The Buffaloes lost a heartbreaking game Thursday night for the second time in a row, falling this time to the Utah Utes at the Coors Events Center, 86-81.
Senior guard Derrick White put on an absolute clinic as he scored a season-high 31 total points. White was the main reason the Buffs stood a chance of winning the game – no other Buff had more than 12 points.
One of the more frustrating stats for the Buffaloes’ was a lack of success from the three-point range, compared to Utah’s lethal percentage. The Utes shot about 47 percent, while the Buffaloes made a mere 33 percent from beyond the arc.
At the 6:43 mark in the second quarter, the Buffaloes just couldn’t seem to catch a break. Any time a player for Colorado made a bucket, Utah always seemed to answer with a three-pointer going the other way. The Utah Utes made four three-point shots, while the Buffs only made one. This put them in a difficult situation at the end of the first half, when the Buffs found themselves down 37-29.
In addition to their failure to prevent Utah from scoring from three-point range, the Buffaloes had a lack of offensive contribution from players other than White. There were only four players that had over eight points for this game. Both junior guard George King and senior forward Wesley Gordon contributed 12 points, while junior guard Dominique Collier and senior guard Xavier Johnson each chipped in eight. But even with White’s 31 points, this was not enough to keep up with the Utes.
The Buffaloes have two games remaining on their schedule, their next tip off at a 7 p.m. MST against Stanford in the Coors Events Center Thursday, March 2.
Contact CU Independent Sports Writer Yama Radtke at Yama.Radtke@colorado.edu
