Colorado
Seattle University (Second Round)
Buffs Bounced From CBI After Losing Second-Half Lead
March 24, 2015 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
SEATTLE – An erratic second half put an end to an erratic basketball season here Monday night for the Colorado Buffaloes. Simply showing more resolve to keep their season alive, the Seattle Redhawks strolled out of the undersized Connolly Center and into the CBI Tournament's Final Four with a 72-65 victory.
Squandering a nine-point second-half lead, CU was victimized by a 14-4 run that pushed Seattle ahead 69-58 with 48 seconds to play. The Buffs got as close as 70-65 on three free throws by Dominique Collier with 17.7 seconds remaining but by then it was too late for the Pac-12 team and almost too good to be true for the one from the WAC.
"Great opportunity," CU coach Tad Boyle said. "We had the game under control, we had the lead . . . Seattle played like a hungry dog; they're playing like they don't want their season to end. You realize now why schools like Colorado University don't go on the road to schools like Seattle University. But that's why we wanted to play in this tournament; hopefully we will learn from it."
And hopefully, the Buffs will learn from their 16-18 finish, the worst of Boyle's five in Boulder. In dropping the third of their final five games, they suffered their 11th road loss (against two wins) of the season – with the 11 road defeats the most since 1988-89 (0-12).
"We weren't good enough to win on the road in the Western Athletic Conference, and we know we have to beat teams in the Pac-12 on the road," Boyle said. "Hopefully that can motivate and bring the reality of where some of our players are right now and where they need to be, which is we have to get better."
Josh Scott topped CU with 17 points and 12 rebounds – his 23rd career double-double – while Collier added 11 points. They were the only two Buffs in double figures. Wesley Gordon grabbed 10 rebounds, the seventh time this season he's been at 10 or above.
Jarell Flora led the Redhawks (18-15) with 22 points, including back-to-back treys that helped erase the Buffs' nine-point (45-36) lead midway through the second half. Isiah Umipig added 20 points, and between them they accounted for eight of Seattle's 10 treys.
The Redhawks, who play at Loyola-Chicago Wednesday night, became the seventh CU opponent this season to hit 10 or more 3-pointers. They drained seven of their 12 second-half trey attempts (58.3 percent) and shot 60 percent (12-of-20) from the field overall.
Meanwhile, the Buffs hit 33.9 percent (19-of-56) of their field goal attempts, but it was their free throw shooting – particularly in the second half – that victimized them. They hit 20 of their 30 foul shots, going 17-for-25 in the second half.
Plus, CU's 14 turnovers - one more than its assist total - fed Seattle 21 points, which Boyle intimated was inexcusable against a zone. "Our guard play has to get better," he said. "You cannot go into a place like Seattle, playing against the zone, and have 14 turnovers. You can't do that."
The Buffs led by as many as seven points twice in the first half but had to be content with a three-point – 31-28 – halftime lead. The Redhawks' biggest first-half lead was three points on four occasions, and they went to the locker room having hit only three of their 10 3-point attempts while the Buffs had one more trey in the same number of tries.
Those four triples were made by four different players as CU shot 40 percent from long range and 41.4 percent overall for the first 20 minutes against Seattle's 2-3 and 3-2 zones.
Trailing 18-15, CU launched an 10-0 run with two-point baskets by Tre'Shaun Fletcher and Jaron Hopkins and 3-pointers by Eli Stalzer and Xavier Johnson to go up 25-18 with six minutes before the break.
CU enjoyed an inside height advantage, but Seattle held its own on the boards in the first half, trailing by only two rebounds (21-19). The Buffs finished with a 44-29 rebound advantage but were outscored 26-18 in the paint.
After hitting four treys in the first half, the Buffs opened the second half with consecutive three balls by Talton, Fletcher and Collier to take their largest lead of the night – 40-31. But those three straight triples would be CU's only 3-pointers of the second half's 15 attempts. The Buffs finished 7-of-25 from beyond the arc.
"We hit three big threes to go up," Boyle said of his team's second-half start. "Bottom line is they hit 60 percent and we turned it over eight times (in the second half). We got to the free throw line, but we turned it over three times in a row. What you find this time of the year is the things that hurt you all year are the things that are going to kill you."
CU led 49-43 at the 10-minute mark, but lost Johnson to an apparent ankle injury. Then they lost the lead as Flora hit consecutive treys – the last as the 30-second shot clock wound down – to tie the score at 49-49 with 7:33 remaining. Flora's pair of triples capped a 13-4 Seattle run with a similar one awaiting.
When Flora scored off an in-bounds pass under the basket, the Redhawks took a 52-51 lead – their first since 18-17 – and the Buffs were beginning to stagger. But they tied the score at 52-52 on one of two free throws by Collier, then took a 53-52 lead on one of two foul shots by Scott with 5:50 remaining.
It would be their last advantage of the night. The Redhawks responded with their 14-4 surge, opening a double-digit lead and essentially ending the Buffs' season.
"We have to get tougher, we have to get more consistent," Boyle said. "We have to play smarter, and our skill level has to get better when it comes to ball control.
"To a man, the guys in that locker room have to get better before next season. We have to find a motivating factor, because just because we're a year older doesn't mean we're a year better, we found that out this year. Last year, I tried to use the Pittsburgh score to motivate us and that fell flat as a pancake."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDUÂ
