Colorado
3-1
Nebraska Omaha
2-2
Brooks: Slow-Starting Buffs Wake Up And Rally For 87-82 Win
November 22, 2015 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – Noon tipoffs aren't the norm, but they're no reason to sleepwalk through a first half – which the Colorado Buffaloes did Sunday against wide awake, fully alert, totally charged Omaha. The Buffs nearly paid. Dearly.
Trailing by 13 points early in the second half, lethargic CU finally shook itself awake, began defending, and finally overtook Omaha 87-82 at the sparsely populated Coors Events Center.
"I just said on the radio (KOA), that Nebraska-Omaha deserved to win . . . we snuck out with a win. I'm not sure we deserve it but we're going to take it," Buffs coach Tad Boyle said in his postgame news conference. "They outplayed us in lot of areas . . . our players walk in thinking (Omaha) is going to bow down to them; Nebraska-Omaha does not owe us anything."
As for the Buffs and the narrowest and most harrowing of their three November wins, Boyle said a great deal is owed to Josh Scott and Wesley Gordon: "Josh and Wesley bailed us out . . . without (them) we lose by 20 points. Our players need to understand where our bread is buttered."
Aside from his team's early lethargy, Boyle's chief gripe was the Buffs giving up 17 layups – a shortcoming that Scott (14 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks) and Gordon (12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks) didn't have a hand in. "They weren't the ones getting beat off the dribble," Boyle said. "It didn't take an Einstein to figure out what we weren't getting done."
The afternoon wasn't without its positive for the Buffs (3-1). Of course, there was the win and the way it was achieved. CU's second-half comeback was ignited by defense, rebounding and free throw shooting. The Buffs shot only 38.7 percent from the field for the game, but in the second half they were at 42.9 percent (15-of-35).
And although their afternoon's free throw percentage was 73.9 percent, they were 22-of-26 (84.6 percent) in the second half – including 10-of-10 down the stretch after the Mavericks pulled to within three (83-80) in the final minute on back-to-back 3-pointers by Devin Patterson.
Boyle noted that assistant head coach Jean Prioleau reminded the Buffs postgame that there are "good players all over college basketball . . . players come in and you find out how good a Devin Patterson is."
He was good enough to lead all scorers (19 points) and give the Buffs an afternoon-long headache with his ease in getting to the rim. That perplexed Boyle as much as his team's 12 turnovers and nine assists, down 10 from the Friday night total against Portland.
"How you go from 19 assists one night to nine the next is beyond me," Boyle said.
But when the Buffs had to rally they were able. Geroge King (16 points) Tre'Shaun Fletcher (15) and Dominique Collier (13) all played key roles in the second-half comeback. King scored six straight points during a 10-4 run that allowed CU to catch Omaha at 53-53 with 11:47 remaining.
Just under two minutes later, Fletcher hit a foul line jumper to push the Buffs up 57-55 – CU's first lead since 17-15. After two one-and-one Omaha misses, Fletcher drained a 3-pointer as the clock shot ticked to two, giving CU a five-point advantage (60-55) with 8:11 left.
It quickly became "Tre Time." He followed with both ends of a one-and-one, then hit another trey from the right wing, putting the Buffs ahead 65-57. A King floater just inside the left key gave CU its first double-digit lead of the afternoon – 67-57 – with 61/2 minutes to play.
The Mavericks weren't in a rollover mood, with Patterson pulling them to within 83-80. But Collier, who didn't shoot a free throw in the first half, hit all six attempts in the final 90 seconds, and Gordon's pair with 19.4 seconds to play put the game out of reach.
Fletcher's biggest miscue of the afternoon might have been suggesting that the early tip time worked adversely on the Buffs, whose daily practices usually finish before 11 a.m. Boyle called that rationale "garbage . . . give me a break." He said the Mavericks adjusted to the early tip: "It's noon for everybody."
The CEC was boisterous when warranted, but it wasn't close to being full (7,199). Thank Thanksgiving break on campus – it began on Friday – for that, perhaps as well as TV competition with the Broncos-Bears 11 a.m. kickoff.
So maybe the Buffs needed a full house (or close to it) or maybe a later tip time to launch a better start. But whatever the reason, they slumbered through most of the first 20 minutes, allowing the Mavericks to lead by as many as eight points on two occasions and go to their locker room with a 38-32 halftime lead.
The Buffs needed a fast second-half start – and didn't get it. The Mavericks scored the half's first seven points, five by 6-8 Jake White, and took their largest lead of the afternoon – 45-32 – before the Buffs might have realized real trouble was brewing.
Their solution: Defense like they should have been playing for the first 20 minutes that keyed an 11-2 run and brought them to within four points (47-43) with 15:46 to play. The Buffs finally caught the Mavericks at 53-53 on a pair of Scott free throws.
"One thing I'll say about this group is I don't think we really care how much we are down," said Scott, who recorded his 25th career double. "We fight and we've come back before . . . we're a good basketball team which didn't have the best game, but we fought through and got the win."
Fletcher said the team's postgame mood was "unsatisfied . . . we can get better at a lot of things that coach Boyle mentioned to us. We just need to be ready to play from the jump."
Boyle will see to that. With no classes this week, he said the three days preceding Thanksgiving will be put to good use: "We all have a lot to be thankful for; I'm thankful for the fact they don't have to go to school this week and that we don't have NCAA time restrictions on practice and film-watching. We're going to put that to good use . . . before we eat turkey."
CU returns to the CEC on Wednesday night to play Air Force (7 p.m., Pac-12 Networks).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
