BOULDER – After Cody Williams, the Colorado Buffaloes’ star freshman, soared through the air, slamming down a one-handed poster midway through the first half, the CU Events Center’s crowd went bananas.
“It was just a great drag screen by Tristan (da Silva),” Williams said after the game. “It kind of opened up the lane, they didn’t help, and just kind of reacted when it was open. So then, I just went up. Always nice to get those kinds of dunks. The crowd gets into it, those are kind of momentum shifts. So I feel like that just helped keep the momentum up and kept us rolling.”
A few moments later as the Buffs enjoyed a 21-4 start to the game, KJ Simpson nailed a 3-point shot as he got fouled, and headed to the line to complete the and-one as the roaring home audience enjoyed the 33-point beatdown, the largest winning margin of the season.
With highlight plays, suffocating defense, and a team passing performance to be watched on film for the rest of the season, Colorado played nearly perfect while the Beavers played far short of that. The Buffs shot 52.5% from the field to OSU’s 33.3%. CU outrebounded them (41-31), sliced up their defense (19 assists), and took care of the ball in their second-lowest turnover game of the season (eight TOVs).
“The 19 assists and eight turnovers, that’s probably the statistic I’m the most pleased with looking at this stat sheet,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said, “in addition to the defensive field goal percentage and the rebounding margin.”
Tristan da Silva (19 points, seven rebounds, four assists), Eddie Lampkin Jr. (17 points, eight rebounds), and Williams (16 points, six rebounds) led the scoring charge for the black and gold but they once again did not do it alone. Simpson added 13 points, seven rebounds, and four assists while Luke O’Brien added 10 points in place of an injured J’Vonne Hadley (knee soreness). CU starters combined for 75 points on 27-of-47 shooting from the field on the night.
The bench played well too as Assane Diop enjoyed his best game of the season. The freshman forward notched a career-high 10 points, four rebounds, two assists, and a block in a career-high 16 minutes. Julian Hammond III also looked more like his normal self in his third game back from injury as he dished out a game-high five assists.
“I’m so happy for him because you see day-to-day how hard Assane works,” Boyle said about Diop’s career night, “you see how selfless that he is. He’s all about the team, he’s not about himself. He just works his tail off. His growth has come incrementally in practice. This is the first time he’s really experienced it in a game.”
With Colorado functioning like a well-oiled machine, Oregon State could not get it going in any aspect of the game. With the Beavers not scoring more than six points straight at a time, their leading scorer on the season Jordan Pope (17.4 PPG) only scored 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field. The only bright spot for OSU was Tyler Bilodeau, who scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed five rebounds with most of his points coming when the game was out of reach.
Another point of importance for the Buffs was their strong second half. After going into the half up 45-23, CU outscored OSU 45-34 in the second. The consistency through a full 40 minutes was well-needed after struggling with putting two halves together all season.
However, the cherry on top was when the bench subbed in for garbage time. As walk-on sophomore Jack Pease got his first action of the season, he grabbed a rebound before pushing the break. Starting in the hands of Pease, the ball touched all five CU players on the court before finding a wide-open Javon Ruffin in the corner for 3.
With an undefeated three-game home stand, the Buffs hit the road for three games as they face the Washington Huskies to start. They beat the Huskies 73-69 while shorthanded at the CUEC. Tipoff is set for Wednesday (Jan. 24) at 9 p.m. MT.
“It’s just nice because we know the way we have to play and it gives us something to take on the road,” Williams said, “the kind of energy we need to bring because we’re not going to have the crowd cheering for us like we do at home. But it just shows how good we can be offensively and defensively, and it sets the standard for when we go on the road, to just carry it over and do the same things we do here.”
Cover photo by Cristian Blanco/Sko Buffs Sports
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