Despite a few first half turnovers in bunches, in addition to a cold spell of shooting, also in the first half, Tad Boyle and his players have to be feeling pretty good with Saturday’s 60-46 victory over CSU Bakersfield that was, generally speaking, a pretty solid all-around performance.
The Buffaloes (9-3, 1-1 Pac-12), who never trailed during the game, entered Saturday’s noon tipoff shooting a less-than-stellar 29.9% from three-point range on the year; in just over two minutes into things vs. the Roadrunners, CU had hit a pair of three, finishing the day with a 41% (7-of-17) make rate from deep.
That wound up being the best three-point conversion rate Colorado has posted since Nov. 15, with Saturday ending a frustrating stretch that saw the Buffs fail to shoot better than 30% from beyond the arc in seven of the team’s last eight games dating back to Nov. 19.
“We had a week off and so what we focused on was getting a lot of shots in and I think it paid off this week,” Nique Clifford, who was 2-of-3 from deep Saturday, said after the win. “A lot of practices, a lot of work, and some of the shots started to fall tonight, so we’ve just got to keep that up and be more consistent when we’re taking our three(s).”
Keeshawn Barthelemy led the Buffs with 12 points, the most he’s contributed in about a month, while Elijah Parquet also cracked the double digits, finishing the afternoon with 10 points.
Clifford also turned in an impactful performance off the bench, scoring 10 points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds.
At Friday’s practice, Tad Boyle warned the Buffs about CSU Bakersfield’s ability to snag offensive rebounds; his expectations were met in that regard by game’s end.
Colorado edged the Roadrunners, 40-34, on the glass, but allowed 11 offensive rebounds.
"We don't expect zero offensive rebounds by the other team," Boyle said. "I'm not looking for perfection, because there are times — and there were a couple of those tonight — where the ball just bounced (and) there was a long rebound. That's going to happen from time to time but it can't happen 11 times."
About five minutes into things, Jabari Walker subbed out and promptly headed to CU’s locker room, where he remained for the rest of the first half. Walker did not return to the court in the second half.
“I don’t know what happened because I didn’t see the play,” Boyle said. “I don’t know what (Walker’s) status is until probably when he sees a doctor, maybe probably tomorrow we’ll see how he’s feeling and that sort of thing. We’ll figure that out as we go.”
Needless to say, whether or not Walker will play in CU’s final non-conference game of the year next Tuesday, vs. No. 7 Kansas, is undetermined at the moment.
CU’s first two baskets of the game were three-pointers, courtesy of Tristan da Silva and Barthelemy.
Parquet hit another at the 13:52 mark of the first half which gave the Buffs their first double digit lead, 14-4.
Following a hot start, Colorado slowed down offensively, ending the first half with a make rate just shy of 35%. Luckily for the Buffs, CSU Bakersfield was unable to take advantage, as the Roadrunners shot just 19% from the floor in the first 20 minutes. On the night, they shot 27%.
Colorado took a nine-point lead into halftime and from there, didn’t look back. CU’s lead peaked at 17 about midway through the second half, and while the Roadrunners got to within eight points of the Buffs with five minutes left in the game, their comeback effort never amounted to a significant threat.
Earlier this season, Boyle sent out an email to CU season ticket holders imploring them not to sell game tickets to Kansas fans ahead of Dec. 21’s showdown with the Jayhawks.
Poor attendance has been a recurring theme this season for men’s basketball, with a Dec. 4 matchup with No. 13 Tennessee seeing only 8,688 fans show up to the CU Events Center.
Looking ahead to Tuesday, when the Jayhawks come to town, Boyle hopes for a different result.
"I'm looking forward to having the CU Events Center full of Buffs fans," Boyle said. "That's what I'm hoping for and counting on...Hopefully this is a college basketball game that the state of Colorado can get excited about. I wish they got excited about every game."
"I'm watching Duke play Appalachian State the other night — the place was packed. The student section was packed. I wonder why not here."
