Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
11-11, 4-6
Utah
18-4, 8-2
Brooks: Scott Returns, Booker Sits, Buffs Fall Hard
February 08, 2015 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – Saturday night's good news: Returning for the first time in a month, Josh Scott appeared fresh, springy and showed no signs of an ailing back. The bad news: Askia Booker sat out with a hip injury. The worse news: Colorado's shooting took the night off with him and the Buffs' perimeter defense also went missing.
With more than enough size to counter Scott's return, Utah didn't really need any more assistance from CU. But the No. 13 Utes got it anyway, said thank you very much, and exited the Coors Events Center with a far-too-easy 79-51 Pac-12 win.
The Buffs (11-11, 4-6) never led in what would end as the worst home defeat of CU's Tad Boyle era. It surpassed the 88-61 loss to Arizona last February and it dropped CU's home record this season to 9-3, with the three losses tying the 2012-13 team (12-3) for the low mark in the Boyle era.
"I'd like to start by giving Utah credit," Boyle said. "Those guys were really, really good tonight. They played like a top 15 team and took it to us . . . a good old fashioned ass whipping. We'll take it, learn from it and move on."
The last part might be the hardest part. The Buffs continue to be a study in inconsistency and mental softness. "Until members of your team in the locker room say this is enough, it's going to continue," Boyle said. "We're talented but everybody in the Pac-12 is talented. It's how does talent work together. Tonight you saw a team that executed and one that didn't."
After trailing by as many as 14 points in the first half, the Buffs were behind 35-23 at the half. And largely unchallenged after intermission, the Utes (18-4, 8-2) continued to pour it on en route to their first win (3-1) in Boulder since both schools joined the Pac-12.
When Brandon Taylor drained Utah's 11th 3-pointer of the night to make it 67-34 with 6:31 remaining, the CEC began emptying like someone had pulled the fire alarms. The Utes hit 59 percent (13-of-22) from beyond the arc while the Buffs struggled to reach 30 percent (14-of-47) from anywhere. CU's 29.8 field goal percentage was the worst this season.
To boot, CU's 5-to-9 assist-to-turnover ratio was no match for Utah's 20-to-10 numbers, with the Buffs' five assists tying a season low. The Utes' 68.2 percent shooting in the second half attested to the Buffs' downy soft defense, and Utah's 13 treys tied for the most CU has allowed this season.
"If it could go wrong, it went wrong for us," Boyle said. "The Achilles Heel for this team is consistency. It's not there with this team; why I don't know . . . it gets back to mental toughness."
Boyle said the only detectable bright spot was the return of Scott, who scored 10 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and had a blocked shot and one assist in 23 minutes. "If there was one shining light, it was Josh Scott, having him back in uniform," Boyle said. "He was battling and doing what he does. Other than that, there were not many bright spots tonight."
"Regardless of the outcome, I'm happy to be back," Scott said, adding the Buffs "didn't have it tonight. Defensively, offensively . . . coach Boyle will say he didn't have us prepared, but we had long practices. We knew who this team was; he had us prepared."
It was another of those addition/subtraction nights for the Buffs. While Scott, who last played at Utah last month, returned but didn't start, Booker was sidelined with an ailing hip. Booker, the Buffs' leading scorer (17.6 ppg), took a brutal hip-check by 6-11, 235-pound Nikola Jovanovic during CU's triple-overtime win last week at USC. Booker scored a career-high 43 points in that game.
"I think we caught a break not having to play against Booker," said Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak. "That was a lot of our focus this week in practice. That kid's a good player. The head of the snake for them is Askia Booker. You take a guy like that out of the lineup, we caught a break."
On Wednesday, Boyle indicated Booker's status for Saturday was questionable but didn't rule him out. Asked when the team found out Booker would not play, Scott said, "No comment."
Xavier Talton opened in Booker's place and was part of a small lineup that featured freshman Tory Miller starting rather than Wesley Gordon, who initially sat for being late to a shoot around.
"This team has an issue with punctuality," Boyle said, noting Gordon's tardiness marked the seventh time this season a player has been late for a meeting or a shoot around.
Also, Dustin Thomas started in place of Xavier Johnson, but Boyle said that was not because of a disciplinary issue. Johnson, he said, "wasn't playing well . . . it didn't matter who we started, who played. Utah was better than us in every facet."
Gordon and Johnson entered the game at the 16:31 mark, with Scott coming in 15 seconds later. At that point, Utah was up 9-0. CU finally scored on an "XJ" layup and an and-one with 15:57 left in the half – ending the Buffs' longest opening drought of the season.
But things didn't pick up offensively. Almost half the half expired before the Buffs scored their second field goal. It came on a tip by Scott with 10:17 before halftime. Less than half a minute later he hit a layup to make it 17-9, and Scott's first points since his return supplied a major lift after CU had fallen behind 17-3.
Playing 13 minutes, Scott finished his first half in a month with nine points, three rebounds and one assist. His 4-of-6 from the field highlighted a woeful first 20 minutes of Buffs shooting; his teammates went 3-for-17.
The Buffs crept as close as six (18-12) on a pair of Gordon free throws, but a pair of empty possessions snuffed that surge and it didn't take long for the Utes to restore a double-digit lead. They went up 11 on a trey by Taylor, then by a dozen (28-16) on another Taylor triple.
Taylor, who led Utah with 14 points last month in the first meeting, scored a team-high 18 Saturday night, hitting 6-of-9 treys. The Utes hit half of their 12 3-pointers in the first half and added seven more in the second. The Utes' sixth 3-pointer of the first half – this one at the buzzer by Dakari Tucker – once again pushed the Buffs behind by 12 (35-23).
Dom Collier, who led CU with 11 points, said Utah's long-range marksmanship was no surprise: "It was just getting through screens and being there (to defend). We've been working on that for the past week . . . it's on us."
And more Utah treys were on the way. The Utes opened the second half with three straight triples, one from Taylor and two from Jordan Loveridge, and surged to their largest lead of the night to that point, 44-23.
But it would only get worse for the Buffs. The Utes rolled to a 36-point lead with 6:03 to play, and both coaches played their subs for the remainder of the game.
It will take something the Buffs haven't displayed thus far, but Scott and Boyle said the season can be turned around. "We have to do it, nobody else can," Scott said. "I'm sure people are down on us – that's sports life and that's fine. But we believe in each other and we want to figure this out more than anybody."
Added Boyle: "We're not going to check out. Whether we can respond and fight, scratch and claw and get some more wins down the stretch, I don't know. We're in league play so nothing is going to be given to this team. We have to go out and take it. Up until this point we haven't really shown a lot of resolve."
Two upcoming home games might allow the Buffs to remedy that, but the season is getting short. Cal and Stanford visit the CEC next Thursday (7 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.), respectively.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
