BOULDER – What’s better than one starting point guard who can score a career-high 34 points in a nail-biting win? Two of them.
Less than 24 hours after Jaylyn Sherrod scored a career-high in points in the No. 8 Colorado women’s team’s win over No. 12 Utah, KJ Simpson matched her with 34 points (10-of-18 FG, 1-of-3 3PT, 13-of-14 FTs) of his own against the Washington State Cougars in a gritty 74-67 win. Simpson added two rebounds and two assists to his stat line as his 34 points were the most scored by a Buff since Derrick White had 35 against Arizona State on Jan. 5, 2017.
“We definitely do,” Simpson said when asked if Colorado had the best starting point guards in the nation. “Shoutout to Jaylyn. I went to the girls’ game yesterday, so I was just taking some notes from her and that’s how I was able to score the ball today.”
The stellar guard play didn’t just come from Simpson as J’Vonne Hadley also played well in the close win. Two days after a posterizing dunk highlighted the Buffs' big victory over the Washington Huskies, Hadley produced another staple moment as he nailed a dagger, pull-up three-pointer to put Colorado up eight with 50 seconds to go. With the shot clock resetting to 20 seconds instead of 30, Hadley alertly put up his second three of the game and found the same result as the first. Sweet string music.
“Coach (Boyle) always talks to me and tells me to let it go,” Hadley said after the game. “...I got the ball, and looked up, and the shot clock was at six or seven already. So I’m not really sure how we got there, but we had to do what we had to do and I ended up knocking down the shot.”
Not only did Hadley put the game away, but he led the defensive charge for the Buffs as he came up with a clutch block down the stretch as CU led by three with a minute-and-a-half left to play. The block was just one of a string of clutch stops the black and gold produced as they held the Cougars scoreless across the last 3:24 of play (besides a last-second three by Oscar Cluff to cut the lead to seven).
“The guys dug in,” Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said. “They got through screens, they contested shots, and they played really smart, mature basketball and tough, physical basketball.”
However, the dominating play that willed the Buffs to a win over the last few minutes wasn’t consistent throughout the contest as Washington State brought the once 12-point lead to one before Colorado’s defensive presence riled up to end the game. Andrej Jakimovski (19 points), Isaac Jones (16 points), and Cluff (16 points) combined for 51 points of the Cougars’ 67 as WSU worked the ball inside and Jakimovski lined up four triples on the afternoon.
The Cougars led their late comeback on the backs of their interior as Cluff and Jones scored 24 second half points. Their offensive success came at the expense of Eddie Lampkin, who found himself in foul trouble in the back half of the contest. With a thin lineup due to another game without Tristan da Silva (ankle) and Cody Williams (wrist), it was Joe Hurlburt tasked to lock down the paint when Lampkin notched his third and fourth fouls down the stretch. Hurlburt did what he was supposed to, but when facing off against two upperclassmen big guys, the redshirt freshman appeared overwhelmed as he had a -14 plus-minus in comparison to Lampkin’s +24. WSU also gave Colorado their hardest rebounding battle of the year as they only got outrebounded by two (30-28).
“He’s an important part of our team,” Boyle said of Lampkin. “Let’s not mince words there, but I think when you’re playing a team like Washington State who pounds it inside and has two quality bigs, he becomes even more important and every time I talked to him at timeouts when he came out of the game it was, ‘You’ve just got to play smart.’”
Still, Simpson kept the Buffs’ offense chugging as he scored 20 of his 34 points in the second half. With CU only dishing out three second half assists, Simpson’s points came off the bounce or from the ten free throw attempts he saw in the half. Of the three assists, however, Simpson’s lone second half assist was a crucial one as he found Lampkin for an and-one layup with just over five-and-a-half minutes left to play. The huge play put CU up eight as the CU Events Center erupted on the fourth connection of the night between Lampkin and Simpson. Of the duo’s four total assists, all four were converted by the other.
As Colorado cruised to their second win in two games of Pac-12 play, the short-handed victory shows well as they head to Tuscon, Arizona to face off against the No. 4 Arizona Wildcats on
Thursday (Jan. 4). Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. MST.
Cover photo by Robert Patrick Gerra/Sko Buffs Sports
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