Most of the time, teams aren’t supposed to pick up league wins when they’re down two of their top three scorers, and two key bench pieces. Colorado (10-2, 1-0 Pac-12) clearly didn’t get the memo Friday night, as it opened Pac-12 play with a hard-fought 73-69 win over Washington (8-4, 0-1 Pac-12).

“Gritty win, obviously with adjusting to being without one of your best players in Tristan da Silva,” head coach Tad Boyle said postgame. “Five minutes to go in practice yesterday, nobody’s around him and he just rolled his ankle. It’s just a freak deal. I knew we had enough talent in our lineup, in our locker room to win this game. … You keep losing quality players out of your lineup and your margin for error goes down significantly. The good news is, we didn’t play our best and we found a way to win this game. That’s what good teams do, that’s what high character teams do, that’s what teams with toughness do, and we beat a quality team, a talented team in Washington. So, really proud of our guys and the way they handled the adversity.”

The Buffs knew that it was going to be an uphill battle without da Silva, Cody Williams (wrist), RJ Smith (knee, Boyle confirmed postgame that Smith will miss the rest of the season), and Bangot Dak (illness), and that contributions might have had to come from some unusual suspects.

Early on however, it was the Buffs’ defense that allowed them to stay in front of a talented Huskies team. Despite needing to be extra cognizant of avoiding foul trouble, Colorado held Washington to just 26 points and forced them below 30% from the floor in the opening minutes, giving them a 6-point halftime lead.

In the second half, as expected, the Huskies finally got it going. Sahvir Wheeler found driving lanes despite a tough shooting night overall, and Moses Wood and star forward Keion Brooks Jr. knocked down shots from the perimeter to give Washington a lead that, just for a second, it looked like it wouldn't relinquish. A 15-2 Washington run gave Mike Hopkins’ team a 63-56 lead with just under 6 minutes to play.

“I was as frustrated and mad as I’ve been at this group for some time,” Boyle said of that run. “I knew going into this game, we were maybe gonna try some zone. The thing about zone, the way we play zone, is the zone is designed to take away threes. … We wanna take away threes from shooters. They had two shooters in the game: Wood and Brooks. And they make three threes in a row, bang bang bang, and we’re in zone. We’re supposed to take those away, and I lost it.”

From there, the three leaders on the floor for the Buffs stepped up and took the game over. First, it was J’Vonne Hadley, who threw down a monster poster dunk to cut the Washington lead to 3 and ignite a raucous crowd at the CU Events Center. Then, it was Eddie Lampkin, who played with an inextinguishable fire all night, laying in an off-balance layup before knocking down two free throws to complete an 8-0 Colorado run and put the Buffs back in front.

The teams traded buckets down the stretch, and in the end it all fell on the shoulders of Simpson, with Colorado ahead by two points, stepping to the free-throw line. He had missed three at the charity stripe already in the second half, including the front end of two one-and-ones, but it didn’t matter. The junior point guard calmly drained both to salt the game away.

“I shoot free throws all the time, my percentage was really good,” Simpson said. “I just missed a couple tonight, I was frustrated with myself a little bit. But understanding that, I had all the confidence in the world. It’s just two more free throws. If I dwell on those misses then I probably miss those two again. So just going out there and understanding that this is what the team needs. I’ve shot thousands and thousands of free throws before, so these are just adding to that.”

The final two foul shots got Simpson to an impressive statline: 21 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and just one turnover in 39 minutes. It was his second career double-double, and his 10 rebounds tied a career high as he continued what has been an All-American caliber campaign thus far.

“KJ Simpson spoiled us,” Boyle said. “The kid’s amazing. And he’ll be the first probably to tell you that he wasn’t at his best tonight but man, he had a hell of a line. That kid, he’s a warrior. … He’s having an All-American kind of year. Looking at the numbers, he’s the best point guard in the Pac-12 and it’s not even close. Not even up for debate in my mind.”

Lampkin also recorded his third consecutive double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds in a season-high 34 minutes. Hadley, Luke O’Brien and Julian Hammond all snuck into double figures as well with 11 points each.

The Buffs even received some quality minutes off the bench from Javon Ruffin, who was expected to miss the entire season with a knee injury but has been ahead of schedule in his recovery and started practicing last week before making his season debut Friday. Boyle said after Thursday’s practice that Ruffin wouldn’t play this weekend, but the Buffs’ injuries changed his timetable.

For Washington, Brooks continued his stellar season with a 20-point night to go along with eight boards. Wheeler finished with 17, but struggled from the floor as it took him 21 shots to get there. The battle between the Kentucky transfer and Simpson was a fascinating watch, each making the other earn every point on the floor, making the other grind for every inch trying to get to the hoop.

The victory gets the Buffs to 10 wins on the year, and they’ll likely have to play shorthanded again Sunday when they host Washington State on a very quick turnaround. Boyle said that he hoped Dak would be back for that game, but didn’t sound as optimistic for Williams or da Silva. Regardless, Friday night was a standout effort to pick up a win with nearly half of the rotation missing.

“You feel like you have to hold serve at home, any league race that you wanna try and be a part of,” Boyle said. “I wanna compete for a championship this year. I think we have the talent to do that. … You have to win games like this.”

The Buffs matchup against Wazzu is set for Sunday at 1 p.m at the CU Events Center and will be televised by Pac-12 Network.