RSSBot
News Junkie
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Tristan da Silva and KJ Simpson proved why they’re the real deal
No Cody Williams or Julian Hammond; no problem for the Colorado Buffaloes. The shorthanded Buffs bested the California Golden Bears by a final score of 88-78 to win their third consecutive conference matchup.
Much like in the Buffs’ disastrous road loss to Cal in January, the Bears opted to attack Colorado with the three-ball. Cal’s strategy proved to be fruitful early, as Jalen Celestine hit three shots from deep within the first five minutes of play. While the three-ball was working for Cal, quite literally everything else wasn’t. The Golden Bears only scored 16 points in the first eight minutes of play, 15 of which came from three-pointers.
To help combat Cal’s three-point onslaught, the Buffs got Eddie Lampkin working in the paint early. Lampkin opened the game up for Colorado with a dunk, scoring 6 of Colorado first 12 points. In addition to Lampkin finding his groove early on, Tristan da Silva quickly asserted himself as the game’s most dominant force, scoring 8 points in the first 7 minutes.
With the score 18-16 in Colorado’s favor, the Buffs seemingly began to pull away. Cal’s three-point ball could no longer find the net, as the Bears hit only 6 of their 19 attempts from beyond the arc in the first half. A 15-3 Buffaloes run, fueled by 10 more points by da Silva and the Golden Bears’ inability to make a bucket, gave CU a comfortable 33-19 lead. That 14 point lead would hold up until halftime, as Colorado headed to the locker room up 45-31, largely thanks to 18 first half points by Tristan da Silva.
Things were getting eerily similar to the Buffs’ January loss to Cal at the Haas Pavilion, as Colorado went to the break up by 14 points in that game too. Much to Colorado’s dismay, Cal started surging to begin the second, just like in their previous matchup. The Golden Bears dunked the ball 3 times in the first 4 minutes of play, hitting 10 of their first 13 shots from the field in the process. In what felt like deja vu, California started roaring back into the game.
Cal’s superb shooting and pesky defense started really getting to Colorado. The Buffs were doing a good job contesting the Golden Bears’ shots, but to no avail. Cal just simply couldn’t miss. Mark Madden clearly instructed his team to get physical with Colorado and get into their heads and it seemingly was working, as Buffaloes like Lampkin and J’Vonne Hadley were visibly frustrated with Cal’s physicality.
With less than nine minutes to play, Cal cut Colorado’s lead to only 6 points. It felt like this game was going to become a dogfight down to the wire, but KJ Simpson once again saved the day. Simpson picked the pocket of Cal’s Rodney Brown Jr. and kicked the ball to Javon Ruffin, who drilled a three-pointer in space. On the following possession, Ruffin hit yet another shot from deep. Ruffin’s back-to-back threes put a cap on Cal’s offensive surge and gave the Buffaloes a commanding 12 point lead.
The Golden Bear’s physicality came back to bite them, as Colorado entered the bonus with 9:04 to play and hit their free-throws down the stretch. The Buffs’ superb shooting from the charity stripe in the final minutes earned them an 88-78 over Cal, exacting revenge for their road loss one month ago.
For the third consecutive game, KJ Simpson finished as the games top-scorer, netting 27 points in Colorado’s win. Simpson played in all 40 minutes of Wednesday night’s contest, snagging 7 boards and netting 8 assists to go along with his scoring efforts. Tristan da Silva had one of his best nights of the season, finishing the game with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. In the absence of Williams and Hammond, Simpson and da Silva stepped up and carried Colorado across the finish line victorious.
The Buffs’ record now moves to 19-9 and their March Madness hopes remain very much alive. Colorado’s next contest will be their final home game, in a senior night matchup with the Stanford Cardinal. The Buffs need to keep winning to remain in the tournament picture, making Sunday’s game one they can’t afford to lose. Fans can tune into the game at 7:00 pm local time on Fox Sports 1.
by RylandScholes
Continue reading...