Colorado
3-0
Quinnipiac
1-2
Wright's Buzzer-Beater Lifts Buffs Past Quinnipiac
November 17, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Just three games into his college career, Colorado's McKinley Wright IV is already becoming a Buffs legend.
Wright hit two 3-pointers in the final 16 seconds of the game Friday night, including one at the buzzer, to lift Colorado to a come-from-behind 70-69 win over Quinnipiac in the first round of the Paradise Jam.
Wright's shot capped a rally that saw the Buffs erase a 13-point second-half deficit in the final four minutes of the game as CU improved to 3-0 on the season.
The game winner came after Quinnipiac's Alain Chigha missed two free throws with 7 seconds remaining and the Buffs trailing 69-67. Wright rebounded Chigha's second miss, raced down the floor and got the shot off just before the buzzer. It bounced high in the air, then back down through the hoop.
"I'd hit one a couple plays before, and on the free throw I told my teammate D'Shawn (Schwartz), 'I'm going to shoot this and it's going to go in,'" Wright said. "He said, 'You're built for this.' I shot it and it went in."
Wright finished with 21 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Teammate Namon Wright added 16 points — all in the second half, including six in the final 1:23 — along with four rebounds and two steals.
Cameron Young scored 26 for Quinnipiac.
"This kid is special," head coach Tad Boyle said of McKinley Wright. "He made a big-time shot. Big-time players make big-time plays down the stretch and he made that for us."
The Buffs did not play well for much of the game. Colorado shot just 44 percent from the field, including just 4-for-20 from 3-point range (the Buffs hit three of their last four 3-point attempts). CU also committed 17 turnovers, which the Bobcats converted into 14 points, and Quinnipiac also had 13 offensive rebounds.
"I told the Quinnipiac coaches in the handshake line, 'You guys deserved to win this game, we didn't,'" Boyle said. "We did, and we're not going to give it back. We played well down the stretch. We did what we had to do. But it was not pretty. … I told the team in the locker room, the one thing I've loved about this team from the beginning is our heart, our spirit, our desire, our toughness, our fight. That's what I like about this team."
After leading by as many as eight in the first half and still leading by three at the half, 32-29, the Buffs went cold after halftime while the Bobcats reversed their first-half shooting woes.
Paced by four 3-point buckets in the first six minutes of the second half, QU outscored Colorado 17-8 in that span to take a 46-40 lead. The Buffs managed to cut the deficit back to three, 48-45, at the midway point of the half on a Namon Wright layup, but the Bobcats put together a 12-2 run and led 60-47 lead with just under four minutes to play.
The Buffs hurt themselves with turnovers all night, and also found themselves in foul trouble for much of the second half, with George King, Dominique Collier and Deleon Brown all drawing their third foul just a few minutes after intermission.
But the Buffs never quit. A Lucas Siewert 3-pointer with 1:57 to go pulled the Buffs back to within five before the Bobcats bumped the margin back to eight, 66-58, with 1:37 to go.
Along with McKinley Wright's heroics in the final seconds, the Buffs also received some clutch moments from Namon Wright. The junior scored back-to-back buckets, driving for a layup with 1:23 to go, then grabbing a steal and going the length of the court for a dunk to pull Colorado to within four, 66-62. Barely 30 seconds later, he added a putback to keep the margin within four, setting the stage for McKinley Wright's 3 pointers.
After Namon Wright's putback, the Buffs forced a turnover, leading to a McKinley Wright 3-pointer with 16 seconds to go to cut QU's lead to 68-67.
Quinnipiac's Rich Kelly then hit the first of two free throws before Chigha rebounded the second, was fouled, and missed both attempts with seven seconds remaining. That left Wright just enough time to rebound the second miss, race down the floor and hit the game winner at the buzzer.
"Toughness, heart, grit, all the intangibles," Boyle said. "We know he can dribble, we know he can pass, obviously he can shoot — but what makes McKinley Wright special are all the intangibles. Great teammate, great leader, he's a special player."
Wright said he was well aware that the Buffs needed just a 2-pointer to tie the game, but he instead elected to shoot for the win.
"There was 5 seconds left and they were trying to get back into a zone so I knew the lane was going to be super clogged," Wright said. "So I went up and took it. I shot the shot how I would shoot any transition three. Got my feet set and it felt good."
TURNING POINT: There was no turning point in this game until the final frantic seconds, when Chigha missed both of his free throw attempts and McKinley Wright rebounded the second to set up the game-winning shot.
WHAT IT MEANS: The young Buffs met their first major test of the year and survived. Showing the ability to come back from a double-digit deficit in the final minutes is something that should prove valuable as the season moves forward.
CU STANDOUTS: McKinley Wright had 21 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. … Namon Wright had 16 points — all in the second half — to go with four rebounds and two steals. … George King had nine points and seven rebounds. … Tory Miller-Stewart had nine rebounds and five points.
KEY STATISTICS: While shooting just 26-of-59 from the field, the Buffs were 22 of 39 from two-point range — and after hitting just one of their first 16 3-point attempts, they hit three of their last four. … Colorado also outscored Quinnipiac 38-20 in the paint.
NOTEWORTHY: The comeback from 13 points down is the largest in school history in the final four minutes of a game. … McKinley Wright's 21 points are the most by a Buff this season and a career high for him. … Namon Wright's 16 points are his most as a Buff. … CU freshman D'Shawn Schwartz had four points and three rebounds.
QUOTEWORTHY: "We came together in the timeout with five minutes left down 13 points and said, 'We're not losing this game.' We came together and got big stops at the end. Every timeout, George King and Namon Wright and Tory Miller all said, 'We aren't losing this game. We aren't losing.'" — CU's McKinley Wright
"We have to play smarter. We have to play more efficiently offensively than we did. We have to guard better than we did in the second half. Our ball screen defense was atrocious. But we made enough plays down the stretch. Our press that we practiced about five minutes was pretty good." — CU head coach Tad Boyle
"Colorado did a great job with their length and athleticism and just being aggressive with good defense. There were some turnovers we wish we had back and some missed free throws we wish we had back. I'm proud of our guys. We got a young and generally pretty inexperienced team, so we just have to go through that together." — Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy
NEXT UP: The Buffs face 2-0 Drake, a 77-74 winner over Wake Forest on Friday, in Saturday night's 6:30 p.m. semifinal at the Vines Center on the Liberty University campus. In other games Friday, Mercer beat Liberty 63-48 and Drexel beat Houston, 84-80, setting up Mercer and Drexel in the other semifinal.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
