Colorado
16-13,6-10Pac-12
Utah
18-10,9-7Pac-12
Buffs Fall To Utes, 86-81
February 23, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — The script may have been slightly different but the ending was the same for the Colorado Buffaloes.
Despite 31 points from senior Derrick White, the Buffs lost their seventh straight game to Utah, an 86-81 decision Thursday night at the Coors Events Center.
The loss, the Buffs' second in a row, dropped them to 16-13 overall and 6-10 in Pac-12 play while Utah improved to 18-10, 9-7.
"Our defense wasn't good enough tonight," head coach Tad Boyle said. "I mean Utah just came in here and schooled us. For us to beat anybody in this league, especially somebody like Utah who's as efficient and good as they are offensively, we can't have as many breakdowns as we had. We didn't guard the 3-point line, we didn't guard the basket, we didn't guard the ball, our ball screen defense was atrocious. We knew going in it was going to be a key, it wasn't good enough. It cost us the game."
Despite the defensive lapses, the Buffs had their chances down the stretch.
A White 3-pointer pulled the Buffs to within 81-78 with 1:36 remaining but Utah answered with a David Collette layup as the shot clock was set to expire. Colorado then closed to within two on three Dominique Collier free throws with 37.8 seconds remaining and stayed within three when Utah's Tyler Rawson hit just one of two free throws.
But Collier missed a 3-pointer on CU's next trip down the floor and the Utes were able to close the game out at the free throw line, hitting five in the final 30 seconds.
White led the Buffs in scoring with 31 and also had a team-high six rebounds and five assists. Kyle Kuzma led Utah with 25 points.
Utah shot 55.3 percent from the field (26-for-47), including a 9-for-19 night from 3-point range. The Buffs finished at 44.1 percent (26-for-59) and 8-for-24 from beyond the arc.
HOW IT HAPPENED: After falling behind 7-0 early, the Buffs slowly climbed back into the game and finally took a 15-13 lead at the 11:50 mark of the first half on a Lucas Siewert 3-pointer.
But the lead didn't last long. Utah answered with a 19-5 run, closing the burst with back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 32-20 edge with 5:25 remaining and Colorado never led again. Colorado did manage to cut the margin to eight, getting nine straight points from White and a George King bucket to narrow Utah's lead to 37-29 at the half.
The Utes hit 14 of their 26 field goal tries in the first half, including a 6-for-12 effort from 3-point range. The Buffs, meanwhile, were just 12-for-32 (37.5 percent) while hitting only four of their 13 3-point tries.
"I thought in the first half our offense got selfish and we took bad shots and that caused some problems for us," Boyle said. "I thought the second half our offense was much better. We shared the ball, we attacked the paint. I thought our defense wasn't good enough the whole game."
The Buffs did make a brief run early in the second half, jumping out with a 7-2 run to pull within three, 39-36.
But Colorado then turned the ball over three straight times and the Utes were more than happy to convert the miscues into five points and rebuild the cushion to eight, 44-36. From that point on, the Utes held the Buffs at bay until Colorado was able to close the gap in the final two minutes.
"We weren't consistent enough," Boyle said. "We cut the thing to six multiple times. We kept scoring the second half. We scored 52 points. But we could not get stops when we needed to get stops."
Indeed, Colorado scored unanswered points only three times in the entire second half, with the Buffs' longest run of the half just five points.
TURNING POINT: Early in the first half, the Buffs had a 15-13 lead, only to see the Utes go on a 19-5 run to take control. While CU did cut the Utah lead down to two in the final minute, Utah controlled the pace for most of the game.
WHAT IT MEANS: The Buffs can no longer finish with a .500 record in Pac-12 play, with their best mark possible now 8-10. Now eighth in the conference standings, the best they can hope for is to move up a spot to seventh.
CU STANDOUTS: Derrick White led CU in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocks with 31 points, six rebounds, five assists and four blocks. … George King had 12 points and four rebounds.
KEY STATISTICS: Utah shot 55.3 percent from the field (26-for-47) and hit 25 of 32 free throws while Colorado shot just 44 percent (26-for-59) and was 21-for-28 from the free throw line.
NOTEWORTHY: White had his 12th game at CU with at least 20 points and his second with 30-plus. Nine of his 20-point games have come in Pac-12 play, including three of the last four. … King recorded his 200th rebound of the season and 400th of his career. … Xavier Johnson moved into 14th on CU's all-time rebound list with 673.
QUOTEWORTHY: "What happens is late in the year, close games, tough games, your Achilles heel gets exposed and our Achilles heel got exposed tonight. We weren't consistent enough. We cut that thing to six multiple times. We kept scoring the second half. We scored 52 points. But we could not get stops when we needed to get stops." — CU coach Tad Boyle
"Energy and effort. It's kind of frustrating. Collectively as a team we weren't competing hard enough." — CU junior George King
NEXT UP: The Buffs have the weekend off before closing out the regular season with a pair of home games next week. Colorado plays host to Stanford on Thursday in a 7 p.m. game, then hosts Cal on Saturday, March 2, in a noon contest at the Coors Events Center.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
