Buffs Rally Falls Short Against Colorado State

Saturday, December 6

Fort Collins, CO

3 p.m.

Colorado

8-1,0-0Big 12

Colorado State

7-2,0-0Mountain West

Colorado

Colorado St.

December 06, 2025 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Stats Notes

By: Aiden Tank, Athletic Communications

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Colorado staged a furious second half rally Saturday but the Buffaloes came up just short against Colorado State, dropping an 91-86 decision at Moby Arena.

Tad Boyle's Buffs dropped their first game of the season, now sitting at 8-1, while the Rams improve to 7-2.

The Buffs trailed by seven at the half but used a 16-0 run to take the lead 64-62 and held an 85-83 advantage with 1:48 remaining led by 13 second-half points by freshman Isaiah Johnson. But a 8-1 run iced the game for Colorado State.

"What was frustrating to me is we came back and took control of the game," Boyle commented. "The one thing I'll say about our guys, competitive spirit and toughness, it's there. You don't come back in an environment like this and take the lead, but we can't sustain it because we can't get stops."

Colorado shot 62% from the field and outscored CSU 56-20 on points in the paint but 18 3-pointers, a season-high, put the Rams over the edge.

"We knew that No. 1 [Josh Pascarelli], No. 2 [Brandon Rechsteiner], and No. 35 [Kyle Jorgensen] were their dudes behind the arc," Boyle said. "They have other guys who can make three's don't get me wrong, but but those three dudes are their guys who can take the most and make the most. At halftime they had 10 made three's and those three guys had eight of the 10. We talked about it at halftime, we talked about it at media timeouts. When you let a team make 18 three's, it's going to be hard to win."

Alon Michaeli led the Buffs in scoring with 19 points. Four other Buffs scored in double-digits with Johnson adding 17 with 13 from Sebastian Rancik and 12 from Bangot Dak.

Josh Pascarelli led the Rams with 26 points on 8-of-10 from deep, which was one more than the entire Colorado team.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Colorado opened the scoring with four quick baskets in the paint with one by Rancik and Johnson and two by Dak including a thunderous dunk off the entry pass from Rancik to lead to a tie game at 10-10.

Ten points from the freshman bench trio of Jalin Holland, Johnson, and Michaeli in a four-minute span kept the game close trailing CSU 20-18 with 11:09 in the first half.

Colorado State used four 3-pointers from Pascarelli to extend the lead to 31-22 before a Holland drive slowed the run for the Rams.

The Buffs continued to control the paint, but Colorado State remained hot to maintain a 48-41 lead at the half. Colorado shot 63% from the field overall but 82% inside the 3-point arc, outscoring the Rams 28-12 on points in the paint. On the other side Colorado State made 10 shots from deep on 43.5% compared to only three for Colorado on 30% shooting.

The second half began much like the opening 20 minutes. Colorado made four shots inside the arc, but CSU put down their first three deep shots to push the lead to 59-49 with 15:15 left in the game.

The game flipped on an 11-0 Colorado run fueled by three 3-pointers, one apiece from Hargress, Johnson, and Michaeli as well as forcing four Ram turnovers to cut the lead to two points at 62-60.

The run continued pushing to 16 straight points for the Buffs with a tip-in dunk by Holland to add an exclamation point to a 65-62 lead.

The scoring went back-and-forth with both teams looking for the knockout shot, and it looked like it was going to come from Colorado State who went on a 7-0 run, but Johnson countered with a scoring burst of his own on an offensive rebound putback and a steal-and-score to tie the game at 78 with 3:51 remaining.

As the game continued to swing to each team, CSU's Pascarelli made a mid-range jump shot to put the Rams up 88-85 with 34.7 seconds remaining. The Rams would make free throws to ice the game finishing 91-86.

UP NEXT
The Buffs return home next Saturday at 2 p.m. against UTSA at the CU Events Center (ESPN+).