Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
11-5,2-3Pac-12
California
6-10,2-3Pac-12
Buffs Falter In Second Half, Fall To Cal
January 10, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BERKELEY, Calif. — Colorado's defense collapsed Wednesday as the Buffaloes let a 19-point lead in the second half slip away, allowing Cal to take an 82-78 win at Haas Pavilion.
Tad Boyle's Buffs dropped their third straight game to fall to 11-5 overall and 2-3 in Pac-12 play while Cal improved to 6-10, 2-3.
The Buffs led by 20 late in the first half and held a 50-31 lead early in the second period. But the Bears got hot from 3-point range, draining nine treys in the second half, and the Buffs never came up with an answer on the defensive end.
Colorado still had a chance to get the win in the final seconds. After Cal hit one of two free throws to take an 80-78 lead with 12 seconds remaining, CU's Tristan da Silva had an open 3-pointer from the wing. But his shot drew iron, the Bears rebounded and hit two more free throws to finish the scoring.
Eddie Lampkin Jr. led four Buffs in double figures with a career-high 22 points and 11 rebounds. Da Silva added 20, Cody Williams scored 16 in his return to the lineup after missing seven games with an injury and KJ Simpson chipped in 12.
Jaylon Tyson led Cal with 30 points, 23 coming in the second half.
CU shot a respectable 49 percent from the floor (29-for-59) while the Bears shot just 40 percent (26-for-65). But Cal also hit 14 of its 30 3-point attempts, including a 9-for-15 effort from long range in the second half.
The Buffs did hold a 39-35 edge on the boards and a 42-18 edge in the paint, but Colorado had no answer for the Bears' offense down the stretch as Cal hit 13 of its last 17 field goal attempts.
The Buffs thus ended up 0-3 on their road trip, with two of the losses — to ASU and Cal — coming down to the final seconds.
"If you score 78 points on the road, it's good enough to win if you can guard anybody," Boyle said. "But right now, for some reason, we can guard people for 20 minutes but we can't do it for 40. I told the guys, the margin for victory is really thin. We're two possessions away from being 4-1 in this league but we're not. We're 2-3 because we couldn't get a stop at Arizona State and we couldn't get a stop tonight against Cal. We had some good performances individually tonight but collectively as a team, we just weren't good enough."
HOW IT HAPPENED: Colorado dominated the first half, leading by as much as 20 and taking a 40-26 lead into the break.
The Buffs then built their lead to 19 early in the second half when a da Silva 3-pointer gave the Buffs a 50-31 lead less than three minutes in.
At that point, the Buffs looked firmly in control and ready to salvage a win out of their road trip.
But the Buffs defense that had been terrific in the first half suddenly took a break and the Bears staged a furious rally. Cal outscored Colorado 32-12 over the next 12 minutes to finally take a 63-62 lead with 5:38 to play, the Bears' first lead of the game.
Colorado had no answer for the Bears' long-range shooting in the surge as Cal hit seven 3-pointers in the run. Tyson had three treys in the rally and also delivered a drive and dunk to give the Bears their 63-62 edge.
"Our ball screen defense wasn't good enough tonight and our 3-point defense wasn't good enough," Boyle said. "Our offense did its job but we couldn't get stops when we had to have them."
The two teams then traded the lead six times over the next three minutes before a Jalen Cone 3-pointer gave Cal a 73-70 lead with 2:33 to play. The Bears then extended the lead with two free throws with 1:27 to play.
Williams finally ended a two-minute Buffs scoring drought with a layup and free throw at the 1:12 mark. That pulled CU to within 75-73, only to see the Buffs give up another Tyson dunk with 48 seconds left to push CU's deficit back to four.
Da Silva then drained a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to cut Cal's lead back to one before Tyson hit a pair of free throws with 24 seconds left to give the Bears a 79-76 lead.
Williams then scored again for Colorado to narrow the deficit to one, 79-78, with 12 seconds left and the Buffs had one more chance after Cal hit one of two free throws. But da Silva's 3-point attempt with 4 seconds left drew rim and the Bears added two more free throws with 1.9 seconds to seal the 82-78 win.
"Really a disappointing loss because we played well enough to win and as a coach, those are the tough ones," Boyle said. "Maybe I need to play more guys, maybe I'm playing guys too many minutes. I just don't know … But I just know our defense isn't good enough. That much I do know."
The Buffs started the game with a 10-0 run to take control and built their lead to as much as 20 before taking a 40-26 edge into the break.
Lampkin had six points in CU's opening surge and continued to be a force the rest of the half, tallying 15 points and five rebounds in the first 20 minutes.
After CU's opening surge, the Bears briefly managed to shave the Buffs' lead to seven before Colorado responded with a 7-0 run for a 20-6 lead. CU had two steal and breakaway buckets in the run, one each from Simpson and Luke O'Brien.
The Buffs then steadily built their lead despite Simpson playing just nine minutes because of two fouls.
A 6-0 run — all from Williams — pushed Colorado's cushion to 35-17 with 4:37 to play in the half and the Buffs built their lead to 20 when a da Silva 3-pointer gave Colorado a 40-20 lead with 2 minutes left in the half.
Cal then hit two 3-pointers in the final minute, but the Buffs still took a comfortable 40-26 lead into the break.
TURNING POINT: The Buffs still led by 16 five minutes into the second half. But the Bears put together an 11-0 run to cut the lead to five and the Buffs were on their heels from that point on.
WHAT IT MEANS: Colorado is now in the middle of the pack in the Pac-12 standings after dropping two very winnable road games. The Buffs have to take advantage of their upcoming three-game homestand.
KEY STATISTICS: Cal hit 14 of its 30 3-point attempts, including a 9-for-15 effort from long range in the second half … The Bers also hit 13 of their last 17 field goal tries.
NEXT UP: The Buffs return home for three straight at the CU Events Center. The homestand starts with an 8 p.m. game Saturday against USC (ESPN2), followed by an 8:30 p.m. game Jan. 18 against Oregon (FS1) and a 5 p.m. contest Jan. 20 against Oregon State (Pac-12 Network).
