BOULDER– With hopes of backing up their new No. 25 ranking, freshman Cody Williams’ huge return helped the Colorado Buffaloes handle business at the CU Events Center with a dominating 106-79 win over the Milwaukee Panthers.
“I definitely felt a little more comfortable tonight,” Williams said after the win. “...So for me, it was just kinda go out there, play my game, be aggressive. It helps when you have an unselfish team.”
Williams, the highest-ranked commit in Colorado history, scored 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field (1-of-1 from deep) and added five rebounds and four assists to his stat line. He missed CU’s Friday night game against the Grambling State Tigers due to a minor injury.
“I felt good out there,” Williams said. “Me and the coaches, you know our team doctor, our strength coach, we all agreed, like, if I wasn’t 100% I shouldn’t step on the floor.”
Continuing where they left off from their Friday night blowout win against the Grambling State Tigers, senior forward Tristan da Silva netted a three-ball on the Buffs’ first possession. The Panthers responded with a dunk and another basket but the Colorado offense proved too much for the Wisconsin team to handle.
The Buffs promptly went on a 10-0 run, led by another three by da Silva and some beautiful two-man action by Eddie Lampkin Jr. and KJ Simpson. However, it was Williams’ who stole the show with a jaw-dropping, tomahawk jam. As the five-star rose up from the right of the key, he punched in the one-hand, and-one dunk after receiving a hit from Milwaukee’s BJ Freeman.
To make matters worse for Freeman, he saw white jerseys all over him on offense too. After leading the Panthers in scoring last year and racking up 33 points and 10 boards in a loss to Providence on Saturday, the junior guard failed to score his first points until the last minute of the first half. He finished with nine points on 2-of-12 shooting on the night.
“Number one, we needed to do a good job collectively on him,” Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said about shutting down Freeman. “...To hold him to single-digits, that’s not gonna happen a lot, I don’t think.”
With Milwaukee’s best player struggling, their offense remained stagnant. And as Colorado continued to run the break, they nailed seven of their eleven three-point attempts in the first half.
Going up 53-33 heading into the half, the Buffs continued their dominating play into the second.
As Colorado continued their unselfish, three-point shooting, fast-break running style of play, the lead continued to largen. With just under 15 minutes left in the second half, the black and gold made it a 30-point game with da Silva’s third three of the game. The senior forward made four of the Buffs’ 13 three-point makes on the night, with RJ Smith (3-of-4), Simpson (3-of-4), Julian Hammond III (2-of-4), and Williams (1-of-1) adding to the total. Part of the reason CU found such great success was because of their 25 assists.
“When we have spacing like that, we’re gonna get assists,” Simpson said. “Also, credit to the guys knocking down shots.”
For the rest of the contest, it stayed that way– even if Boyle had to explode on his squad (and a clipboard) up 33 points with five minutes left in the game for not boxing out and giving up three-pointers.
“We gotta get better,” Boyle said, “and that was building throughout the second half. So I just want these guys to know, like, down the road, we’re gonna run into teams like this that, uh, have a little bit more firepower than Milwaukee had tonight but can also shoot the three.”
Colorado allowed Milwaukee guard Zach Howell to get loose for five second half three-pointers as the sophomore guard racked up all 15 of his points in the last half. Howell’s 15 points was a team-high for the Panthers.
“On the scouting report, he is a shooter… he is a shooter,” Boyle said. “And we let that shooter make five threes. That can’t happen.”
Still, the Colorado Buffaloes cruised to a 106-79 victory over Milwaukee– CU’s sixth win in six matchups between the schools dating back to January on 1983.
Milwaukee finished the night shooting 27-of-73 (37%) from the field and 11-of-34 (32.4%) from distance. Despite the large margin of victory, the Buffs only won the rebound battle by two (39-37).
Simpson led the black and gold in scoring with 23 points in addition to his two rebounds, a game-high six assists, and two steals. Da Silva added 17 of his own as the veterans joined the new-face tandem of Williams and Lampkin in leading the team to victory. Lampkin, who played his best game in a CU uniform yet, scored fourteen points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
“He’s a force down there, he’s somebody they gotta worry about,” Boyle said about Lampkin, “Nobody likes guarding him.”
The Buffs look to continue their undefeated start ahead of their second Sunshine Slam game as they face off against the Richmond Spiders on Monday, Nov. 20. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. MST.
“You can’t change your approach, you know, for a different team or just because we are on the road,” Simpson said. “We have to play the exact same way that we are, or we would here as we would on the road.”
Photo and video by Alex Stein/Sko Buffs Sports
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