one.”
The Buffs, who were playing without J’Vonne Hadley due to a sore knee, quickly eliminated any fear of a letdown after Thursday night’s big win over Oregon, coming out of the gates with a lot of intensity and attention to detail. Tristan da Silva, after struggling a bit over the beginning of conference play, got it going early with a pair of buckets in the opening minutes, and the Buffs (14-5, 5-3 Pac-12) immediately backed him up with a 21-4 run to start the game.
The key for Colorado in the first half offensively was its ball movement. The Buffs assisted on 11 of their 17 field goals in the opening 20 minutes and turned the ball over just two times. On the other end, the Beavers (9-9, 1-6 Pac-12) struggled to generate any consistency on the offensive end, following up a dismal shooting night against Utah on Thursday with a 2-for-13 start to the game on Saturday. By the time they finally steadied themselves, the Buffs had already stretched the lead some more, allowing them to take a 45-23 advantage into the half.
Colorado didn’t take its foot off the gas coming out of the half, either. After a Beavers’ bucket to start the second, the Buffs re-established their dominance with a quick 14-1 run to give them a 59-26 lead. From there, it was smooth sailing for the Buffs, who slowed down but still maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way, eventually emptying the bench with just under four minutes left and grabbing the win.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about all along,” da Silva said about keeping their focus through the second half. “It was huge for us to finally take that step in the right direction. We’ve gotta continue to do so.”
Six Buffs scored in double figures in Saturday’s win, led by Tristan da Silva with 19 and seven rebounds. Eddie Lampkin was right behind him with 17 and eight boards of his own, and Cody Williams added 16 points and six rebounds. It was also a memorable night for freshman big man Assane Diop, who notched a career-high 10 points off the bench. Colorado is now 12-0 at home, its best start in Boulder in 55 years.
“Number one, I’m so happy for him,” Boyle said of Diop’s career night. “You see day-to-day how hard Assane works. You see how selfless he is, he’s all about the team, he’s not about himself. He just works his tail off.”
For Oregon State, big man Tyler Bilodeau led the way with 18 points and five rebounds, and Michael Rataj added 11 off the bench. KJ Simpson made life very difficult for the Beavers’ leading scorer Jordan Pope, who came into the game averaging north of 17 points per game but finished with just 10 on 3-for-11 shooting Saturday.
“KJ is a competitor,” Boyle said. “He wants to make (Pac-12 All-Defense), and I’m not campaigning for him, I just think as opposing coaches look towards the end of the year at that, these are the kind of performances — Pope has 10 points on 11 shots — that’s pretty good defense.”
The Buffs will now leave Boulder once again, looking for better results than they had on their 0-3 road trip a few weeks back. They’ll head up to Washington to take on Washington and Washington State, which they swept at home to open conference play. First up is the Huskies on Wednesday night, which will tip off at 9 p.m. MST on ESPNU.
