Colorado
9-7,0-5Big 12
Cincinnati
11-5,1-4Big 12
Buffs Unable to Mount Comeback Over Cincinnati
January 15, 2025 | Men's Basketball
BOULDER — A sluggish start offensively for Colorado was too much to handle against Cincinnati, leading to a 68-62 Bearcats win Wednesday night in the CU Events Center.Â
The Buffs have now dropped their fifth straight contest, falling to 9-7 overall and 0-5 in the Big 12. It's the first time Colorado has lost five consecutive games since the final five games of the 2019-20 season.
"I sound like a broken record here the last five games, but really, really disappointing, and we drop our third game at home," head coach Tad Boyle said. "We lost one in this building the entire season last year, and now we've lost three and all winnable games that we weren't good enough to win. And I told the team I feel like this is the poorest coached team in America. That's how I feel, because the stuff that we talk about in practice, the stuff we talk about in huddles, it doesn't translate to the games, for whatever reason which is really frustrating."
Bangot Dak had an impressive night for the Buffs, posting a career-highs with 19 points and eight blocked shots. It's the third most blocks ever by a CU player in a single game. Only David Harrison has swatted more balls in Colorado's single-game history, holding the record with 11 set back in 2003.
Dak also matched personal bests in field goals made, hitting 7 of 11, and eight rebounds, as the sophomore led the charge for the Buffaloes on both ends of the court.
Trevor Baskin notched eight points, six rebounds, and two steals on the night. Freshman Sebastian Rancik added nine points on 3-for-6 shooting.Â
Simas Lukoius led Cincinnati with 16 points, including going 3-for-8 from the three-point line.Â
Similar to the last game against West Virginia, CU lost the battle for points off turnovers, with the Bearcats outscoring the Buffs 18-11 in that category. Colorado had 15 turnovers while Cincinnati had 10.
It was an off-night shooting from the floor for Colorado, going 23-for-56 (41.1%) overall but a season-low 3-for-13 (23.1%) from the three-point line, tying the lowest number of three-pointers made this season as a unit.Â
"All I want are great shots for our team, and I can't make the shots for them, but we got to get great shots and and in order to win games down the stretch, you have to have players that make plays, or I got to do a better job of crafting some stuff offensively for them, and have more sound defensively," Boyle stated. "And when you break down in this league, you're going to pay for it, and that's what our guys were doing."
HOW IT HAPPENEDÂ
It was a slow start for both sides, with Cincinnati opening the scoring with a bucket from the inside, earning an and-one. The Bearcats climbed up to a 6-0 lead after a three-pointer from Dan Skillings. Hammond struck first for the Buffs, nailing three free throw attempts after being fouled on the perimeter.Â
After a layup from Dak at the 15:11 mark in the first half, Colorado went on to shoot 1-for-14 from the floor before catching a rhythm again but not before Cincinnati was able to build a double-digit lead. The Bearcats went 5-12 (41.7%) from three-point land in the first half.
A tip-in dunk from Dak at the 1:46 mark followed up by a made free throw with a minute remaining brought CU within seven points at the break, 34-27.Â
Four turnovers early in the second half by the Buffs led to Cincinnati rebuilding their lead back to double digits. Back-to-back buckets inside the paint from Harrison Carrington cut the Cincinnati lead to 44-36 with 12:34 remaining in the game.Â
Baskin assisted Dak on an impressive alley-oop dunk. It brought the CU deficit to just three points with 8:54 remaining in the contest. The Bearcats responded back with a three-pointer the next possession.Â
After recording his eighth block of the game, Dak knocked down a jumper with 5:07 remaining, cutting Cincinnati's lead to 50-49. Baskin then grabbed the first lead of the night for Colorado with a bucket in the paint.Â
Trailing 57-53 with 2:41 left to go, Andrej Jakimovski had three free throws, but missed them all.  Cincinnati got a three-pointer from Lukosius to extend its lead to 60-53 with under two minutes remaining and kept it a two possession game the rest of the way.
UP NEXT
The Buffaloes head to Stillwater this weekend to play Oklahoma State on Saturday at 1 p.m. MT.
