BOULDER-- Colorado beats Washington State in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament, 73-63, Colorado has never lost in the first round of the tournament. They will take on Arizona tomorrow tonight.

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1st Half Recap

The first half for Colorado was nowhere to close to where they needed to be to keep up with Washington State’s fast tempo. The Cougars would easily jump out to an 18-7 lead. Derrick White had five of Colorado’s first seven points. To end the first half White had nine points while Xavier Johnson had seven. At one point in the first half, Colorado went four minutes without a field goal.

Colorado’s performance was startling for all Buff fans. They had no offense, no defense, and no energy. The Cougars took advantage of that and soared to a 17 point lead in the first half. The Cougars were shooting 56% from the floor during the first half and ended the first half with three players with 10 points, those three players had more points than the whole Buffaloes team at halftime.

One thing Colorado did well was stay out of foul trouble in the first half. Washington State didn’t shoot a single free throw until 10 seconds left in the first half. While Colorado shot 13 in the first half, making nine of them. Colorado ended the first half shooting 32% from the floor and 18% from three point range. Washington State hit five three-pointers in the first half.

The last time Colorado and Washington State played in Boulder, Colorado out-rebounded the Cougars by 24 but at the end of the first half Colorado was being out-rebounded by the Cougars. Colorado was getting exposed in the post by Conor Clifford and Josh Hawkinson but they began to pick up their defense towards the end of the second half cutting the lead to 14 at the end of the half. With the way the Buffs were playing in the first half they could have easily been down by much more.

2nd Half Recap

Coach Tad Boyle must have gotten into his players during halftime because Colorado came out hot in the second half, or should I say White came out hot in the second half. In the first five minutes of the game he had 12 points as Colorado went on a 15-2 run and cut the Cougar lead to four. White would take over the game and would finish 25 points, five assists, five rebounds and zero turnovers.

Colorado tightened up their defense big time in the second half, going on multiple runs, eventually, they would put together some defensive stops and after a three-pointer from Johnson, Colorado would take the lead. The last time they lead the game was when it was 3-2 to start the game.

Washington State only had 22 points in the second half. Colorado’s starting five held the team during the game as they only had 10 bench points from Josh Fortune (7) and Tory Miller (3). Colorado would change their aggressiveness in the rebounding department in the second half, ending the game with 37 while Washington State had 29.

To finish the game Colorado would shoot 23-53 (43.4% ) from the floor, 7-23 (30.4%) from three-point range and 20-26 (76.9%) from the charity stripe. Each team would have 11 turnovers in the game but the second half was all Colorado against the Cougars.