If there was ever a downfall to be proud of, it would be the University of Colorado men’s basketball season-opening loss against No. 7 Iowa State. They only edged out the Buffaloes 68-62 on Friday night at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Perhaps the biggest storyline from Colorado’s opening game of the season was redshirt sophomore guard/forward George King, who sat out last year to improve on his talents. During Friday night’s matchup, King came off the bench to lead the team with 14 points and six rebounds. Aside from a couple free throws, all of his 12 points came from behind the arc.
Three-point shooting and three-point defense was something the Buffaloes struggled to maintain throughout all of last season but, after just one game this year, it seems they have corrected the key issues. For the game, the Buffs shot 9-23 (39.1) percent from downtown and silenced Iowa State’s generally strong three-point game to a mere 2-10.
After a slow start to the contest, senior forward Josh Scott contributed his first double-double of the season with 11 points and just as many rebounds. Sophomore guard Dominique Collier, who the Buffs will have to heavily rely on to step up this season, also contributed 13 points.
On the other side of the ball, the Buffs struggled to contain each of Iowa State’s biggest threats. Georges Niang led his squad with 17 points, followed by Abdel Nader (14), Nazareth Mitrou-Long (13) and Monte Morris (12).
Throughout the matchup, the Buffs shot only 23-63 from the field (36.5 percent), whereas the Cyclones put up an efficient 29 of 65 shots (44.6 percent).
For the first two and a half minutes of the 2015-16 season, neither team could get their first points on the board. After the dry spell from both teams, the Buffaloes got the early lead on the Cyclones, 5-0, but quickly gave it up after the Cyclones went on a 12-2 tangent and set the Buffs back 12-7.
Boyle tested out his rotation with multiples players throughout the remainder of the half and the Buffs fought back. They managed to tie the score up three times and even took a few leads here and there, going up by as many as three points with three minutes left, 25-22.
From there on out, the Cyclones closed out the half with an 8-0 run to take the 30-25 lead going into the break.
For the half, the Buffs shot an abysmal 10-35 from the field (28.6 percent), but fared much better from the three-point range at 5-15 (33.3 percent).
Iowa State, on the other hand, fared much better on the offensive side of the ball. They shot 13-31 (41.9 percent) from the field, but Colorado managed to limit the Cyclones from deep as they only made one of their three attempts.
The Cyclones saw no bench points in the first half, but the Buffs struggled to contain Monte Morris, who scored 10 points, as well as Georges Niang and Nazareth Mitrou-Long, who each contributed eight points.
At the start of the second half, everything began to fall apart for the Buffaloes. After a quick bucket from Scott, the Cyclones responded with an 8-0 run and forced Boyle into a timeout. The offensive pain continued nearly four and a half minutes into the second, at which point the Cyclones gained a 42-29 lead.
Over the next four minutes, the Buffaloes chipped away at that lead as they closed the gap to 43-40 with just under ten minutes remaining. Though they would never regain the lead, the Buffs went through intervals during which they closed the gap, then loosened up their defense a little, and moved back.
With four and a half minutes left, the Buffs trailed 58-48 after a beautifully executed three by Long. From there on out, the Buffs couldn’t manage to get the edge over their top-ten opponent, but did manage to give them quite the scare in a close finish.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, Iowa State walked away from their first game of the 2015-16 season with a win and Colorado walked away with an impressive defensive performance even in their loss.
The Buffs return to the court on Tuesday, Nov. 17 as they face Auburn in Alabama for their second straight appearance in the 24-Hour College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. MST, and you can catch the game on ESPN.
