FORT COLLINS – Despite a valiant second half effort by the newly unranked Colorado Buffaloes, first half woes against the No. 18 Colorado State Rams were ultimately too much to overcome in the 130th installment of the Rocky Mountain Showdown on hardwood.
“We’re capable of fighting, we don’t give up,” Colorado guard KJ Simpson said. “...We’re not gonna give up and it was nice to see that. Just wish you could come out on top but it’s hard to do that when you dig yourself a hole.”
The win doesn’t only mark CSU’s 39th victory between the two in-state rivals but also comes with great revenge for numerous reasons. After losing to the Buffs on the road by almost 30 points nearly a year ago, former Buff Nique Clifford helped the Rams to Wednesday night’s five-point victory thanks to his 15 points (5-of-10 from the field, 1-of-4 from three) and six rebounds.
“It was pretty weird, it’s pretty weird,” Simpson said about seeing his former teammate in a CSU jersey. “Credits to him, you know, he’s playing a great game.
“He came at us from the start and he was their aggressor. He’s playing well on a really good team and I know they’re going to go far. It was kind of cool, so happy for him.”
The younger brother of legendary Buffaloes’ big man Josh Scott, Joel, also poured in 15 points along with five rebounds while Isaiah Stevens, whom coach Boyle praised as “one of the best guards in America” just a few nights prior, led the Rams’ charge with 20 points and a game-high 11 assists.
On the other side of the floor, Simpson led the Buffs with a game-high 30 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-4 from deep, while dishing out four of Colorado’s season-low six assists on the night. Only two other Buffaloes surpassed double digits in scoring as senior Tristan da Silva finished with 11 and freshman Cody Williams finished with 21 with all of his points coming in the second half.
The Buffs’ second half attempt at a comeback, however, was spoiled as the black and gold originally appeared unprepared for the highly-anticipated matchup. In a physical first half, CSU outmuscled, outhustled, and outscored the black and gold 41-26 as a sold-out Moby Arena brought the energy from the second the gates opened for fan entry.
“They were the aggressor in the first half, there was no question about it,” Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said. “Colorado State punched us in the mouth.”
The Rams struck first with a bucket by Scott at the rim while the Buffs started the game 0-for-3 from the field with a turnover in their first four possessions. CSU’s 6-foot-7 forward, who’s playing his first year of Division I basketball after spending his last four years at Division II Black Hills State, played a huge role in the Rams’ win as he could not be stopped inside while also holding somewhat of a defensive presence in the paint. In a matchup where many expected Colorado’s 6-foot-11 Eddie Lampkin Jr. to dominate, Scott got the best of the former Texas Christian University big man as Lampkin was held to only two points and two rebounds in 19 minutes of play before getting benched for the majority of the second half.
After another basket by CSU, da Silva netted the first points of the night for Colorado from the charity stripe. A few plays later, CSU’s Clifford lined up a triple from the top of the key as he notched his first points of the contest.
CU fought back, leading a 6-0 run to take their first lead. But, it surely wasn’t pretty and definitely wasn’t easy. Every Buff basket came with great difficulty due to the aggressive CSU defensive pressure. Colorado shot 38.5% from the field in the first half along with nine turnovers.
"We tried to emphasize how rowdy it was going to be," Simpson said, "and I think we just let it get to us a little bit."
As the Buffs’ offense sputtered, the Rams’ offense came alive, leading a 12-2 run over the next six minutes.
After going up 19-10 thanks to a three by Colorado State big man Rashaan Mbemba, sharpshooter Joe Palmer got going and maintained CSU’s nine-point lead as he scored the next 11 of 13 points for the Rams despite the Buffs finally stringing together some baskets.
Palmer got on the board with a put-back tip-in before netting back-to-back triples soon after. Up 27-18, the Colorado State crowd was on their feet and as loud as ever – or so Colorado thought.
“I think we were definitely prepared for the level of just the noise and the environment,” Williams said. “I think we just didn’t come out and execute. That’s something we gotta go back and watch film.”
Simpson kept the Buffs in the game with 10 first half points, including six points across the CSU run. But after a sweet dish by Stevens from underneath the hoop found the hot hand, Palmer netted his third shot from deep to go up 11.
“Them guys off the bench, you know, they came and they put up big numbers for them,” Simpson said. “...I don’t know how many threes they have but it was definitely over the count we like.”
As the Buffs’ star point guard added four more points to cap off CU’s weak 26-point first half and cut the CSU lead to 10, a foul on a three-point attempt on CSU’s Jalen Lake with just over two seconds left extended the Rams’ lead to 13. With things seemingly going as horrible as possible for the Buffs, the sequence went from bad to worse as Rams’ guard Josiah Strong intercepted Colorado’s final inbounds pass of the half and laid the ball in for two as the clock expired.
