Fast break
Why the Buffs lost: CU went 6-for-20 on 3-pointers with 14 turnovers, while Utah shot .519 in the second half.
Three stars:
1. Utah’s Deivon Smith: Although he had seven turnovers, the Utah guard threatened to post a triple-double, finishing with 17 points, a career-high-tying 11 rebounds, and nine assists.
2. Utah’s Gabe Madsen: Went 7-for-12 from the field and 5-for-6 on free throws, finishing with 21 points and three steals.
3. CU’s KJ Simpson: His late flurry gave the Buffs a fighting chance, and he finished with 25 points, nine rebounds, three assists and only one turnover while playing the entire game except for 19 seconds.
Up next: CU will put its 12-0 home mark to the test against Arizona State on Thursday (6 p.m., FS1)
SALT LAKE CITY — The frustrations from manpower issues are piling up for the Colorado men’s basketball team.
So are the missed opportunities.
Playing shorthanded once again, the Buffaloes ran out of gas after halftime and Utah pulled away for the win, extending CU’s road woes with a 73-68 decision Saturday afternoon at the Huntsman Center.
The Buffs played without part of their top seven rotation players for the 11th time in 22 games this year, as senior Luke O’Brien and freshman Cody Williams both missed the game due to injuries suffered at practice this week.
The Buffs fell to 1-6 in true road games this season and 3-15 since the start of last season. Utah improved to 12-0 at home.
“It’s just tough, because I feel like a lot of it is just self-inflicted. I feel like we do it to ourselves to a certain extent,” said guard KJ Simpson, who battled through a tough shooting day before nearly sparking a comeback bid in the final minutes. “We know what we’re capable of, so it’s kind of frustrating to not achieve or not follow through with the game plan and things like that.”
The game was tied 31-31 at halftime, and CU remained within a point after a Tristan da Silva 3-pointer less than 3 minutes into the second half. Yet the Utes took over from there, converting a four-point play and a three-point play during a 17-5 run that gave the hosts a 13-point lead with 8 minutes, 26 seconds to go.
That sequence proved crucial, as the Buffs chipped away at the deficit the rest of the way and even made it a one-possession game on three occasions in the final minute. But it simply was too big of a hole to climb out of for a shorthanded team playing in a tough environment, as CU finished just 6-for-20 on 3-pointers while Utah put up a .519 mark from the floor after halftime.
With the Buffs’ rotation shortened yet again, CU did not receive a single bench point for the first time this season. Reserves Javon Ruffin and Assane Diop combined for about 23 and a half minutes of playing time without producing a point.
“Defensively, we weren’t good enough for sure,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “They had five layups in the first half, four in the first eight minutes. They came out and shot 52% in the second half. So we weren’t good enough on the defensive side. We had a couple pick-sixes on our turnovers.
“I always go back to the defensive game plan. The number one thing on the board was to pressure these guys defensively. They don’t handle pressure well. For the first 33 minutes of the game, we didn’t do that. The last six, seven minutes we applied a lot of pressure, and they coughed it up. We got back in the game with our defensive intensity. The question I have to ask myself is where was that the first 32, 33 minutes of the game? It wasn’t there.”
It was a tough shooting day for CU’s top two scorers. Simpson finished with a game-high 25 points but needed a late surge just to finish at 10-for-22. Da Silva went 3-for-15 from the floor and 2-for-5 at the free throw line. Eddie Lampkin Jr. posted his seventh double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds, but he committed eight of CU’s 14 turnovers.
Simpson authored a late 8-2 run all by himself that got the Buffs within three points, and two more Simpson buckets kept the margin at three. But Utah went 7-for-10 on free throws in the final 51.1 seconds to keep CU at bay.
“It’s always hard when you’re missing guys, and you don’t know that somebody’s out. One day it’s this, one day it’s someone else,” CU guard Julian Hammond III said. “It’s tough, obviously. But we’re not going to make excuses. We have what it takes to still win games. It shouldn’t take that run at the end. We should have that intensity for 40 minutes and not have to try to claw back later.”
COLORADO (15-7, 6-5 Pac-12 Conference)
da Silva 3-15 2-5 10, Lampkin 4-8 3-4 11, Hadley 5-10 5-6 15, Hammond 3-9 0-0 7, Simpson 10-22 2-2 25, Ruffin 0-2 0-0 0, Diop 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-66 12-17 68.
UTAH (15-7, 6-5)
Br.Carlson 2-10 0-0 5, Keita 2-5 0-0 4, Bajema 2-7 2-4 8, Madsen 7-12 5-6 21, Smith 6-11 5-5 17, Erickson 1-3 1-2 4, Lovering 4-5 1-3 9, Be.Carlson 2-2 0-0 5, Wahlin 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-56 14-20 73.
Halftime — 31-31. 3-point field goals — Colorado 6-20 (Simpson 3-8, da Silva 2-5, Hammond 1-4, Hadley 0-1, Ruffin 0-2); Utah 7-22 (Bajema 2-6, Madsen 2-6, Be.Carlson 1-1, Erickson 1-3, Br.Carlson 1-4, Smith 0-1, Wahlin 0-1). Fouled out — da Silva. Rebounds — Colorado 43 (Lampkin 10); Utah 34 (Smith 11). Assists — Colorado 13 (Lampkin, Hammond 4); Utah 15 (Smith 9). Total fouls — Colorado 18; Utah 15. Turnovers — Colorado 14 (Lampkin 8); Utah 14 (Smith 7). Attendance — 9,294.