The No. 20-ranked Colorado Buffaloes (7-0) stayed perfect in 2019 on Wednesday night via a comeback win against the visiting Loyola Marymount Lions, in a game that saw CU take control of things with less than three minutes left in the second half after trailing most of the game.

McKinley Wright IV and D'Shawn Schwartz tied for the team lead with 16 points apiece.

Down 34-30 at halftime, after an initial 20 minutes of play that were overflowing with mistakes, missed shots and turnovers — so many turnovers, as Tad Boyle has joked in the past — to maintain a popular bakery, the Buffs rallied in the second half, outscored the opposition, 46-30, and won by a final score of 76-64.

I think that as a general statement, the first thing that needs to be said here is that the mistakes Colorado committed throughout this game (subpar FT shooting, failing to finish shots near the rim and most obvious and importantly, the turnovers) are going to get them absolutely obliterated against Kansas this Saturday if there’s a repeat and regularity with the aforementioned mishaps.

Colorado’s opening offensive possessions in both the first and second half were turnovers. If that doesn’t epitomize how the night went then I don’t know what does.

With about 16 minutes left in the second half, the Buffs had 16 turnovers compared to 17 rebounds.

Loyola Marymount was flirting with a conversion rate in the 50s for the entire game. Colorado needs to prepare for Kansas to be equally as hot, and if that does end up being the case, combined with the self-imposed struggles, the Buffs are in trouble.

Feel free to chalk this one up under the “ugly win” category. Colorado has had far too many of those for comfort and it’s exactly why recently the team has enjoyed a move up the AP Poll equivalent to a snail’s pace.

Most alarming about Wednesday’s game against the Lions was undoubtedly the turnovers. The Buffs coughed the ball up transition, got their pockets picked in the offensive zone, made some bad passes/decisions — point being, CU gave up turnovers in about every imaginable manner.

I risk sounding like a total defeatist, but I fail to see how the multi-faced issue in regards to the turnovers is solved in time to face the No. 2 team in the nation on their home court.

Who knows, perhaps that will be the case, and I sure hope it is, but at the end of the day, the Buffaloes continue to flirt with disaster.

But on the other side of the coin that shows all of CU’s perpetuating issues, there is something to be said about this team’s ability to overcome them. That indeed is a moral victory, yet you’re crazy if you’re telling me the 2017-18 or 2018-19 teams would have been able to consistently overcome bad first halves and all of the above in terms of noted mistakes.

So that is something to appreciate, but I think on the whole, the Buffs to me look like the kind of team that’s going to be very much exposed on a big stage in Lawrence if they don’t clean themselves up.

That’s my initial summary of this one. I’ll move now to individual player analyses.

McKinley Wright IV: The man played 38:18. That is damn commendable. He finished with 16 points, half of which came from the free throw line. Once again, his floater was off and on the night, he shot 4-of-10 from the floor. But he drew nine fouls, had six rebounds and five assists. He made clutch shots in the second half when the team needed them most and got opposing players in foul trouble. Overall, I think he played a solid game.

Tyler Bey: Bey needs to clean up his ball handling, as he led the team with five TOs and a good number of times, had the ball tomahawked out of his hands by a defender. But defensively, I think his five blocks carried more weight than his turnover mishaps. Just as the Buffs were starting to dig themselves out of their deficit in the second half and establish a lead, Bey turned up the heat with his defense, denying a good handful of attempted Lions shots.He finished with 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Less dominant on the boards than we’ve seen recently, and you could feel some frustration on his part for not finishing three or four shots near the rim, but in the end,his performance was one that elevated the team.

Daylen Kountz: Most confident and effective game of 2019, no doubt about it. Finally, we saw him show his true colors as a slasher and someone who can be a major pain in the behind in transition. His drives through traffic were seamless, from the route he took, to switching the ball between his hands in midair, to finishing. I thought he played electric on offense.

He did have two turnovers, something Tad Boyle commented on postgame, but it appears coming off the bench as opposed to starting is doing him and Colorado some favors.

Evan Battey: He played 25 minutes and scored eight points with eight rebounds. He was second on the team with five fouls drawn, and on the whole, was more disciplined in avoiding the “two fouls not even 10 minutes into the game” territory.

He’s probably in the same boat as Bey in terms of not finishing a few gimmes down low in the post, but hey, he got himself to the line, avoided characteristic foul trouble and gave the Buffs 25 strong minutes.

Dallas Walton: I’ll begin by stating that I asked Boyle postgame about Walton’s clear level of frustration in missing some “bunny” shots, as Boyle put it. You can just tell with Walton — no one is more cognizant of his situation than he: by that I mean putting it bluntly, Walton isn’t seeing many minutes and furthermore is not doing much offensively to make the most of his limited floor time.

In the second half, Wright called him up to set a pick; he botched it, wound up with the ball at the three-point line with a few seconds left on the shot clock, and clearly looked at a total loss of what to do before launching a desperation three, which missed.He simply has yet to return to his redshirt freshman form. In no way am I holding that against him given his injury history, and neither is Boyle.

In fact, Walton was praised by his head coach for giving good minutes, despite missing an easy basket or two. He’ll come around.

Shane Gatling: He was aggressive from the floor, taking eight shots, which was second only to Wright’s 10. Gatling went 3-of-8 on the night and scored eight points. I’d give Gatling a more neutral rating, as he was cold from three, going just 1-of-5. Ultimately, he was brought to Colorado to bolster the team’s three-point shooting, and as a senior this year, I want to see a more consistent stroke from him.

Eli Parquet and Maddox Daniels were the biggest letdowns. The former played for just over nine minutes after getting the start, and his usually superb defense wasn’t exactly there. In other words, he wasn’t as dominant on the perimeter to warrant extended playing time.

As for Daniels, he was ice cold from the floor, going 0-of-4 in total and 0-of-3 from deep. He had one point, but also a turnover and in general, was a nonfactor.