BOULDER– Nearly a year after the Grambling State men’s basketball team beat the Colorado Buffaloes by nine, the black and gold were firing on all cylinders Friday night in a dominant 95-63 home win over the Tigers.
“We’ve definitely had this game marked on the calendar for quite some time,” CU guard J’Vonne Hadley said after the win. “We been counting on this one for a while.”
After a scoreless first half on Monday, senior forward Tristan da Silva led the scoring charge for the Buffs with 21 points on the night on 8-of-12 shooting (67%). He added three assists and seven rebounds to his stat line.
“The thing that makes it so hard to take Tristan out of the game is he’s so darn versatile,” Colorado's head coach Tad Boyle said about da Silva’s performance. “He can shoot the three, he can put it on the floor, he can post up smaller guys, he can shoot it over big guys… he does so many things for us.”
On Friday night, TDS did all of the above.
After winning the opening tip, the Buffs scored the first six points of the game. CU center Eddie Lampkin Jr. scored the opening points of the match after receiving his first start in a Colorado uniform in place of the injured Cody Williams. Williams was out with a “nagging injury” according to Boyle. Lampkin poured in 10 points along with a game-high eight rebounds and three assists.
“I love the fans, I like my energy, I feel I got the most energy in the country,” Lampkin said, “If I bring it every day, the fans gon’ come, and that’s what gonna turn up our team so that’s what I gotta do.”
The Tigers broke the scoring drought with a layup by Kintavious Dozier, but Colorado guard Julian Hammond III netted back-to-back triples for two of his four three-balls on the night, giving CU an early 10-point lead. From then on, the black and gold didn’t look back.
“Julian Hammond to me is the consummate sixth man,” Boyle said about Hammond’s performance. “He brings so much to this team. To me, he’s a sixth starter– I’d be comfortable starting Julian any night of the week.”
Across the rest of the first half, Grambling would occasionally score in four to five-point spurts before being held scoreless for multiple minutes at a time. With Colorado’s improved communication and defensive effort, the Tigers failed to generate any offense. With little success reaching the paint while the Buffs in help blew up most off-ball action, Grambling continuously relied on contested jumpers deep into the shot clock.
With the Tigers shooting at 23% (6-of-26) from the field in the first half, the Buffs turned misses into rebounds and rebounds into transition points. Colorado was able to quickly find their guards off of misses, turning their 14-rebound advantage in the first half into a 30-point lead.
While Colorado was expected to handle the Tigers after losing to them nearly a year ago to the day, winning in such a dominant fashion wasn’t necessarily on the bingo card.
As much as the Buffs flew around on defense, so did the ball on the offensive end. With much improved ball movement from their Monday night win over the Towson Tigers, Colorado opened up plenty of opportunities and capitalized on them early.
The Buffs shot 6-of-13 from deep and dished out 17 assists on their way to a 50–20 lead heading into the break.
Coming out of halftime, the Buffs’ offense continued to produce while the defensive intensity flattened. Still, Colorado kept their gigantic lead despite Grambling’s increased offensive success. The Buffs outscored the Tigers 45-43 in the second half.
Grambling graduate student guard Tra’michael Moton led the Tigers’ offense with a game-high 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting and five assists.
“Give Grambling credit, those kids never quit,” Boyle said. “They kept coming at us and Moton is a heck of a guard. Really made some tough shots.”
CU went on the enjoy the huge win, but it was their overwhelming team play that stood out. As a team, they dished out 28 assists as starting point guard KJ Simpson notched a career-high eight assists.
“28 assists, we had 22 the other night,” Boyle said, “that’s fantastic, keep sharing the ball.”
Defensively, the Buffs reached their goal of holding opponents under 40% from the field while also winning the rebound battle by eight. The Tigers shot 38.9% (21-54) from the field and got outrebounded by 17 (41-24).
In the 32-point win, six Buffs scored in double digits, including Hadley (17 pts), Simpson (12 pts), and Luke O’Brien (10 pts). Hadley also tied Lampkin for the most rebounds in the contest with eight.
“I’m a hustler,” Hadley said. “I’ve been a hustler since I was a kid. You know, I just do the dirty work.”
The Buffs will face off against the Milwaukee Panthers on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m.
Comments