BOULDER – Despite missing four players, most notably star senior Tristan da Silva (ankle) and highly-touted freshman Cody Williams (wrist), the Colorado Buffaloes held off the Washington Huskies by four points in a loud, electric start to Pac-12 play.
As the short-handed Buffs voided off the opposing Huskies, the win did not come without a fair share of grittiness and overwhelming energy from the Buffs and CU Events Center (CUEC) faithful.
“Gritty win,” Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said. “...You keep losing quality players out of your lineup and your margin for error goes down significantly. I think you saw that tonight. The good news is we didn’t play our best and we found a way to win this game and that’s what good teams do, that’s what high-character teams do.”
The CUEC hosted its biggest audience this season despite the lack of students for winter break, yet the Colorado crowd was on their feet all night long with their loudest moment coming with 4:46 left to play. As the Buffs looked to respond to a quick second half run by the Huskies, it was J’Vonne Hadley who rose on the break over UW big man Wilhelm Breidenbach to unload a huge, one-handed explosion of a dunk. The Buffs, who were down 63-60 before the posterization, led a 13-6 run over the last few minutes of the game as they protected their undefeated start on their home court.
“I told him after the game, ‘I knew we was gonna win after he did that,’” KJ Simpson said about Hadley’s dunk. “I mean, everybody just roared in there and that was an awesome play, shoutout to J’Vonne – played excellent tonight.”
In the chippy, hard-nosed win, the point guard-center duo of Simpson and Eddie Lampkin led the way for the amped-up Buffs. Simpson cruised to the second double-double of his career with 21 points (6-of-14 FG), 10 rebounds, seven assists, and three steals. The former TCU big man notched his season-high in points with 17 as he grabbed 10 boards on his way to his fourth double-double of the year. Simpson played a game-high 39 minutes to Lampkin’s 34.
Lampkin, who got going in the second half, proved too much to handle for the opposing interior once more as the Huskies kept rotating centers to throw at the CU big guy. Braxton Meah and Breidenbach combined for eight fouls in the contest as they tried to slow down the senior center. Occasionally, Washington tried to accommodate Lampkin’s size and Colorado’s driving ability with a zone. However, the Buffs slowed the pace and moved the ball as they notched 14 assists and shot 40% from distance (6-of-15) to fend off the defensive adjustment.
“My first step is most likely quicker than them,” Lampkin said about the defense, “and if they don’t notice I will make my move fast, getting that first step on them.”
Still, the pair couldn’t do it on their own. Three Buffs in Hadley, Luke O’Brien, and Julian Hammond scored 11 points a piece in the 63-59 win. In his biggest role this year, redshirt freshman Harrison Carrington came to play as he added two points and grabbed three rebounds. Sophomore guard Javon Ruffin returned to the hardwood despite originally being ruled out for the entirety of the 2023-2024 season. In limited minutes, Ruffin missed his only shot of the night.
While the Buffs admittedly didn’t bring their best version of basketball, their calm demeanor yet fired-up spirit pushed the Huskies to their brink, and then some as the thin Colorado lineup found an unlikely win on Friday night.
“I told them at halftime, I felt like we were playing at 50 to 60% of our capacity in the first half,” Boyle said, “and if that if we just play how we’re capable of playing, we’re going to be ok.”
Despite allowing Washington’s leading scorer on the season Keion Brooks (20 points, 7-of-17 FG, 4-of-8 3PT) and Moses Wood (14 points, 4-of-11 3PT) to get hot from deep, the Buffs ultimately held the road squad to 38% shooting (25-of-65 FG). In addition, Simpson held Huskies guard Sahvir Wheeler to 17 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the field. Colorado not only defended well and completed their goal of holding their opposition to sub-40% shooting from the floor, but they also reached another mark of outrebounding opponents by eight or more as CU outrebounded UW by 18 (49-31).
Colorado led a majority of the game as they held a lead that never surpassed eight points from the 13:55 mark in the first half until just over eight minutes left in the game. As Washington tried to steal what turned out to be a huge win for the Buffs, they led by seven points with just under six minutes after Brooks got loose for an alley-oop jam. Following Brooks’ dunk, the Boulder boys played a disciplined final five-and-a-half minutes as Hadley’s highlight reel slam led the charge.
“We want to guard and string together stops,” Simpson said about the final few minutes, “and especially down the stretch like that, you know, we didn't even care about what the score was. We just wanted to get those stops and run in transition.”
“We had a hard time scoring down the stretch,” Washington head coach Mike Hopkins said. “And when you’re on the road, you have to keep scoring somehow, some way.”
Hadley wasn’t the only Buff to catch a Husky at the rim as Simpson punched a dunk over UW’s Brooks just a few plays prior.
“He’s having an All-American kind of year,” Boyle said about Simpson’s near triple-double. “Looking at the numbers, he’s the best point guard in the Pac-12, it’s not even close, it’s not even up for debate in my mind, but I think he’s one of the best in the country and I’ve said that for the past three weeks now. Top-10 point guard in the country without a doubt and he’s not on the preseason (Bob) Cousy list, the hell do people know, that’s ridiculous.”
With the Buffs scratching out a close win in the first game of Pac-12 play, Colorado returns to the CUEC on New Year’s Eve against the (9-3) Washington State Cougars. Tip-off is set for noon MST.
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