Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
5-3
Fresno State
4-5
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresno State | 23 | 41 | 64 |
| Colorado | 38 | 33 | 71 |
Brooks: Young Buffs Regain FT Touch, Edge Bulldogs
December 07, 2011 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - A veteran basketball team with a 15-point halftime lead is pretty close to being a certain winner. A young team clutching the same advantage . . . no guarantees.
With his team up 38-23 at intermission on Wednesday night, Colorado men's coach Tad Boyle fervently tried to head off the onset of complacency, telling his young Buffaloes, "Don't play the scoreboard, play the possession on both sides of the ball . . . it wasn't something we didn't talk about, but sometimes all you can do as a coach is talk. (Players) have to take it out on the floor and do it."
It took awhile in the second half for Boyle's message to register, but in the end it did. CU righted itself against surprisingly unflappable Fresno State and its zone defense, finally pulling free of the Bulldogs for a 71-64 win at the Coors Events Center.
If the Buffs' one-point loss a week earlier at Colorado State was directly traceable to the free throw line - 16 misses - this win plopped on the same thin stripe. CU shot 84.4 percent (27-of-32) Wednesday night from foul line, making 13-of-14 in the final 5:39 when Fresno State had closed to within three points and simply wouldn't vanish.
CU sophomore Andre Roberson, whose one made free throw in seven attempts accounted for his only point at CSU, recovered in a big way against Fresno State. He scored a career- and team-best 21 points on five-of-six shooting while making all nine of his free throw attempts. He also contributed a game-high 10 rebounds for his 10th career double-double, half of them this year.
"Andre was dialed in mentally . . . you could see it tonight," said Boyle, adding he hoped Roberson "getting his mojo going" doesn't require a pair of three-pointers every game. Roberson hit back-to-back treys in the first half when the Buffs appeared to be toying with the Bulldogs and building their 15-point halftime lead.
But things changed quickly. Even though his team owned what appeared to be a comfortable advantage going into its locker room, Boyle didn't like the way the first half ended - and that was only the beginning of his nightmare.
Although CU had possession with the shot clock off, freshman guard Spencer Dinwiddie was whistled for a charge with 2.9 seconds showing on the game clock. Fresno State rushed the ball over the halfcourt line and called a timeout with .03 to play, giving the Bulldogs enough time to regroup for a pass and shot.
Kevin Olekaibe, who finished with a game-best 26 points, took the shot - a trey from the left corner - and made it, bringing a red-faced Boyle off the bench as the horn sounded and resurrecting memories of occasional problems his first CU team faced in switching on ball screens.
Boyle also was displeased at the Buffs committing 17 turnovers for the third time this season. "Against Fresno State, that's way too many," he said, attributing some to his team's unfamiliarity with the zone defense the Bulldogs showed late in the first half and for most of the second.
"We did a really good job when they were in man-to-man," CU senior point guard Nate Tomlinson said. "We were moving the ball around and they couldn't defend us (in the first half). Then they went zone, and we haven't seen a lot of zone this year. So that was new for us."
Tomlinson, who had a game-best six assists, and Dinwiddie occasionally alternated at the high post as the Buffs sought to distribute the ball against the Bulldogs' zone. Ball movement and hitting open shots can fragment zones, and Dinwiddie delivered a timely trey with 2:14 to play and CU cradling a 61-57 lead. He was two-of-three from behind the arc, and the Buffs' 6-of-12 was a season best.
"I had an open shot, so I took it," said Dinwiddie, who finished with 15 points - his third consecutive game in double figures. "Whenever you get a good look, you have to take the shot."
Roberson, who has reached double-digit rebounds in seven of eight games this season, said the Buffs can't relax after rolling to a halftime lead like Wednesday night's: "It's really important that we work on playing the full 40 minutes. We can't get comfortable with ourselves. We've got to work on that in practice."
When these frantic 40 minutes had ended, CU had its 27th consecutive non-conference home court win and had improved to 5-3 this season. Fresno State slipped to 4-5.Â
Boyle used 11 players in the opening half, and eight of them scored. Freshman forward Damiene Cain saw his first duty of the season, logging 4 first-half minutes and collecting three rebounds, with one turnover and one personal foul. He played 2 more minutes in the second half and scored his first two points for the Buffs.
As dominant as the Buffs were in the first half, the Bulldogs left their locker room still believing in themselves. Over the first 71/2 minutes of the second half, they outscored the Buffs 14-6 and closed to within seven (44-37) with 13:43 to play.
CU showed signs of pulling away, but couldn't. And when Olekaibe nailed a three-pointer from the right wing with 7:09 left, Fresno State was within 55-52. The Bulldogs closed to three once more in the final 7 minutes and four before Dinwiddie's crucial three-pointer restored a seven-point CU advantage (64-57). After that, the Buffs scored their final seven points at the free throw line.
"We won the game . . . I know it doesn't seem like it by the energy," said Boyle, who recounted for his team a time in CU hoops history where defeating Fresno State by seven points at home would be cause for "high-fiving and celebrating . . . we didn't have any of that tonight, which shows me the expectation level of our players, our coaches and even our fans is a little higher than that."
The Buffs return to the Events Center Friday (7 p.m., Root Sports) to play Wyoming. Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased at CUBuffs.com/tickets or by calling 303-49-BUFFS.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
