Colorado
6-0
Air Force
3-2
King Leads Buffs Past AFA As CU Improves To 6-0
November 26, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado's George King is taking his rebounding seriously this year.
Very seriously.
The Buffs senior posted his eighth career double-double Sunday with 25 points and a career-high 15 rebounds in an 81-69 win over Air Force at the Coors Events Center as the Buffs won their sixth straight to start the season. The 6-0 start matches Colorado's best beginning of a season since 2012-13, when CU also began the year with a 6-0 run.
Freshman McKinley Wright IV added 19 points and five rebounds as the Buffs finished with a commanding 41-21 edge on the boards to overcome an 11-for-26 night by the Falcons from 3-point range.
"Our emphasis is to defend and rebound," King said. "Coach Tad (Boyle) put that emphasis on us even more because we haven't been doing that the past couple of games. I'm happy we were able to come out and do that."
King is now averaging nearly nine rebounds per game.
"He was a beast tonight," Boyle said. "He let the game come to him. … He should be a double-double guy. No question in my mind George King should have 10-plus rebounds every single time we play."
HOW IT HAPPENED: This one didn't come easily. The Falcons hit eight of 15 3-point tries in the first half and took a 34-33 lead into the locker room at intermission after a half that featured 11 lead changes.
But some increased defensive pressure and a renewed focus on taking care of the ball (CU had nine turnovers in the first half) allowed the Buffs to take the lead for good early in the second half. A Dominique Collier basket and free throw gave CU a 43-40 lead less than four minutes into the half, and the Buffs slowly built the margin, finally bumping it to double digits on a King 3-pointer with just more than three minutes to go.
At the same time, Colorado also cooled down AFA's outside shooting. The Falcons hit just three of their 11 long-distance tries after halftime. The Buffs also had just six turnovers after halftime and recorded 13 of their 17 assists after halftime. Namon Wright led CU with four of those assists, all in the second half.
"We started the game very flat," McKinley Wright said. "We weren't moving the ball as well as we normally do. At halftime, we came together as a group and said we needed to share the ball. … We did a good job in the second half of swinging the ball and finding people with open shots."
But even after Colorado took the lead for good, the Falcons didn't go away quietly. After a King 3-pointer midway through the half bumped CU's lead to eight, the Falcon came back with two quick buckets to cut the lead in half. But Colorado slowly increased the cushion again, getting it to nine on a Namon Wright trey with 8:28 to go and finally pushing it to 75-65 on King's fifth 3-pointer of the day.
King was an extremely efficient 9-for-13 from the field, including 5-for-6 from beyond the arc. Six of his 15 rebounds were on the offensive glass and he added three assists.
"The best thing about his 25 points are that they came on 13 shots — great efficiency," Boyle said. "McKinley's 19 points came on nine shots. That's what we need to do, is be more efficient offensively."
Boyle also took responsibility for part of the Buffs' slow start, saying he might have let them get "a little fat and happy" last week after returning from the Paradise Jam, where they won three games in three days.
That, though, won't be the case in the coming days. Next up for the Buffs is an 11 a.m. meeting Saturday with in-state rival Colorado State in Fort Collins.
"We need to keep taking care of business, but we need to keep getting better," Boyle said. "Next Saturday at 11 o'clock we'd better be ready because Colorado State will be a great challenge for us."
TURNING POINT: After the Falcons had cut CU's lead to four midway through the second half, McKinley Wright hit a 3-pointer and Lazar Nikolic nailed a short jumper to bump the margin back to nine and the Falcons never came closer than six again.
WHAT IT MEANS: Now 6-0, the Buffs will head to Fort Collins on Saturday for their first true road game of the year with plenty of momentum and confidence.
CU STANDOUTS: George King had his eighth career double-double with 25 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. … McKinley Wright scored 19 points and added five rebounds. Wright also had two assists and five turnovers. … Namon Wright had seven points, three rebounds and a team-high four assists. … Dominique Collier scored eight points, all in the second half. … Tory Miller-Stewart grabbed seven rebounds.
KEY STATISTICS: The Buffs doubled up the Falcons on the board, outrebounding the visitors 42-21. That led to a 15-4 edge in second-chance points.
NOTEWORTHY: The Buffs hit their first 13 free throws and made 19 of 20 overall (95 percent), their best effort from the line since going 26-for-26 against Georgia in 2013. … The Buffs had season highs in 3-point field goals (10), 3-point percentage (.385) and assists (17). … McKinley Wright has now scored in double figures in all six games this year, the best start by a freshman since Alec Burks scored in double digits in his first 20 games in 2009-10. … King has back-to-back 20-point games (he had 25 in the Paradise Jam final vs. Mercer) for the third time in his career. He also now has 12 career 20-point games and 54 in double figures.
QUOTEWORTHY: "We have to share the ball better, we have to take care of the ball better and we have to guard the 3-point line better. We did all of those things in the second half and everybody says 'Great adjustments.' I don't know what adjustments we made, we just did a better job of executing what we needed to execute." — CU head coach Tad Boyle
"McKinley Wright is a pretty darned good player. He is so fast, he may be as fast with the ball as he is without it. I like that kid a lot." — AFA coach Dave Pilipovich
"What we can do this week is really practice hard and prepare ourselves for a war. That's what we're really going into." — CU's George King on next Saturday's game at CSU.
NEXT UP: The Buffs travel to Fort Collins on Saturday for an 11 a.m. meeting with in-state rival Colorado State at Moby Gym.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
