Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Editor alissa.noe@colorado.edu and follow her on Twitter @crazysportgirl1.
After coming off of a huge road win at Auburn on Tuesday, the University of Colorado men’s basketball team excelled offensively Friday night with four players scoring in double digits during their home-opening win against Portland, 85-63.
Junior guard Josh Fortune earned his first Colorado career double-double against the Pilots with 17 points and 14 rebounds, and nearly missed a triple-double by adding six assists. For the third time this season, sophomore guard George King led the team on offense with 18 points.
“I thought Josh Fortune, defensively, was a beast tonight,” Boyle said. “You know, 11 defensive boards, and that’s fantastic. Any time one of your wings can get 14 rebounds, that’s a great effort.”
Right behind those two, junior guard/forward Tre’Shaun Fletcher added 17 points, followed by senior forward Josh Scott, who contributed 13.
“It definitely felt good to get the rhythm,” Fletcher said. “Like George said, the team’s playing really good right now. We’ve got a lot of camaraderie going and team chemistry and stuff. We just want to keep that rolling”
For the night, the Buffs shot 47.5 percent from the field (29-61) and made 7-19 of their threes (36.8 percent). The Pilots didn’t respond well on offense as they trailed with 36.7 percent from the field (22-60) and 10-27 from the three-point range (37 percent).
“I think we can be great in the long run,” Fortune said of himself and his teammates. “Me, George and Tre obviously have a lot of depth and just with that, we can just play 40 minutes and if we play hard, our 40 minutes will be good.”
But that’s not to say the Buffs didn’t struggle from some aspects of the field. Turnovers seemed to be the theme for the night as the Buffs committed 18 to Portland’s 19. The home team did, however, shine from the dime as they assisted the ball 19 times.
The first half got out to a quick start on Friday night with the Pilots getting off to an early lead in the opening minutes. After about a minute and a half of play, however, the Buffaloes made their way to the top of the box score and didn’t look back for much of the first.
Colorado gained a couple eight-point leads early in the game, but it all started to slip away from them with about twelve minutes before the break. After the Buffs went up 21-15, Portland scored nine points straight to gain a bit of an edge over the home boys.
That didn’t last long.
Fletcher, who played with a chip on his shoulder throughout the entire half, immediately responded with a “Tre” to tie it up. It ended up being his signature move of the game.
Colorado regained the lead from there on out, but almost lost it again with five minutes to go, when the Pilots tied up for the last time. After a voluptuous dunk from the slam king himself, Tory Miller, it was nothing but good Fortune for the Buffs.
The Buffs gained some momentum with about three and a half minutes left in the half when Josh Fortune blocked a Portland shot and broke away for a layup, then did the same exact thing about 10 seconds later.
They carried that momentum into the break, at which point they led 42-35.
For the half, the Buffs fared well from the field (15-30, 50 percent) and downtown (4-9, 44.4 percent). Fletcher led the team with 11 points, followed by Fortune who had 10 of his own and five rebounds.
On the other side of the court, the Pilots didn’t shoot half-bad either. From the field, they went 11-24 (45.8 percent) and fared even better from the three-point range, where they made 7 of 13 shots (53.8 percent). D’Marques Tyson was their only scorer in double digits with 12.
The Pilots came out fighting in the second half as they tried to fire on all cylinders, but their pistols were more like water guns. Although they started to close the gap to three points in the opening minutes, they couldn’t defend the Buffs at all throughout much of the rest of the game.
Over the next six minutes, the Buffs outscored the Pilots 20-3 as they gained a 20-point lead, 62-42. It was a deficit the visitors couldn’t overcome.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Buffs buried the Pilots 85-63 in a remarkable fashion.
Next up, the Buffs will take on Nebraska-Omaha at noon on Sunday at the Coors Events Center. For the Buffs fans who can’t make it, the game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
“I knew coming into this year that this team was going to be a better team than last year in terms of our balance, in terms of our depth, in terms of our inside-out play,” Boyle said of his top performers of the night. “So I think that’s something that we feel good about and those guys needs to be good.”
