Colorado-California Notes
January 02, 2016 | Men's Basketball
Colorado drops to 3-2 in Pac-12 Conference openers.
California improves its series lead to 14-12. The Bears win their second straight in the series and have won 4-of-5.
Colorado was outrebounded (39-38) for just the second time this season. The only other game the Buffaloes were outrebounded was the season opener against No. 7 Iowa State (43-38). CU had entered the game with a plus-11.5 rebound margin. Cal actually had a 10-rebound advantage in the first half (25-15) before the Buffaloes were able to narrow the gap in the second (23-14).
Colorado missed its first eight shots of the game while Cal ran out to a 10-0 lead. The Buffaloes scored their first points on a pair of Josh Scott free throws at the 13:49 mark and hit their first field goal on a short Tory Miller hook shot with 11:52 left in the half.
Colorado had season lows for overall field goal percentage (.318), 3-point percentage (.273) and 3-pointers made (3) and attempted (11). The Buffaloes' 21 first half points are their fewest in a half this season. CU failed to make a 3-pointer in the first half (0-of-3) for the first time this year.
California had its biggest lead at 23 (70-47) with 5:40 left in the game, Colorado's largest deficit of the season.
Colorado hit 80 percent from the free throw line (20-of-25) rebounding from its 8-of-17 performance in its last outing against SMU.
Josh Scott (16 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks) moved into 10th place in career scoring at Colorado with 1,441. He passed Michel Morandais who had 1,428 from 2000-04. Scott made his 103rd career start, tying for sixth on CU's all-time list with Randy Downs (1982-86) and Jay Humphries (1980-84). Scott was 8-of-9 from the free throw line rebounding nicely from an uncharacteristic 2-of-7 performance against SMU.
Thomas Akyazili (4 assists, 3 steals) matched his career high in assists, equaling his output against Air Force. His three steals are a career high; he had just three steals in his first 13 games combined.
Wesley Gordon (11 points, 9 rebounds) registered his third double-digit scoring game of the season and second in the last three games (8.7 ppg during that span). Nearly missed a double-double with his nine rebounds. He had just nine rebounds in the previous three games combined.
