Colorado took its first loss of the young season last week in Daytona Beach, but came back home to CU Events Center and bounced back nicely Sunday with an 85-68 win over Iona.
“Workmanlike effort tonight against an Iona team that has a bunch of tough kids, their coach is tough,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said postgame. “I think our depth wore them down a little bit. Offensively, when you shoot 61% from the field, you feel pretty good about things. So it was a great night, you know, from that standpoint. Once we strung together stops in the second half, we blew the game open.”
The Buffs struggled a bit with the Gaels early on in Sunday’s matchup as they came in with a clear gameplan to make the game muddy and disrupt CU’s offense early in possessions. Colorado struggled with Florida State’s pressure in its loss Tuesday, and Iona clearly wanted to replicate that. That pressure goes hand-in-hand with what Iona head coach Tobin Anderson, previously head coach of Farleigh Dickenson during its Cinderella run in last season’s NCAA Tournament, wants to do. Colorado was efficient from the field early on, but had five early turnovers that allowed the Gaels to stay in the game.
On the other end, Iona hung tough on offense in the early going, not beating itself and playing a disciplined style that allowed it to keep pace with the Buffs. For every bucket that Colorado had, Iona had an answer. By halftime, the Gaels stayed within striking distance and only trailed the Buffs 42-37.
In the second half, however, Colorado started to settle down. It figured out how to deal with the 94 feet of pressure, and the turnovers went away while its half-court efficiency remained potent. An 11-2 run at around the 12-minute mark finally opened the game up, allowing the Buffs to cruise to the finish line and improve to 5-1 on the season.
The offense was a team effort for the Buffs in this one, with eight players taking at least four shots but none attempting more than eight, and five players reaching double figures in scoring. They were led by the usual suspects, as Tristan da Silva led the team with 17 points to surpass 1,000 for his career. KJ Simpson added 15 of his own getting to the free-throw line eight times to find some easy points.
“I feel like an old head,” da Silva said. “It’s crazy to think about, to join that club, but I’m just grateful. Grateful for my teammates sharing the rock tonight, letting me play aggressively.”
Boyle also dug deeper into his bench in the game, giving freshman RJ Smith some extra opportunities and allowing young bigs Assane Diop and Bangot Dak to play an extended stint in the first half. Dak especially was very impressive, making a few nice finishes at the basket, flashing some ball handling ability in the open court and showcasing his ability to be a smart passer for his size. Dak finished with five points and three rebounds in just six minutes.
“We used the bench by design tonight, more because of how I felt after the practices after Florida State, after the Florida State game,” Boyle said. “When you lose a game you shouldn’t have lost, which is how we look at the Florida State game, it’s imperative that your bench players understand that practice still matters and that what they do on a day-to-day basis matters. If we just stayed with the same rotation, we didn’t expand it a little bit, it wouldn’t be fair to them. Those guys deserved to play more with the way they practice… Really proud of Bangot and the way he responded. He’s gonna be a good player.”
Iona guard Greg Gordon led the Gaels with a game-high 19 points, and Idan Tretout added 18 of his own to lead the charge. The Gaels took good care of the ball for most of Sunday’s contest, but the lack of efficiency from the floor was too much to overcome for Tobin Anderson’s squad. The Buffs recorded 44 points in the paint and shot a blistering 61% from the floor in the game, allowing them to keep scoring even when they had the turnover issues early on Sunday. Conversely, Iona had just 26 points inside and shot only 42% from the floor. It wasn’t getting the same easy looks as Colorado, and wasn’t converting the ones it did get at the same clip.
The Buffs avoided a letdown Sunday as they get ready for one of the more highly-anticipated games on their schedule. Wednesday night, they will head up to Fort Collins for the Rocky Mountain Showdown against Colorado State. The Rams are currently undefeated and will likely be ranked when the new AP Poll comes out Monday. Tip-off from Fort Collins will be at 7 p.m. MST.
