Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
(8) 22-12
vs. Connecticut (NCAA Tournament First Round)
(9) 25-10
UConn Rally Sinks Buffs In NCAA Opener, 74-67
March 17, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
DES MOINES, Iowa — A game that began with great promise for Tad Boyle's Colorado Buffaloes on Thursday ended in even greater disappointment.
In a way, it proved to be a reflection of Colorado's season. The Buffs played well early but allowed a nine-point halftime lead to slip away, and their season ended with a 74-67 loss to UConn in an NCAA South Region opener at Wells Fargo Arena.
When the Buffs were good, they were very, very good. But when they were bad, the issues that plagued them in too many key stretches this season proved to be their downfall one last time. Turnovers at the worst possible moments, missed free throws, an inability to finish when absolutely necessary and an inexplicable collapse of their usual rebounding prowess spelled the difference.
The Buffs thus ended their season with a 22-12 record. CU has been to the NCAA Tournament four times in the last five years, but the last three appearances have been one-and-done affairs.
"It's a bitter pill to swallow because we felt like we had this game in hand and we didn't finish," Boyle said. "It was a tale of two halves. Credit (the Huskies), they made their free throws and they made big threes when they had to make big threes."
Thanks to solid defense, good shooting and an expected edge on the boards, the Buffs took a 36-27 edge into the locker room at intermission. CU senior Josh Scott scored 13 of his 23 points in the first 20 minutes and had four of his 11 rebounds in the period.
"They're a good defensive team and we wanted to attack them inside," Boyle said. "We did a good job of that in the first half. We knew when we kicked it out, we had to make some plays. … We wanted to take what they gave us."
The Buffs shot 13-for-26 from the field in the first half, including 2-for-6 from 3-point range, and they held a 20-15 rebound edge.
But as was the case in several other losses away from home this year, Colorado couldn't protect the lead after halftime. It was a bug that bit the Buffs vs. SMU early in the year, at USC and Utah in the Pac-12 season — and it hit one more time in the NCAA Tournament.
The roof didn't cave immediately. CU did manage to maintain its nine-point edge for the first four minutes of the second half. But when the ceiling began to crumble, it happened in a hurry.
 Immediately after Gordon missed a pair of free throws that would have bumped CU's lead to 11, the Huskies went on a 7-0 run in less than a minute, a burst fueled by a pair of CU turnovers — both of which led to easy baskets.
Colorado managed to momentarily stem the tide and briefly push its cushion back to four on baskets from Tre'Shaun Fletcher and Tory Miller, but the Huskies then responded with a 15-2 run over the next five minutes. UConn hit three 3-pointers in the burst — one of which gave the Huskies their first lead of the game — and with just under eight minutes to go, CU's nine-point halftime lead had been transformed into an 11-point deficit, 57-46.
Colorado never regained the lead.
"They applied pressure on us and that really got us speeded up," said junior Wesley Gordon, who finished with nine points, nine rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. "We weren't able to take care of the ball, and then it just went downhill from there. We couldn't rebound. We couldn't really do anything once they put the pressure on us."
The Buffs knew the pressure was coming. They spent the three days prior working against exactly what they knew the Huskies would do.
It didn't matter.
"We knew the pressure was coming," Boyle said. ""You have to attack the pressure and we didn't attack the pressure. We wilted. We turned it over. We didn't attack it and handle it like we needed to."
To the Buffs credit, they did make a last run at the Huskies. With UConn leading 66-53 with just under three minutes to play, CU put together a 10-0 run that narrowed the Huskies' edge to three with a minute still left on the clock. Colorado then stole the inbounds pass after two Xavier Talton free throws — but almost as quickly as the Buffs were given a chance to tie the game or pull within one, they turned it back over.
The Huskies then hit eight consecutive free throws in the final minute to clinch the win.
Scott finished his last game in a CU uniform as the game's leading scorer and rebounder with 23 points and 11 rebounds. CU, though, didn't have another player in double figures, as Gordon's nine points and nine rebounds were next.Â
Rodney Purvis had 19 point for UConn and Daniel Hamilton added 17.
UConn finished the game with a 22-for-23 effort from the free throw line; the Buffs were 19-for-30. Colorado also ended up losing the rebound battle, 36-33, and the Buffs were 0-for-4 from 3-point range after halftime.
"We just couldn't come back all the way," Talton said. "It's disappointing. We didn't want to go out like this. We couldn't finish … we just couldn't finish."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
