Fast break
Why the Buffs lost: CU again was porous on defense, allowing Northern Colorado to finish with a .525 shooting percentage after the Bears went 17-for-23 (.739) in the second half.
Three stars
1. UNC’s Quinn Denker. Returned from a two-game injury absence to go 12-for-18 with a career-high 33 points.
2. UNC’s Ibu Yamazaki. Went 4-for-6 on 3-pointers with 19 points and seven rebounds.
3. CU’s Isaiah Johnson. The freshman provided another huge spark off the bench, posting season-highs of 25 points and eight rebounds to lead the Buffs in both categories.
Up next: CU begins Big 12 Conference play Saturday at Arizona State (3 p.m. MT, ESPN2).
At times, the Colorado men’s basketball team has been brilliant offensively.
Defensively, though, the Buffaloes have been inconsistent at best. More often than not, the Buffs have been both porous and generous defensively. It’s a trait that once again bit the Buffs, this time in historic fashion.
CU turned in another listless defensive performance and Northern Colorado gladly took advantage, handing CU a stunning 86-81 defeat Sunday afternoon at the CU Events Center. The victory ended the Bears’ 13-game losing streak against the Buffs and gave UNC its first win against CU since Feb. 18, 1936.
“We don’t have anybody who’s going to take pride enough and say, ‘I’m going to shut this dude down,’” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “Our offense, even though we shot 39%, I don’t think our offense is that bad when you score 81 points. But there’s nobody that had individual pride, and we don’t have collective pride defensively. Until we figure it out, it’s going to be like this.”
UNC finished with a .525 shooting mark, becoming the fifth CU opponent in 13 games to shoot at least 50% against the Buffs. Four of those plus-50% shooting performances by CU foes have occurred at the Events Center.
The Bears did much of that damage after halftime, shooting a whopping .739 (17-for-23) during the second half. UNC went 11-for-21 on 3-pointers, becoming the fourth CU foe this season to hit at least 10 against the Buffs.
Much like the loss against Stanford last week, the Buffs turned in a decent game offensively. Although CU shot just .395, with a 7-for-23 mark on 3-pointers, the Buffs shot .466 after halftime and finished with a season-low five turnovers. The Buffs also went 14-for-15 at the free throw line. Yet those numbers along with the efforts of guards Isaiah Johnson, who recorded season-highs of 25 points and eight rebounds, and Barrington Hargress (18 points, five assists) weren’t nearly enough to overcome the lapses defensively and on the glass.
Despite not getting an offensive rebound in the second half, UNC outrebounded the Buffs 39-37. CU wasn’t outrebounded in any of its first 11 games but has been outrebounded in each of its back-to-back defeats.
“We’re letting teams shoot 21 threes and hit 11. They hit 11 and we want to keep people to six,” Hargress said. “Just allowing teams too much freedom, and not making their best players feel uncomfortable. We’ve got to do better with just being disruptive.”
UNC jumped to a 10-point lead in the first half, and although the Buffs trailed by only two at halftime, CU never led by more than six in the early stages in the second half. UNC broke a 68-68 tie with eight consecutive points, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from Quinn Denker and Zach Bloch.
After the Buffs took an 80-78 lead on a jumper in the lane by Hargress with 1 minute, 50 seconds remaining, Denker answered with a pair of post-up buckets to put the Bears back in front by two points. Johnson finished 5-for-6 at the free throw line, but his only miss left the Buffs trailing by one point with 26.1 seconds remaining, and the Bears iced their historic victory with four free throws in the final 24 seconds.
Denker returned from a two-game injury absence to score a career-high 33 points.
“Credit goes to UNC. They came in here and beat us in our own building,” Boyle said. “They shoot 74%, 73.9, in the second half, you ain’t beating anybody doing that. I want to use a different word than ‘stuff.’ But it’s the same stuff, just a different day.”
Northern Colorado 86, Colorado 81
NORTHERN COLORADO (10-3)
Nyeri 2-4 0-0 5, Wisne 6-15 0-0 13, Yamazaki 5-8 5-5 19, Bloch 3-6 0-0 8, Denker 12-18 6-6 33, Shields 3-6 2-6 8, Delano 0-2 0-0 0, Mawien 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-59 13-17 86.
COLORADO (10-3)
Dak 6-14 2-2 16, Rancik 4-13 4-4 14, Malone 2-5 2-2 6, Hargress 8-15 1-1 18, Kossaras 1-2 0-0 2, Johnson 9-20 5-6 25, Sanders 0-3 0-0 0, Holland 0-4 0-0 0, Ifaola 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-76 14-15 81.
Halftime: Northern Colorado 37-35; 3-point field goals: Northern Colorado 11-21 (Yamazaki 4-6, Denker 3-5, Bloch 2-4, Nyeri 1-2, Wisne 1-3, Delano 0-1); Colorado 7-23 (Dak 2-4, Johnson 2-6, Rancik 2-6, Hargress 1-3, Holland 0-1, Kossaras 0-1, Sanders 0-2). Rebounds: Northern Colorado 39 (Denker 8); Colorado 37 (Johnson 8). Assists: Northern Colorado 17 (Denker 8); Colorado 11 (Hargress 5). Turnovers: Northern Colorado 13 (Denker 5); Colorado 5 (Five players with 1). Total fouls: Northern Colorado 12, Colorado 14. A: 8,347.
