Colorado's starting lineup looked different Saturday with limited minutes from Tristan da Silva due his sprained ankle and no KJ Simpson, but the Buffaloes didn't play like they were short-handed.
The Buffs led comfortably the entire second half while closing out a 69-60 win over Utah to secure the No. 9 seed for the Pac-12 tournament next week.
Colorado (16-15, 8-12 in the Pac-12), which also snapped a three-game losing streak, will open tournament play at 1 p.m. MT Wednesday in Las Vegas against No. 8-seeded Washington.
“The challenge I gave our team today before the game was, we are going to finish this year with a winning record or losing record in the regular season and it was their choice," Buffs coach Tad Boyle said. "We got three seniors who deserve to be sent out the right way and. … Our guys played their tails off."
Julian Hammond stepped up with 15 points, 5 assists and 5 steals to lead Colorado, da Silva still chipped in 15 points in his reduced role (22 minutes) and Nique Clifford delivered 14 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.
Hammond played one of his best games all season and is the first in the Pac-12 this season to record at least 15 points and 5 assists and steals each. In fact, it was 15 years ago on the dot (March 4, 2008) when Marcus Hall was the last Buff to reach those three numbers with 22 points, 7 assists and 6 steals against Kansas State.
Meanwhile, Boyle didn’t anticipate running a zone defense for nearly the entire game, but zone showed to be the most effective against the Utes' offense as the Buffs held them to 33.3-percent shooting.
“We were not planning on playing 38 minutes of zone, but it worked, and we stuck with it and they did a good job for the most part," Boyle said. "We let Utah get free a couple times in the second half from the 3-point line, but we shot enough 3s ourselves to win this game and held them off so it was a great way to finish the year."
Maneuvering around Utah’s defense (No. 2 in the Pac-12) figured to pose a significant challenge, but Colorado flipped the script by spreading the ball around to land a steady 46.3% of its shots.
Princeton transfer Ethan Wright stepped up in his second start of the season and potentially his last game ever at the CU Events Center. He finished with 10 points and 4 rebounds.
“Definitely bittersweet,” Wright said. “I think the feeling that comes to mind is just grateful. Being able to play in front of these fans and have my family out here. I’ve only been here for a year, but these guys are my brothers.”
As for da Silva, he was cleared Friday to play, but Boyle said he wasn’t a 100 percent going into the afternoon.
"Tristan is hobbled a little bit," Boyle said. "He wasn't 100% tonight by any means. He was efficient when he was in there and I didn't want to play him too much because that ankle is not 100% yet. We need it to be 100% by Wednesday, so hopefully it gets better and better each day."
CU was without Simpson on Saturday and will be without him for the entirety of the Pac-12 tournament due to a case of mono.
Playing without one of the Buffs best shooters going into the tournament is far from ideal, but Saturday’s cohesive and consistent performance provided positive takeaways to try to carry over to Las Vegas.
“For us, it's our defensive game plan, whatever that ends up being against Washington, we have to go execute that," Boyle said. "It helps to make shots and to have performances like we did tonight with four guys in double figures. If you do that in Vegas, you give yourself a chance to win. If you have four guys in double figures, share the ball, move the ball and execute your defensive game plan, it’s one game. We have to go out there thinking we're going to beat Washington.”
While the teams finished tied in the conference standings, Washington will have the No. 8 seed by virtue of its series sweep against Colorado.
“We’ve gotten to Vegas riding high and feeling good about ourselves and gotten taken out early,” Boyle said. “Whereas other times we’ve limped in there a little bit and come out pretty successful, whether it’s getting to the semis or the finals or whatever the case may be, or winning it. It’s been a while since we did that. It’s going to be a battle. We just have to figure out how to beat Washington.”
