Fast Break
What went right: The Buffs played solid defense all night, holding Washington to 30.5 percent shooting. They also took advantage of Washington’s zone defense to connect on 44.6 percent of their shots.
What went wrong: CU struggled at times and allowed Washington to get back into the game early in the second half.
Star of the game: Josh Scott. He had 21 points and nine rebounds to lead the Buffs.
What’s next?: The Buffs visit Washington State on Saturday in the regular season finale.
SEATTLE — —Momentum shifted Washington’s way early in the second half on Thursday night.
Throughout this season, that’s often spelled trouble for the Colorado men’s basketball team.
This time, however, the Buffaloes stole the momentum back and cruised to a 64-47 win against Washington at Alaska Airlines Arena.
“I’m proud of our guys, because we did what we had to do to win on the road, which is never easy,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said.
Josh Scott had his best game since Christmas Day, with 21 points and nine rebounds, helping the Buffs (14-15, 7-10 Pac-12) to their largest-margin of victory in a Pac-12 road game since a 24-point win at USC on Jan. 26, 2012.
They did it by responding to Washington’s surge early in the second half. CU had a 30-17 lead at halftime, but the Huskies went 7-for-7 from the floor in the first 5 minutes of the second half to cut the CU lead to five, 41-36.
Andrew Andrews had 11 of his team-high 20 points in that run for the Huskies.
“We’ve had games where we’ve spiraled,” Scott said. “Every time we came into a timeout, it was a big point of emphasis between us players: Get stops; stop focusing on offense.”
A 3-pointer by CU’s Xavier Talton stemmed the tide, and then the Buffs’ defense put the clamps on the Huskies, holding them scoreless for 5 minutes, 32 seconds.
“That run they had in the beginning (of the second half), we handled that really well,” CU’s Tre’Shaun Fletcher said. “I think we stepped up and shut their water off while it was running.”
It was big for a CU team that won for just the second time on the road, improving to 2-9 in true road games.
Washington (15-14, 4-13), meanwhile, hasn’t been able to win anywhere lately. The Huskies are 1-10 since a 52-50 win against the Buffs in Boulder on Jan. 22 and 4-14 since their 11-0 start to the season.
Since coming to Boulder, the Huskies have kicked the nation’s leading shot blocker (Robert Upshaw) off the team. They were also missing Shawn Kemp Jr. and Donaven Dorsey to injuries on Thursday.
“Washington is a little banged up right now,” Boyle said. “They’re kind of where we were when they came to Boulder.
“No apologies (for the win), but I feel for (Washington coach Lorenzo Romar) because I have a lot of respect for him and the job that he’s done here with this program.”
It took a few minutes, but the Buffs did a nice job of exploiting the Huskies’ weakness inside. Junior Gilles Dierickx, a 7-foot center, got his first start of the season for Washington, and Scott dominated him throughout the night.
CU lead 7-4 after eight minutes, despite making just two of its first 12 shots from the floor. Washington was even worse, starting 2-for-17.
Scott got the offense going with an offensive rebound and put-back. Then, the Buffs starting looking in his direction.
Scott went 9-for-12 from the floor and he and the Buffs dominated Dierickx, who had 2 points and six boards on 1-for-6 shooting.
“With Kemp being out they were depleted, so it was a big focus point to go and attack the rim, and that’s what we did tonight,” Scott said.
Led by Scott, the Buffs out-scored the Huskies 40-18 in the paint and out-rebounded them 40-35.
Meanwhile, the Buffs got a spark off the bench from Xavier Johnson (11 points) and Xavier Talton (10 points).
“We really got the ball moving, they played a zone for about 40 minutes,” Scott said. “That was probably one of the best or the best our zone offense has looked. It was a good team win.”
It was a win the Buffs needed as they head into the regular season finale on Saturday at Washington State.
Contact staff writer Brian Howell at howellb@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/BrianHowell33.
Colorado 64, Washington 47
FG
FT
Reb
COLORADO
Min
M-A
M-A
O-T
A
PF
PTS
Booker
28
2-10
1-2
0-7
3
0
5
Gordon
23
0-0
0-0
1-3
3
1
0
Fletcher
24
3-7
2-2
2-5
0
1
8
Collier
27
1-7
2-2
0-0
5
3
5
Scott
33
9-12
3-4
4-9
0
1
21
Johnson
18
5-8
0-1
4-7
1
2
11
Talton
26
3-7
2-4
0-5
0
1
10
Thomas
3
0-0
0-0
0-0
0
2
0
Miller
6
0-1
0-0
0-1
0
0
0
Hopkins
12
2-4
0-0
0-1
2
0
4
Totals
200
25-56
10-15
11-40
14
11
64
Percentages: FG .446, FT .667.3-Point Goals: 4-19, .211 (Talton 2-4, Johnson 1-1, Collier 1-6, Hopkins 0-1, Fletcher 0-3, Booker 0-4).Team Rebounds: 2.Blocked Shots: 4 (Gordon 3, Scott).Turnovers: 8 (Hopkins 3, Johnson 2, Miller, Gordon, Fletcher).Steals: 6 (Scott 2, Booker 2, Collier, Johnson).Technical Fouls: None.
FG
FT
Reb
WASHINGTON
Min
M-A
M-A
O-T
A
PF
PTS
Williams-Goss
37
4-14
0-0
0-6
1
3
8
Anderson
31
4-8
2-4
2-7
1
1
11
Andrews
35
7-18
1-2
3-6
2
3
20
Jarreau
29
1-6
0-0
1-4
1
4
2
Dierickx
34
1-6
0-0
3-6
3
1
2
Johnson
14
0-1
0-0
0-1
0
2
0
Winters
4
0-3
0-0
0-1
0
0
0
Kingma
16
1-3
1-2
0-1
0
3
4
Totals
200
18-59
4-8
12-35
8
17
47
Percentages: FG .305, FT .500.3-Point Goals: 7-24, .292 (Andrews 5-11, Kingma 1-3, Anderson 1-4, Johnson 0-1, Winters 0-2, Williams-Goss 0-3).Team Rebounds: 3.Blocked Shots: 2 (Johnson, Anderson).Turnovers: 12 (Williams-Goss 3, Jarreau 2, Anderson 2, Andrews 2, Dierickx 2, Johnson).Steals: 2 (Johnson, Dierickx).Technical Fouls: None.
Colorado
30
34
—
64
Washington
17
30
—
47
A — 5,848.Officials —Mike Reed, Brett Nansel, Larry Spaulding.
