Late Run, Turnovers, Give TCU Advantage In Buffs Loss

Sunday, February 2

Fort Worth, Texas

2 p.m.

Colorado

9-12,0-10Big 12

TCU

11-10,4-6Big 12

Team	1	2	F
Colorado	27	30	57
TCU	34	34	68

Bangot Dak

Late Run, Turnovers, Give TCU Advantage In Buffs Loss

February 02, 2025 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Stats

By: Troy Andre, Associate Director/Athletic Communications

FORT WORTH, Texas – TCU used a late 15-2 run to break open a close game, taking a 68-57 decision over Colorado in a Big 12 Conference game Sunday afternoon at Schollmaier Arena.

Colorado, 9-12 overall, falls for the 10^th-straight time and is 0-10 in league play for the first time since 1985-86. TCU snaps a three-game skid to improve to 11-10 overall, 4-6 in the Big 12.

Andrej Jakimovski scored a team-high 13 points, hitting 5 of 9 from the field with four rebounds. Bangot Dak just missed a double-double with nine points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Leading scorer Julian Hammond III was held to six points on 2 of 8 shooting but tied a career-high with seven assists.

David Punch led TCU with a game-high 19 points, hitting 7 of 10 from the floor including a perfect 3 of 3 from 3-point range.

Colorado shot well at 46.7 percent, shared the ball by dishing out 19 assists and enjoyed a plus-12 advantage on the boards (34-22) but as has been the case most of the year, turnovers were the Buffaloes' undoing. Colorado committed 19 turnovers, compared to just eight for the Horned Frogs. TCU took advantage outscoring the Buffaloes by 20 points (28-8) off miscues.

"We did some good things to have 19 assists on the road, that's hard to do," Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said. "The unfortunate thing is, we have 19 turnovers. And the bottom line, when you're playing on the road in the Big 12, you turn it over 19 times, and your opponent only turns it over eight times. It's really, really hard to overcome that. It's an 11-point game, we lose the turnover differential by 20. That's pretty much it. And it's been that way, pretty much since 2025 started."

The Horned Frogs built a 10-point lead early in the second half at 39-29. Jakimovski scored five points, including a traditional 3-point play, and Sebastian Rancik made a layup off a fast break to narrow the gap to four at 40-36 at 16:28 remaining.

TCU's Isaiah Manning hit a 3-pointer and Noah Reynolds got a steal which turned into a pair of free throws as the Horned Frogs pushed the lead back to nine at 49-40.

Elijah Malone stopped TCU's run with a layup. Consecutive buckets by Dak, including a flying alley-oop dunk from Hammond, cut the deficit to five. Manning scored in the paint, but Rancik hit a pair of free throws to keep pace as TCU led 53-48 with 8:52 remaining.

TCU then put the game away with its 15-2 run which included 12 straight points following the Rancik free throws. Punch scored 11 of the Horned Frogs' points during that stretch, including two 3-pointers.

Colorado was scoreless for 5:17, missing four shots and committing four turnovers during that span. Hammond stopped the 12-0 run with a floater in the lane, but Punch responded with his third and final 3-pointer to give TCU its largest lead at 68-50. The Buffaloes scored the final seven points in mop up time.

"I thought defensively, we did some good things," Boyle said. "I thought offensively, again, 19 assists. We had some really good possessions. We just turned the thing over too much. And then even down the stretch, we got a few stops. They got offensive rebounds for buckets. Tdhose two things have been our Achilles heels all year. But our guys battled tonight, they won the rebounding battle, which is really a step in the right direction for us so you know we have to build on the positives."

Colorado got off to a fast start, scoring the game's first eight points. Back-to-back transition dunks by Trevor Baskin and Dak forced a TCU timeout less than three minutes into the contest. Jakimovski hit a 3-pointer to extend CU's lead to 11-2 with 15:49 remaining.

Four CU turnovers led to a 9-2 TCU run that closed the Buffaloes' lead to 13-12. Malone converted a pair of free throws and a Javon Ruffin 3-pointer gave the Buffaloes an 18-14 lead with 11:40 in the first half. Colorado made 7 of its first 9 shots with assists on all seven, four coming from Hammond.

Colorado maintained its hot shooting by hitting 4 of 6 from 3-point range including three consecutive makes from Ruffin, Felix Kossaras and Jakimovski to rebuild a 24-18 advantage.

The Buffaloes couldn't expand on that early shooting success. Colorado had 10 turnovers in the first half alone, four coming off shot clock violations. An 8-0 run gave TCU its first lead of the game at 26-24 on a 3-pointer by Jace Posey at the 4:11 mark.

The Buffaloes were held without a field goal for 6:31 down the stretch as the Horned Frogs held a 30-27 lead late in the period.

Rancik ended the drought with a dunk on a nice backdoor move, but TCU got a circus layup by Vasean Allette and a pair of free throws by Reynolds to take a 34-27 advantage at the break.

Colorado continues action on Wednesday, Feb. 5, at Utah, scheduled for 7 p.m. MT (ESPN+ / KOA 850 AM & 94.1 FM)

NOTES: Colorado's 10-game skid is its longest since losing the final 12 games of the 2008-09 season…TCU takes over the lead in the series at 3-2 as the two programs met for the first time since Dec. 3, 2008…Felix Kossaras made his first career 3-point field goal…Bangot Dak's 12 rebounds are a team season high and just the sixth double-figure rebounding effort for the Buffaloes this season…It was Dak's first double-figure rebounding effort, his previous best was eight against Cincinnati and Iowa State … Andrej Jakimovski's 13 points are his most since his 16-point effort at UCF. All three of his double-figure scoring games during Big 12 play have been on the road … Hammond's seven assists match his career and team season-high … With the seven assists he moved into a tie with Nick Mohr (1998-02) for 25^th on CU's all-time list with 219.