Colorado
9-1
Nicholls State
3-7
Sluggish Buffs Awaken For Win Over Nicholls
December 18, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Maybe it was the effects of finals week. Maybe it was rust after playing just two games in the last 15 days.
But whatever the reason, the Colorado Buffaloes did not look like a team worthy of their top-15 RPI ranking Friday against visiting Nicholls State (248 RPI).
Still, the Buffs finally woke up from a 30-minute slumber long enough to overcome a double-digit first-half deficit and slip away with an 85-68 win over the Colonels. It was 9-1 Colorado's ninth straight win while Nicholls — coming off a 44-point loss to SMU two nights prior — fell to 3-7.
"Obviously, I'm not too pleased with the way we came out tonight," CU head coach Tad Boyle said. "I thought our first-half performance was pathetic in a lot of different ways. If we're playing a Pac-12 team tonight, we'd be down 20 at halftime, not five."
Indeed, the Buffs struggled for much of the night in virtually every category. The Pac-12's leading 3-point shooting team (14th in the nation)  hit just three of 15 tries from 3-point range in the first half — they finished 9-for-27 — and trailed by as much as 10 before finally cutting the deficit to five, 38-33, heading into the locker room.
But they finally awakened in the second half. The Buffs slowly chipped away at the Nicholls lead, and finally went ahead for good, 47-45, on a Tre'Shaun Fletcher dunk with 15:30 left in the game. The Colonels managed to stay close for a few more minutes before the Buffs put together a 22-7 run that turned a one-point game into a 75-60 CU lead with just more than four minutes to play.
CU's Josh Scott saw his run of consecutive games with a double-double halted at three, but he still finished with a game-high 20 points — 16 in the second half — and six rebounds. Josh Fortune added 17 points and five rebounds and George King chipped in 14 for CU.
T.J. Carpenter led the Colonels with 18.
It was the fourth time this year the Buffs have recovered from a double-digit deficit to record a win. But Boyle said he hoped this game would serve as a warning to his players — mainly that when their shooting is off, their defense has to fill the gap.
"This team wants to score their way out of their their problems," Boyle said. "We've done that. We're capable of that. But there's going to be nights like this. This program is based on defense and rebounding. If we don't figure that out, it's going to be a rude awakening on Jan. 1 when we tip off against Cal. I don't think our players understand that. If they did, they wouldn't continue to let this happen."
Not every Buff struggled on the defensive end. CU junior Wesley Gordon finished with just five points, but he added seven rebounds and seven blocks, tying his career high, and was a major defensive force in the second half.
"Wesley Gordon was the player of the game," Boyle said. " He had five points, took three shots — and we could not take him off the floor in the second half."
After allowing the Colonels to shoot 50 percent from the field in the first half, including 6-for-12 from 3-point range, the Buffs defense finally stiffened after intermission. The Colonels hit just 33 percent of their field goal tries in the second half (9-for-27) while the Buffs improved dramatically, connecting on 62 percent of their shots, including six of 12 3-point tries.
"We're not going to make shots all of the time, it's just part of basketball," Gordon said. "We really can't rely on our offense because sometimes the ball's going to go in and sometimes it's not. We've got to be able to fall back on our defense."
With 10:54 left in the game, Nicholls cut CU's lead to 53-52 on a Jonathan Bell 3-pointer. But the Buffs proceeded to put together a 28-12 run to put the game away. Scott started the burst with a pair of free throws and finished it with a 3-pointer, scoring 12 in the run, while Fortune added a pair of 3-pointers and layup.
"We've got to figure out that if the shots aren't going in, we need to defend and we have to rebound," Boyle said. "When the shots are open you have to take them, but there's going to be nights when the shots aren't going in."
The Buffs had just two more rebounds than Nicholls at the half, but finished with a 45-30 edge on the boards, allowing Nicholls to collect just 10 rebounds in the second half.
The Buffs struggled mightily throughout the first 20 minutes. After jumping out to a quick 12-5 lead fueled by a pair of King 3-pointers, CU gave up a 13-0 run to fall behind 18-12 and the Buffs never managed to cut the deficit to more than four the rest of the half.
While the Buffs' offense deserted them the Colonels were taking advantage of some shoddy defense to extend their lead. Nicholls stretched its edge into double digits, 38-28, with just under two minutes left in the half on a Quinton Thomas 3-pointer before CU managed to narrow the gap to 38-33 before intermission.
SLEEPING-IN BONUS: Boyle said he and CU's coaches would spend the rest of Friday night reviewing game film. "We're going to pick out the guys who didn't guard and they're going to come in tomorrow (Saturday) morning," Boyle said. "Those players' phones will be ringing in the morning. Wesley Gordon's phone won't be ringing. I told him he could sleep in."
SHOOTING WOES: Fortune and King both finished the night 3-for-6 from 3-point range, but the rest of the team was just 3-for-15. Fletcher endured a difficult 0-for-5 evening, making him just 3-for-17 over his last three games. Scott, though, hit his first 3-pointer of the season and is now 1-for-4 from beyond the arc. The Buffs also hit their final 11 shots of the game, including their final five 3-point tries.
ALTITUDE ASSIST: Nicholls head coach J.P. Piper admitted the altitude had an effect on his squad. "We reached a point where we really just ran out of gas," Piper said. "If it would have been a 30-minute game we might have had a chance. Forty minutes was a little too long for us."
NOTABLE: Scott is now 11th on CU's all-time scoring list with 1,374 points. … Colorado's school-record streak of scoring at least 80 points is now at nine. … Xavier Talton has hit all 14 of his free-throw tries this year. … Gordon's seven blocks gave him 114 for his career, tying him with Donnie Boyce for seventh-best on CU's all-time list. … Tory Miller finished with six points and 10 rebounds, his second career double-figure rebounding effort and first of the season. … Freshman guard Thomas Akyazili tied his career high with eight points, and has at least one 3-pointer in each of the last eight games.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
