FORT COLLINS, CO – The Buffs Men’s basketball team was able to hold off a 2nd half rally on Friday night against Colorado State, solely based on their ability to shoot behind the arc and utilize a superior perimeter defense.
Colorado shifted the pace from their two previous losses with 44 rebounds and making 8 for 18 three-pointers.
“We’re a veteran team that’s shown we can take care of the ball, but we just aren’t doing it.” Said Colorado head coach Tad Boyle.
The Buffs’ inability to hold on to the ball and score provided the Rams with 21 turnovers to utilize for scoring.
“I wish I could just point to one guy and say, oh, he’s turned it over let’s not play him, but it’s multiple guys every night,” said Boyle. “You know it’s a tough environment, but we put a lot of pressure on our defense.”
Junior guard D’Shawn Schwartz led the Buffs with nine rebounds. He took some time to address the turnovers post-game, “All I can say is there’s been halves where we’ve had low turnovers, and I don’t know,” said Schwartz. “We just really have to buckle down and figure it out.”
Buffs Senior Shane Gatling scored 20 points taking the reigns for the usual leaders. The senior transfer helped manifest the few points CU did make tonight.
“We know they’re going to give us their best shot,” said Gatling. “The crowd is amazing. Games here are always fun. So, just got to go in and play hard and got to outwork them in every position. I think it’s just a traditional story of us turning the ball over and not really valuing our possessions.”
Tyler Bey and McKinley Wright IV recorded four and five turnovers on the night. The two standout players showed a lack of urgency, allowing other guys on the bench to step in and step it up.
“I give my teammates a break when they’re not playing well,” said Gatling. “Mckinley thought he didn’t play well today, and he was just thanking me because I stepped up. It means a lot to me that I could do this for my teammates, and my coaches and they trust me even more to do this next game.”
First Half Story
Slow, silent, and sad. The motionless Colorado State Rams started with seven scoreless minutes with just two points under their belt. Looking fearful of the black and gold who kept the lead for the entity of the game, it took until 10:53 to score their first four points.
The Buff’s post-defense held steady against Nico Carvacho, the leader of the Rams in scoring and boards. so far this season
He led the nation last year in rebounds and averaged 13.3 points per game- .3 higher than Colorado’s scoring-leader, Tyler Bey. The 6’11 center found his match in Evan Battey, who steadily held Carvacho out of sync keeping him to only four points in the first half.
The Rams finally started to pick up speed with an assist by Isaiah Stevens springing Colorado State back into action at 10 points. A bleak start for the Rams caused a Colorado offense which allowed 12 turnovers, to still shoot 38% from the field. Buffs leading scorer, Shane Gatling, had 11 points ending the half as they led 27-12.
Second Half Story
CSU was able to trim the deficit to 10 before the Buffs got in the board in the 2nd half on a layup from Tyler Bey two minutes in. Then a triple from Schwartz and a free throw from Bey pushed the buffs lead to 16 with 16:41 left to play.
Despite the strong lead, the battle wasn’t over, as Kendal Moore drained a triple to start and 11-2 run form the Rams as they cut the deficit to 7 after a layup from Isaiah Stephens with under 14 minutes to play.
The Battey-Carvacho war elevated after a personal foul against the Ram’s Center. This ended the run as Battey drained a free throw, and then shortly thereafter, Lucas Siewert drained a triple. This made it an 11-point lead for the 24th ranked Buffs with 11:25 left to play.
Then the Rams seemed to kick it into high gear. Stevens connected on a jumper at the other ended to start what would become an 11-0 run as CSU tied the game up at 39 with 7:18 left to play. During this spurt, the Buffs turned the ball over four times, with the Rams capitalizing on three of those four turnovers.
From there, CU bullied their Colorado State play-date taking their win with grace in a disappointed arena full of green. The Buffs turned the ball over just one time after the game was tied, and never relinquished the lead.
Despite the early struggles, the Buffs were able to push their lead back to 9 with 37 seconds left to play and secure the win, although, not a pretty one at 56-48.
Gatling led the Buffs with 20 points off the bench. The leading scoring in the starting lineup was Bey, who had nine.
The Buffs now turn their focus to a game that shouldn’t pose many problems for them as they welcome 3-7 Prairie View A&M to Boulder on December 19th with a 6:30 pm MST tipoff scheduled on the Pac-12 Network.
Written by Christina Robben