“They made seven out of 14 (three-pointers) at halftime,” Boyle said. “We fouled a three-point shooter and he made three free throws. That’s 24 points beyond the arc in the first half.”
Up 15 heading into the break, the last-second bucket sent Moby into delirium.
With their backs against the wall as Colorado’s year-long turnover and defensive issues continued, the offense that propelled the black and gold through five of their first six games was nowhere to be found. In the second half, it was back — at least for Williams and Simpson who combined for 41 points on 14-for-16 shooting (4-of-4 from deep, 9-of-10 from the line) in the half with 21 and 20 points, respectively.
“I think, we just started playing together, playing Colorado basketball offensively in the second half,” Williams said regarding what changed after the break.
To open the half, Simpson and Williams scored or assisted on the first six Colorado baskets. The offense got going, though, the lack of defense that plagued the Buffs all night only allowed Colorado to cut the distance to nine across the first six minutes.
As CU narrowed the lead to five with just over 13 minutes left (Williams and Simpson scored or assisted on 22 of CU’s first 24 points), it was CSU’s Lake who knocked down a crucial three ball off a Stevens’ pass to extend the lead back to eight. A few possessions later, Stevens and Simpson got tangled up with the foul call going in favor of the home team. As the Rams’ phenom knocked down his first of what was supposed to be two free throws, Boyle earned himself a technical for finally overstepping the line he had tip-toed all night long. After narrowly avoiding a potential second technical and ejection, Stevens calmly hit his next three shots from the charity stripe to put Colorado State back up 11.
With the crowd back in the game as the Rams enjoyed yet another double-digit lead, Colorado was expected to be finished. And while the lead ultimately was too much to handle for the Buffs, the quit in them certainly was not lost.
Across the next seven minutes, both teams traded baskets as Colorado’s bench unit in Julian Hammond III and Luke O’Brien rattled in some crucial buckets in addition to Williams’ and Simpson’s continued great play. When the game seemed out of reach as Stevens scored a pull-up jumper to put Colorado State up 12 with 2:45 left, CU’s press caused some issues for the Rams as the Buffaloes’ frantic fight to steal a win continued. Even when CSU finally got loose from the press and Clifford slammed down a two-handed jam with 48 seconds left to go up seven, two late Simpson threes brought Colorado within four – the closest they had been since the 12:25 mark of the first half.
“We want to get the ball moved side to side, we want to get the ball in the paint,” Boyle said about what changed at halftime for the Buffs’ offense. “We weren’t doing that in the first half for whatever reason.”
As the final buzzer sounded, the packed stadium rushed the floor to celebrate the 88-83 win over their biggest rivals. Some overzealous CSU fans even ran up to Colorado’s Williams and the Buffs’ bench with phones out as others mocked the infamous CU celebration that took the sports world by storm in Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ watch flash. Luckily, Colorado State assistant coaches came to the aid of the CU players before things got out of hand.
In the Buffs’ biggest challenge up to this point in the season, they further solidified their weaknesses of being unable to stop opposing offenses (giving up 70.1 PPG; 88 points to CSU) while also being careless with the basketball (14.1 turnovers per contest; 15 turnovers against CSU). In addition, da Silva, a senior, only made three of his eleven shot attempts with all five of his shots from distance being off the mark.
“Look, this game is real simple,” Boyle said. “It comes down to the fact that we could never string together stops against Colorado State.
“You know, we try to get three stops in a row. That’s called a kill. We try to get three of those per half and every game we’ve played this year, even against Florida State, you know, we’ve had four, five, six, maybe seven of those. Tonight, we had zero. So we never stopped Colorado State three times at all so that puts pressure on your offense.”
With the colliding factors of a weak first half, poor shooting from their star senior, and Boyle’s technical, Colorado couldn’t get it done despite Williams’ and Simpson’s fantastic performances. However, the revival of the CU offense that scored 57 second half points with the hope of an improved defense come Pac-12 play being possible brings a silver lining to the painful second loss of the season.
“It’s all mental toughness,” Boyle said. “It’s all it is.”
The now 4-2 Buffs return home on Sunday, Dec. 3 for an afternoon clash against the 4-5 Pepperdine Waves. Colorado looks to get back on track with No. 8 Miami (FL) coming to town on the 10th.
“We gotta learn how to play on the road,” Simpson said. “I mean, we do fine at home but on the road, our turnovers are really high and, uh, we don’t rebound the ball pretty well.
“It’s hard to win like that, we don’t get stops…It’s just a lot of things that come into it. It’s mainly defensive things though, our offense is fine.”
Cover photo by @CUBuffsMBB/X
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