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Colorado couldn’t overcome a sloppy first half
Colorado got so close to finally winning their first win in Big 12 play, but couldn’t get the job done.
After falling 70-68 to the Arizona State Sun Devils, CU’s record in conference play drops to 0-9 and Colorado will need to head back to the drawing board.
This loss strings a little extra for Colorado because the Sun Devils were in a prime position to be beaten. ASU and Bobby Hurley’s squad was without two key starters, star freshman center Jayden Quaintance and leading scorer BJ Freeman, and had only a seven-man rotation.
Colorado couldn’t capitalize on the Sun Devils’ injury woes, playing sloppy basketball in the first half that would ultimately cost them the game. CU had 10 first-half turnovers, with seven of those coming in the first 10 minutes of play. The Buffs allowed Arizona State to beat them in the first-half rebounding battle by a margin of 16 to 15 and didn’t shoot the ball particularly well either, shooting only 43.5% from the floor.
Luckily for Colorado, Arizona State didn’t play an amazing first half either. The Sun Devils finished with 7 first-half turnovers of their own, which CU was able to convert into 14 of their 26 points through the first 20 minutes. Colorado headed to halftime down 33-26, desperate to finally win a game in Big 12 play.
The Buffs came back from the break playing better basketball, clawing back from Arizona State’s five-point lead. CU had only two-half turnovers compared to ASU’s 10. Colorado attacked mismatches on Bangot Dak and Trevor Baskin, allowing their lanky and athletic forwards to drive to the rim and distribute the ball when needed. The Buffs’ defense clamped down, allowing Arizona State to take only 20 shots from the field all second half.
Colorado would fight back to tie the game with 1:54 to play, but two untimely fouls would send ASU to the line to build a small lead with less than a minute left. In that final minute, Colorado had five good looks to tie or end the game from Julian Hammond, Trevor Baskin, Andrej Jakimovski and Sebastian Rancik. All of those shots would be misses and Colorado fell by a final score of 68-70.
What ultimately killed Colorado on Tuesday night were their first-half turnovers and poor second-half offensive performance. If the Buffs had played cleaner basketball and not coughed the ball up 10 times in the first frame, they wouldn’t have put themselves behind the eight-ball in the latter stages of the game. Colorado also shot only 15-35 from the floor in the second half, making only one of their attempted 11 three-pointers.
Trevor Baskin was Colorado’s best player against the Sun Devils, finishing the game with 19 points, four rebounds and four steals. Bangot Dak also showed out, finishing with 13 points and a candidate for dunk of the year.
Colorado’s next game will be against TCU in Fort Worth this Sunday at 2:00 pm MT. Fans can tune in on ESPN+.
by RylandScholes
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