AMES, Iowa – After achieving its first win of Big 12 play, the Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball team (10-16, 1-14 Big 12) were faced with the No. 8 Iowa State Cyclones (20-5, 10-4 Big 12), in their third bout of the season, a challenge in which Colorado came up short 79-65.
Iowa State came into this game being ranked in the top 10 for 23 straight weeks.
The first two matchups between ISU and CU this season both resulted in Cyclone wins. In those two games, CU coughed up 37 turnovers to Iowa State’s 19, and the Buffs were outrebounded 71-58. But on Tuesday night, Colorado showed major improvement in those fields.
The Buffaloes only gave up 14 turnovers, forcing the Cyclones to 14. The stampede also only lost the rebound battle by two (31-29).
But where Colorado improved, it regressed elsewhere. The Buffaloes only knocked down four of their 17 3-pointers and shot a horrid 59.1% from the free-throw line (13-for-22). Tuesday logged their worst performance at the charity stripe since Nov. 25 vs. Michigan State (8/16).
Iowa State shot 47.6% from the perimeter, knocking down 10 of their 21 3s. The Cyclones paired that with 19 total assists on the night. ISU had five scorers in double-digits.
For Colorado, Bangot Dak had a star night. Dak logged a season-high 20 points, knocking down eight of his 14 shots and collecting four rebounds and two steals. Harrison Carrington gave the Buffaloes a solid performance off the bench with 11 points and three rebounds.
The Buffaloes found themselves down almost instantly after tip-off. Colorado began the game 0-for-4 from the field while Iowa State went on a 10-0 run. The Cyclones took the first half 45-28.
After the half, the Buffs showed some fight, outscoring Iowa State 37-34 in the final 20 minutes. Unfortunately for Colorado, it was too little, too late.
"If we would have played the first 30 minutes like we played the last 10 in terms of our aggressiveness and toughness and handling their pressure, attacking their pressure, and guarding them, I think it would have been a different game," CU head coach Tad Boyle said of the late push. "But we didn't, and they [Iowa State] deserve the credit."
The Buffs move to 10-16 on the season, falling to 1-14 in the Big 12, their worst conference record in Tad Boyle’s 15-year tenure at Colorado.
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