DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After moving up seven spots in the men’s basketball Associated Press top 25, the No. 18 Colorado Buffaloes overcame a scrappy Richmond Spiders team in the semifinal game of the Sunshine Slam.
On a Monday night where the Buffs couldn’t get it going, the resilient effort of a diverse, Tad Boyle-led squad stuck together behind KJ Simpson’s game-high 23 points, three rebounds, and two assists.
“We needed to face a little adversity and see how they reacted,” Boyle said after the win. “They reacted like I thought they would.”
The Spiders, on the losing end, found many ways to make it tough for Colorado as Richmond shot a season-high 45.1% from the field as their leading scorer Jordan King matched Simpson’s 23 points. The squad from Virginia also held the Buffs to their lowest amount of points they have scored in a game all year (64) on their first game shooting below 52% this season (42.6%; 20-of-47).
“Richmond, they had a great game plan,” Boyle said, “they’re tough kids, they’re well coached. I knew that watching film.”
The defensive battle of a game began with a 6-0 run by the Buffs across the opening four minutes, highlighted by two post move buckets from Colorado’s Tristan da Silva. CU’s star senior notched 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting along with eight rebounds on the night.
The black and gold defense was suffocating per usual, but the offense, despite scoring a few baskets, brought a lack of flow that was comparable to their opening first half of the season against the Towson Tigers. Across the rest of the game, Colorado’s struggling offense continued while the Spiders, mostly King, hit an array of contested shots.
“Jordan King is a good player,” Boyle said about King’s shot-making ability. “The buckets he got, he earned. I don’t think we gave him a lot.
“...It was funny. In front of the bench in the first half, he took a shot. I said, ‘That’s great defense.’ It went in and he looked and said, ‘It wasn’t good enough.’ So the kid’s got a little spunk to him too which I appreciate and respect. But, we played good defense on him, he earned everything he got.”
The first of King’s impressive jumpers marked the first points of the game for Richmond as well as the beginning of an 8-0 run. The Spiders took their first lead of the game as the teams traded the lead four times throughout the contest.
A three from Colorado guard RJ Smith got the Buffs back on track as the teams continued to duke it out for the rest of the first half. As CU struggled offensively, Simpson led his squad with seven points, Eddie Lampkin Jr. followed with six, and da Silva and Smith had five each.
In the first half, Lampkin used his body well in the post, working multiple post buckets over Richmond’s 7-foot Neal Quinn and sealing Spider defenders on CU drives. Da Silva snagged seven of his eight rebounds in the first half to give the Buffs a 17-14 lead in the rebound battle.
Still, the Spiders seemingly got to more loose balls and forced turnovers as King poured in 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting in the first half along with four three throws. The Eastern Tennessee State transfer showed off a number of fadeaway jumpers in his scoring burst.
As the first half came to a close, CU guard Julian Hammond III got fouled on a three-point attempt and knocked down three free throws to give Colorado a 28-23 lead with 31 seconds left. The Spiders, as they did all night, came right back as Quinn rattled in a hook shot at the buzzer, accompanied by a fist pump in celebration.
However, Quinn only scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds with a game-high four turnovers. Lampkin was Quinn’s primary defender all night.
“Eddie’s energy, he was dialed in,” Boyle said about shutting down Richmond's seven-footer. “The Quinn kid is a good player, to hold him to single digits…I thought we did a great job on him tonight.”
The first half came to a close with Colorado up 28-25. A rock fight through the first 20 minutes, the game only featured four total assists up to the break.
Coming out of halftime, the Buffs struck first with freshman Cody Williams finding a hole in the defense out of an inbounds play. The 6-foot-8 forward found himself in the middle of a number of hustle throughout the night.
After Williams’ layup, Simpson scored the Buffs’ next six points as both teams went back and forth. With just under 13 minutes left, da Silva head faked a Spider defender before knocking down a runner to put CU up 40-34.
Richmond, similarly to the first half, responded with another 8-0 run. With 10:50 left, the Spiders had made it a 42-40 ball game thanks to a layup and a fadeaway jumper by King, a hook shot by Quinn, and a layup by the Spiders’ second-highest scorer on the night Dji Bailey (11 points).
Da Silva stopped the bleeding with a midrange jump shot to tie the score at 42 but a Simpson foul on a King three-point attempt sent the Spiders’ leading scorer to the line. King knocked down the last two of three free throws, giving Richmond their final lead of the game.
As the final nine minutes unfolded, a Simpson three-pointer, his second of the night, gave the Buffs a 46-44 lead that Colorado would extend the rest of the game. As the Spiders threatened to come back, the Buffs continued to respond.
With two and a half minutes left in the game, Richmond’s Bailey blew past Lampkin for a reverse layup to cut the Buffs’ lead to three. As the teams traded possessions, a bad pass almost gave the Spiders a chance to tie it up.
As the pass bounced towards the backcourt, an outstretched Williams’ arm saved the ball as he tip-toed along the halfcourt line. Williams, who made winning plays all night, found Simpson on the right wing who found Lampkin in the high post. As Simpson cut off Lampkin, Lampkin faked the handoff and hit a cutting da Silva for a two-handed jam. With 1:29 left, Colorado led 58-53.
After a miss by King on the following possession, Richmond was forced to foul as Colorado cruised to their fourth win of the season and earned a spot in the Sunshine Slam title game. The Buffs went 15-of-16 from the charity stripe in the second half (21-of-25 in the game) as they earned the hard-fought 64-59 win. Simpson scored 16 second half points with nine of them coming from the line.
While it wasn’t pretty, Colorado proved they could win on an off night. They only won the rebound battle by six (32-26) and allowed the Spiders to shoot 45.1% from the field– the highest the Buffs have allowed any team to shoot from the field this season. CU also only dished out nine assists and netted three shots from deep in comparison to the 24.7 assists and 10.3 three-point makes they’ve averaged through the first three matches of the year.
“Look, their game plan was to take threes away from us,” Boyle said. “They were really up pressuring us and we didn’t do a good job in the first half of cutting.”
Colorado also proved they could make free throws after shooting a pitiful 69.5% from the line a year ago. After losing five games by four or fewer points last season, in which the Buffs shot sub-65% from the free throw line on 13 or more attempts in each game, the 84% night on 25 attempts comes with great promise. CU improved their season average to 77.8% from the line after the win.
“Getting to the free throw line is a big, big part of our game plan,” Boyle said, “and getting to the bonus quickly is a big part of our game plan as well because that sometimes can be the difference in close games, and it was tonight.”
With only a night’s rest, Boyle and the Buffs look to put the win in the rearview mirror as they take on the Florida State Seminoles on Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. MST in the Sunshine Slam championship. The game will be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network.
“We’re gonna have to cinch up our boots and go to work,” Boyle said about facing FSU, “because that’s gonna be a tough matchup.”
Cover photo by @CUBuffsMBB/X
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