Colorado
5-1
Northern Colorado
1-5
Buffs Roll Past Northern Colorado, 82-52
November 29, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — For 20 minutes Sunday afternoon, the Colorado Buffaloes played the kind of basketball head coach Tad Boyle loves to see.
The Buffs rebounded, played defense, took care of the ball, took good shots and played team offense. And although things got a little sloppy in the second half — enough so that Boyle called a timeout to chastise his team when it held a 23-point lead — the 5-1 Buffs still had more than enough in their tank to carve out an 82-52 win over visiting Northern Colorado.
"Anytime you win by that kind of margin at home, you feel pretty good about things," said Boyle, whose team won its fifth straight game. "I really challenged our guys to hit our numbers, which we did tonight."
The Buffs put the game away early, building a double-digit lead, 17-6, less than seven minutes into the game, and steadily added to the margin throughout the half. CU closed the period with a 15-2 run, fueled by six points from Josh Scott and four from Tory Miller, to take a 46-19 lead into the locker room at intermission.
Boyle was obviously pleased with the quick start against an overmatched opponent.
"I think it's critical to come out and not give them any hope," Boyle said. "You have to punch them in the mouth, so to speak, and I thought we did that today. It's really important in games like this to get off to a quick start."
The Buffs dominated virtually every statistical category. Led by 15 rebounds from junior Wesley Gordon, CU held a commanding 48-29 edge on the boards over the smaller Bears. Colorado also limited UNC to just 32 percent shooting from the field (20 for 62) while the Buffs hit 48 percent of their shots (26 of 54), including a 10-for-23 day from 3-point range.
Scott just missed his third double-double of the season, finishing with 18 points and eight rebounds, and also had five blocks. Gordon just missed his first double-double of the season, scoring nine points to go with his game-high 15 rebounds. George King added 13 points for the Buffs and Josh Fortune finished with nine.
The Buffs' defense suffocated the Bears in the opening 20 minutes, as UNC managed to score unanswered baskets only twice in the half and never had a larger run than 4-0.
The flow of the game, though, changed significantly in the second half, much to Boyle's chagrin. After a particularly sloppy defensive effort, Boyle called a timeout and wasted no time in delivering a message in the huddle.
"We talk about playing the possession, not the scoreboard," Boyle said. "It's human nature to play the scoreboard and soften up a little when you're ahead. We can't allow that to happen."
Not that the Bears were ever a threat to completely close the gap. But with just more than nine minutes remaining in the game, the Bears had actually outscored Colorado in the half, 15-13, after a Spencer Mathis dunk.
"This team doesn't have that killer instinct yet that we need to have," Boyle said. "At this stage of the season, we have to stay hungry."
The Buffs, though, finally woke up long enough to regain control. A Fortune 3-pointer with 5:30 left in the game gave CU a 35-point lead, 73-38, and CU coasted down the stretch.
Nine different Buffs played at least 17 minutes in the game, and all 14 players in uniform saw playing time.Â
"Anytime you win by 30, it's big time," Scott said. "We accomplished all of our defensive goals. The only thing we didn't do was take care of the ball in the second half."
Indeed, after recording nine assists and just six turnovers in the first half, the Buffs added 12 turnovers to their total in the final period and just eight more assists. The Buffs have had at least 17 turnovers in five of their six games this year.
"We've got to get better at that this week," Boyle said. "We have some pretty good teams on the horizon."
While Boyle didn't mention any of those teams by name, there's little doubt that he was thinking ahead to next Sunday's noon encounter with in-state rival Colorado State in Fort Collins.
The Buffs will have one more game before that, a 6 p.m. matchup Wednesday with Fort Lewis at the Coors Events Center (Pac-12 Networks).
SPECIAL PLACE: Boyle said Northern Colorado will "always hold a very special place in my heart. Number one, they gave me my first coaching opportunity. And number two, my father taught there for 14 years as an English professor."
Boyle, who played high school ball at Greeley Central, coached four seasons at UNC before moving to CU in 2010.
WIN STREAK: The Buffs' current five-game win streak is their first since the 2013-14 nonconference schedule, when they won 10 straight. CU has won at least five of its first six for the fourth straight season.
ON TARGET: Since a cold 5-for-16 effort from the field in the season opener, Scott has hit 29 of his 38 field goal attempts over the last five games (76 percent). His five blocks Sunday were a team high for the season, and he's now averaging 3.0 blocks per game.
BIG DAY FOR MILLER: CU sophomore Tory Miller scored a season-high seven points and also grabbed six rebounds. It was a nice bounce-back effort for Miller, who earlier this week was reprimanded by the Pac-12 Conference for an incident in last Wednesday's game vs. Air Force.
"I was really happy for him," Boyle said. "Tory's been genuinely hurting, with a lot of remorse for what happened against Air Force. Tory has handled it like a man and owned up to what happened. He hasn't shrunk away from it, so to have him come out and have a good outing was much needed for him."
GORDON ON THE BOARDS: Gordon's 15 rebounds were the best by a Buff this season and the second-best total of his career, trailing only the 17 he had last season against Washington. He's averaged 10 rebounds per game over the last three games, and just missed his first double-double of the season when he missed a free throw late in the game that would have given him 10 points.
"I would've made the free throw if I would have known that," Gordon deadpanned.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
Â
