Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
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Fort Lewis College (Colo.)
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| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
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| Fort Lewis College | 29 | 28 | 57 |
| CU | 41 | 44 | 85 |
Brooks: Buffs Roll Past Overmatched Skyhawks
November 12, 2011 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Tad Boyle wasn't facing a complete makeover with his 2011-12 Colorado basketball team, but it came close. He unveiled his retooled Buffs Friday night against Fort Lewis College, and while he was the first to acknowledge there's work to be done before the schedule toughens - and that happens quickly - he also found plenty to applaud in CU's 85-57 season-opening victory at the Coors Events Center.
"The good thing is you can win by this margin and still have room for improvement," Boyle said after watching his second CU team struggle at times to find its half-court offense and lapse occasionally on defense but still do enough right to rout an overmatched opponent.
"Defensively we played pretty well," Boyle continued. "I challenged our guys to guard for 40 minutes. We had a few lapses, but I thought overall we played well - especially with the number of new guys we had on the court."
Playing without Cory Higgins, Alec Burks, Levi Knutson and Marcus Relphorde - a foursome that accounted for about 75 percent of CU's scoring load last season - was "really weird," sophomore forward Andre Roberson said. "But it's time to move on."
And so the Buffs did - at least in their opener.
CU senior forward Austin Dufault, who led CU with 18 points and added 10 rebounds, called Fort Lewis "a good Division II team" and said the Buffs submitted a first night they can build on: "You always want to get off to a good start and our team did that . . . we had a good team effort crashing the boards."
Boyle said Dufault and senior guard Nate Tomlinson, who had five points, four assists and three steals, "gave us great stability on the court . . . I don't know if Austin can get 18 and 10 every night, but I won't be mad at him if he does."
The Buffs' board work was controlled by the 6-7 Roberson, who at 215 pounds weighs about 15 more than last season and, said Boyle, "is a beast . . . he's a lot stronger, he's athletic and explosive." Roberson exhibited all of those things Friday night, collecting a game-best 15 of CU's 48 rebounds and scoring 13 points - all in the first half.
Fort Lewis coach Bob Hofman, a former CU point guard, liked what he saw from Roberson, calling him "a special player." Hofman also was complimentary of CU's ball movement and rebounding: "One of Tad's things is they rebound . . . they are going to rebound. I thought they did a great job on the boards."
CU also got double-figure scoring from transfers Carlon Brown (13) and Sabatino Chen (10). Brown sat out last year after transferring from Utah and Chen was idled for the 2010-11 season after transferring from the University of Denver. Boyle used 12 players, with 11 of them scoring.
Boyle called Chen's 15 minutes "very effective" and cited him for his movement without the ball and his aggressive defense. Along with Chen, several other players saw their first action for CU, including freshmen Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker and Brown. Also, Shane Harris-Tunks, a sophomore, returned from a knee injury that sidelined him for the entire 2010-11 season.
Harris-Tunks, who finished with four points and two rebounds, "was rusty . . . he'll get better," Boyle said, adding that Dinwiddie (seven points, seven rebounds, three assists) and Booker (nine points, four rebounds, two assists) "both showed some good things. They're both going to be great players at Colorado."
He said the pair of freshmen were "frustrated because they both expect so much of themselves." Boyle said he expects Dinwiddie, who started and played 22 minutes, and Booker, who logged 20 off the bench, to keep learning in every situation.
Fort Lewis' top scorer was senior guard Matt Billups, who had a game-best 23 points. Billups is a cousin of former CU star Chauncey Billups and current CU director of basketball operations Rodney Billups.
The Buffs led 41-29 at intermission, but trailed 2-0 before the opening tip. CU was assessed a technical foul after a Ben Mills dunk in warm-ups prior to the official 30-minute warm-up window. As a result, Fort Lewis, of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, went up 2-0 on a pair of Billups free throws before the ball was tossed up.
"I can't remember anything like that . . . maybe in my freshman or sophomore season," Dufault said. "Ben felt pretty bad about it."
Still, Boyle's team led by as many as 16 points (25-9) after a Roberson layup with 7:16 left in the half. But the Buffs squandered that advantage with a couple of defensive lapses that allowed the Skyhawks to close the deficit to nine on three occasions.
But behind Roberson, who finished the half with his 13 points and got nine of his rebound total, CU picked up the pace. He scored eight of the Buffs' final 12 points of the half, enabling them to lead by a dozen as they headed to the locker room.
The Buffs outscored the Skyhawks 17-4 to open the second half and led by 25 (58-33) after a three-point play by Booker with just over 14 minutes to play. From there, it was a matter of Fort Lewis trying to stay respectable and CU trying to stay sharp.
CU opened a 30-point lead (68-38) on a Tomlinson three-pointer with about 10 minutes to play. When the advantage reached 31 (71-40) with 7:25 left, many in the Events Center crowd of 7,925 elected to spend the rest of the evening elsewhere.
But the nearly 8,000 on hand for the opening tip excited Dufault. "I mean it's great, just going to class and talking to kids that are interested in the program," he said. "There's just a lot of interest in our team carrying over from last year. With more people interested in us we have an extra responsibility to our fans to play hard every night."
The Buffs travel to Puerto Rico next week for the 5-Hour ENERGY Puerto Rico Tip-off. They open play on Thursday against Wichita State (5:30 p.m. MST, ESPNU).
CU's next game at the Events Center is on Nov. 28 against Georgia (6:30 p.m., Root Sports).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
