Fast break
Why the Buffs won: CU shot .608, its second-highest percentage of the season and its top mark in Big 12 play, while forcing Utah into nine first-half turnovers.
Three stars
1. Bangot Dak. Posted his fifth double-double, scoring a career-high 22 points along with 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.
2. Isaiah Johnson. The freshman guard turned in another solid all-around effort, going 8-for-8 at the free throw line with 22 points, four assists and three steals.
3. Barrington Hargress. Went 7-for-11 overall and a perfect 3-for-3 on 3-pointers, recording 19 points, and three assists.
Up next: CU completes the regular season at home on Saturday against No. 2 Arizona (9 p.m., ESPN2).
SALT LAKE CITY — Colorado fans are painfully aware of some of the ugly results the Buffaloes have posted on the road over the past five weeks.
Yet on a team that leans heavily on freshmen, the CU men’s basketball team has managed to respond after each and every one of those lopsided losses. And the Buffaloes did it again at Utah.
Just three days after getting routed at Houston by 40 points, the Buffs dominated the Utes in the first half before holding off Utah’s second-half comeback bid in a 92-78 Big 12 victory on Tuesday at the Huntsman Center.
The Buffs entered the game 1-18 in true road games since the start of last season and had lost their three previous games at Utah. Bangot Dak posted his fifth double-double of the season with a career-high 22 points along with 10 rebounds, while the Buffs received big games from the backcourt tandem of Isaiah Johnson and Barrington Hargress.
CU picked up the road win despite playing without starting forward Sebastian Rancik, who was sidelined by an injury sustained at practice this week.
“Games like (Houston), we don’t want that to be our type of identity. That we’re the team that’s going to get blown out by that many points,” Dak said. “Any time we have a game like that, we know it’s important to have a bounce-back performance, and I feel like we’ve been doing that.”
CU never trailed, taking advantage of a sloppy first half from Utah to build a 26-point lead at halftime. The Utes committed nine turnovers in the first half, giving the Buffs a 13-2 edge in points off turnovers at the break, and went 0-for-9 on 3-pointers before halftime. After an early 13-13 tie, the Buffs outscored Utah 38-12 over the remainder of the first half to take a 51-25 halftime lead.
After the break, however, Utah started protecting the ball, recording just one turnover in the second half. And suddenly the Buffs’ defense wasn’t so formidable. Utah shot .739 in the second half (17-for-23), hitting their first six 3-point attempts and converting all three free throws after a CU foul on another long-range attempt. The Utes used a 19-4 run to cut CU’s lead to 11 points and Utah whittled the deficit down to nine on three separate occasions, but each time the Buffs responded with key baskets.
After struggling lately at the free throw line, CU knocked down its free throws at crunch time, finishing 21-for-23.
“Our guys, I thought, were really dialed-in defensively, and we created some offense with our defense,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “The second half was just the opposite. Nine of the first 10 possessions they scored, and the 10th one they got an offensive rebound.
“Credit Utah for coming back, but I also got to credit our guys for kind of stemming the tide. It was one of those games, I told the bench, I told our staff, ‘We better keep scoring, because we can’t stop these dudes in the second half.’”
The Buffs have struggled from 3-point range away from home, posting a .293 mark (51-for-174) in their first eight Big 12 road games. But CU rediscovered its shooting touch at Utah, going 9-for-17 from the arc. Hargress went 3-for-3, keeping him in range of Levi Knutson’s single-season 3-point percentage record. Johnson went 2-for-5 and fellow freshman Jalin Holland was 3-for-4, knocking down three 3-pointers in a game for the first time in his career.
“It says a lot about this group. We’re willing to fight no matter what the circumstance is,” Johnson said. “We’re able to come back from tough situations and we’re able to push through adversity.”
Colorado 92, Utah 78
COLORADO (17-13, 7-10 Big 12)
Dak 6-9 9-10 22, Hargress 7-11 2-3 19, Holland 3-7 2-2 11, Johnson 6-10 8-8 22, J.Sanders 4-4 0-0 8, Inman 1-5 0-0 2, Michaeli 1-2 0-0 2, Malone 3-3 0-0 6. Totals 31-51 21-23 92.
UTAH (10-20, 2-15)
Dawes 2-7 0-0 4, Okonkwo 2-2 2-2 6, S.Traore 2-4 3-4 9, Brown 10-17 5-8 26, McHenry 5-9 8-8 19, Hayes 1-2 0-1 2, K.Sanders 3-5 0-0 8, Langarita 0-1 0-0 0, Abbey 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 27-52 18-23 78.
Halftime: Colorado 51-25. 3-point field goals: Colorado 9-17 (Hargress 3-3, Holland 3-4, Johnson 2-5, Dak 1-2, Inman 0-3); Utah 6-16 (S.Traore 2-2, K.Sanders 2-3, Brown 1-1, McHenry 1-4, Langarita 0-1, Abbey 0-2, Dawes 0-3). Rebounds: Colorado 27 (Dak 10); Utah 23 (K.Sanders 5). Assists: Colorado 17 (J.Sanders 5); Utah 15 (Dawes, Brown, McHenry 4). Turnovers: Colorado 7 (Johnson, Hargress Inman 2); Utah 10 (Dawes 3). Total fouls: Colorado 17, Utah 18. A: 6,975.
