A total of 33 accredited NBA scouts were at the CU Events Center Friday night to watch the Buffaloes take on the visiting Milwaukee Panthers.

While CU’s Jabari Walker has been rumored to be a potential first-round pick in next year’s Draft, Milwaukee true freshman Patrick Balwdin Jr., a five-star Class of 2021 recruit and possible lottery pick, was undoubtedly the man drawing all the attention.

Baldwin entered Friday averaging 17.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per game; when the clock read all zeroes, he’d been limited to 12 points on 3-of-12 shooting with five boards.

The Buffaloes took the committee approach to covering Baldwin, with Walker, Tristan da Silva and Luke O’Brien all defending him at one point or another.

“He likes to take a lot of size-up pull-ups,” Eli Parquet said after the game. “Our plan was to get him to drive the ball as much as we can instead of shooting threes and pull-ups, just make him uncomfortable, climb into him, pressure him — he didn’t like physicality, so that was our plan.”

Despite Baldwin being the main attraction Friday, as far as the nearly-three dozen NBA scouts in the house were concerned, it was Walker who stole the show.

With the game neck and neck, and CU holding a 53-52 lead late in the second half, Walker scored eight straight points for the Buffaloes on an eventual 12-0 run that spanned from the 3:01 to 51-second marks of the final half.

By that time, all hope had run out for the Panthers, and the Buffs cruised to a 65-54 victory, moving to 8-3 (1-1 Pac-12) on the year.

With a late hot stretch powering the Buffs to victory, and at the same time juxtaposing some earlier cold stretches in the game, Tad Boyle couldn’t resist from equating his 2021-2022 club to a classic Forrest Gump quote.

“Life’s like a box of chocolates — this basketball team’s like a box of chocolates,” Boyle said after the game. “You just don't know what you’re going to get. And it’s not just night to night, it’s media timeout to media timeout, it’s first half to second half, it’s possession to possession. We just have to become more consistent, but we made plays when we had to make plays.”

In a close call win over Eastern Washington Wednesday, the Buffs stumbled down the stretch of the second half, going on a long scoring drought chock full of turnovers that very nearly cost them the game.

Friday proved to be no different for CU, which managed to score just four points over a nearly five-minute period that allowed the Panthers to take a small lead of 52-51.

But from there, after Evan Battey sank a pair of free throws, Walker took over, hitting a layup in the paint before pickpocketing Baldwin at halfcourt and rushing down the hardwood for an emphatic dunk.

Baldwin fouled him on the shot and Walker proceeded to make his foul shot; 55 seconds later, he drilled one of CU’s three three-pointers (3-of-15 as a team on the night), opening up the game with 1:41 to go and handing Colorado a 61-52 lead.

It was truly a tale of two halves for Walker, who was 0-of-6 from the floor in the first 20 minutes but went 4-of-8 with five free throws made, scoring all of his 14 points in the second half.

“The game slowed down for me in the second half,” he said. “I was like, ‘OK, let me find when to attack, let me find when to dish it.’ I had to figure out when to drop the ball off and make the easy pass and when to drive. But just being aggressive overall, that was the key for me.”

Parquet had a similar night, scoring nine of his 11 points in the second half, while Evan Battey, who scored seven in the first half and eight in the second, proved to be the Buffs’ most consistent player of the night.

Neither Keeshawn Barthelemy nor K.J. Simpson lit it up for CU as far as offensive contributions were concerned, yet they combined to post a 7:2 assist-to-turnover ratio, with both players chipping in eight points.

As far as defense goes, in addition to holding Baldwin in check, Colorado had to feel pretty good about the 36% (20-of-55) field goal percentage allowed to Milwaukee. The Panthers were also held to a 29% (7-of-24) make rate from deep.

The Buffaloes also posted a respectable +9 (39-30) advantage in rebounds by game’s end.

Three-point shooting remains a weakness for the Buffs, who, after Friday, have shot a lackluster 16-of-63 (25%) from deep over their last four games.

“We’ve got practice shooters,” Boyle said. “We need some game shooters. I’ve got confidence in our guys. Look at Eli’s numbers last year. Look at Jabari’s numbers last year. We know how good of a shooter Keeshawn is...the three-point shot will come. It will come with this team, it just hasn’t shown up yet. But we’re not going to quite taking them and we’re not going to quit working on them. We’ll get there.”

Also notable was the contribution of O'Brien, who scored a career-high nine points in Friday's win.

"I loved his aggressiveness, but aggressiveness under control," Boyle said. "I love how he rebounded the ball — he was in there battling for boards and I liked his energy level on defense. I thought Luke did a really good job in really all the areas of the game."

With CU now into finals week, Boyle indicated that this upcoming week's practices will be on the lighter side.

Up next for the Buffaloes is a home game vs. Cal State Bakersfield, with tipoff from the CU Events Center coming at noon Saturday, Dec. 18.