Boyle's Buffs Head To BYU, Aim For Third Straight Win

PROVO, Utah — With one of their biggest nonconference wins in recent years under their belts, Tad Boyle's Colorado Buffaloes will hit the road Saturday for an 8 p.m. game at BYU (ESPN2).

The 7-2 Buffs will be aiming to put a successful cap on a key portion of their schedule with their third straight win, while also building on Wednesday night's 68-66 win over No. 13 Xavier.

Even in the preseason, Boyle was pointing to this stretch as barometer, one in which the Buffs would find out what kind of team they might be as they get closer and closer to Pac-12 play.

But no matter what happens Saturday, the end result won't be quite what Boyle had hoped. The Buffs opened the stretch with a loss to Colorado State, but have since added wins at Portland and at home against Xavier.

"I wanted to go 4-0, but if we get a win at BYU, I'll take it," Boyle said. "It's not going to be easy. We're going to have to be mentally tough and fight that road crowd."

The Cougars have endured an up-and-down stretch over the last few weeks. After opening with four straight wins, they have won just two of their last five, including losses to Utah Valley and USC and a win over Saint Louis.

Saturday's game will be a rematch of last year's game in Boulder, one in which the Buffs built a 25-point lead in the second half, only to see the Cougars rally and cut the lead to six in the final minute before CU finally held on for the win.

This time, however, the Buffs will be in a raucous setting that will likely produce the largest crowd the Buffs have seen this year. BYU routinely draws crowds of 12,000-plus to the Marriott Center, and Saturday's crowd should be no different.

"When you're on the road, there's a small window of error," CU junior George King said. "We can't have a lot of mistakes, especially against a good team like BYU. Their fans are pretty loyal. It's going to be a hostile environment, so it will be good for us. We just have to get ready for that."

Wednesday's win over Xavier might have been CU's best overall effort of the year — even though the numbers don't show it. After a cold start, the Buffs hit eight of their final 11 3-point tries, and also had an outstanding defensive stretch in which they forced eight consecutive empty Xavier possessions. That fueled a 15-0 CU run that erased an eight point deficit in the second half.

They'll need that defense against BYU. The Cougars are averaging nearly 87 points per game, led by 6-foot-10 sophomore forward Eric Mika (21.4 points per game) and sophomore guard Nick Emery (15.3 ppg). A year ago, it was Emery who fueled the Cougars' comeback in Boulder with a team-high 23 points.

"They like to play fast and we're not going to have the altitude advantage against BYU like we did against Xavier," Boyle said.

Along with defense, the Buffs will also need another round of balanced scoring like they produced against the Musketeers. Senior Derrick White, who seems to be adapting to the Division I level more and more every game, had 23 points in the win while Xavier Johnson had 18 and King produced a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double.

But most of all, the Buffs will need the type of attitude that helped them rally from the second-half deficit against Xavier. It was an effort Boyle had been waiting to see from his Buffs.

"I learned that we can bounce back from adversity," Boyle said. "We didn't fold our tent or get our heads down. That's the thing, we didn't have bad body language tonight."

SERIES: This will be the 24th meeting between Colorado and BYU, but just the second in 61 years. The Buffaloes hold a 17-6 edge, claiming a 92-83 decision on Dec. 12, 2015, at the Coors Events Center. Colorado makes its fi rst trip to Provo, Utah, since BYU won on back-to-back dates Dec. 16-17, 1955. Colorado is a perfect 10-0 against BYU in Boulder as the Cougars come to the base of the Flatirons for the fi rst time since back-to-back games on Dec. 4 & 6, 1954. The series is tied 6-6 in Provo where the Cougars have won the last three. Colorado's last win at BYU came on Feb. 16, 1946, a 65-53 decision.

BROADCAST: ESPN2 will carry the national telecast with Beth Mowins and Brad Daugherty. Newsradio 850 AM and 94.1 FM will carry the radio broadcast with Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu