Colorado tops Northern Alabama for second straight win

Junior forward Tristan da Silva turns towards the student section during the second half to celebrate a three point basket at the CU Events Center. Dec. 8, 2022. (Kara Wagenknecht/CU Independent)

After winning against their rival CSU Rams a week prior, Colorado beat the University of North Alabama 84-60 on Dec. 15, improving to 6-5. Junior forward Tristan da Silva led the Buffs with career-highs of 25 points and nine rebounds. Along with the defensive intensity brought by the entire team, the Buffs sent the Lions back to Alabama without a win.

CU was dominant for most of the game as they controlled the defensive end of the court and found easy baskets in the paint. The game was still an all-around effort as three other Buffs scored double-digit points. K.J. Simpson scored 12 points while also dishing out six assists while J’Vonne Hadley and Luke O’Brien scored 11 points.

“I think there were some really good things tonight, but you feel like your team could have played better and that’s how I feel about tonight’s game,” said Head Coach Tad Boyle. “Overall, let’s take it, let’s move on, but we’ve got to be better than we were tonight in many different areas.”

Even though it was their third-highest scoring game of the season, Colorado still struggled to shoot the ball from 3-point range, only hitting five of their 19 taken. However, the Buffs did score 46 points in the paint compared to only 32 for the Lions, which helped even out their poor outside shooting performance.

A category in which Colorado has seen much improvement in recent games has been its turnover margin. The Buffs only gave the ball up ten times in their Thursday night win, much lower than the 18 and 20 turnover games they had against Washington and Arizona State. After the match, Boyle was asked if games like this are helping the Buffs turn a corner regarding limiting turnovers.

“They were trying to speed us up, but they weren’t pressuring the ball and jumping at us, so the next time we get pressured, we’ll find out if we can handle pressure,” said Boyle. “UMass pressured us, Boise [State] pressured us, and we’ll find out if we’ve turned that corner. But I hope it’s a step in the right direction. There’s no doubt about that.”

Making 11 of his 18 shots and finishing with 25 points, Tristan da Silva was Colorado’s number-one option from the moment the game started. After scoring 11 points in the first half, the junior from Germany went off in the second half to put the game away. Da Silva scored his last 14 points in 10 minutes when Colorado went on a 15-1 run to solidify their victory.

“I was just trying to make the right plays on offense,” said da Silva. “Since everybody was sharing the ball somehow, it always came back to me, and I got some wide-open looks. [I] Shot those and knocked them down.”

Along with a career-high in points, da Silva brought in nine rebounds, one away from a double-double. As other players come in and out of the lineup, games like this prove da Silva can be the main anchor of the team.

“It’s hard to speed Tristan up because he plays with a great pace about him,” said Tad Boyle. “I know that Tristan can score the ball and 18 shots is a really, really good number to get him because he’s so efficient. But I’m really proud of the other rebounds because that’s something we’ve been really challenging him with and to be more active on the glass so nine rebounds is a good number for him.”

Sophomore point guard K.J. Simpson also filled out the stat sheet on Thursday night. After finishing with 12 points, three rebounds, six assists and two steals, Simpson continues to play well as the lead ball handler for the Buffs. Simpson also showed improvement, with only one turnover while playing more than 28 minutes. Though it wasn’t his night when it came to shooting, Simpson showed that he could fill in the cracks when a play isn’t called for him.

“It was just going out there and doing it,” Simpson said. “Instead of talking about it all the time, [it was about] going out there and actually doing it. One of the distinctions within the game is us coming out in the second half and getting key stops [which dictates] a lot of things. I feel like our mindset and intensity has always been there, it was just a matter of going out and showing it and proving it.”

Juniors J’Vonne Hadley and Luke O’Brien were also crucial pieces in the win against the Lions, as they each scored 11 points. They shot a combined 9-12 in an excellent showing for two players who see minutes in the backup center position. When Lawson Lovering was out of the game, Tad Boyle used Hadley and O’Brien as his big men, a strategy that seems to be paying off.

Colorado is in the middle of a four-game stretch against non-Pac-12 teams. After playing CSU and North Alabama, they still have Northern Colorado and Southern Utah on their schedule before their conference games resume after Christmas.

“This stretch is really important. I think this is a period of time as a college basketball team you can make huge strides,” said Boyle. “They got 24 hours in their day, they can be sleeping eight or nine, maybe ten hours, but the rest can get the gym and get a lot of shots up. We can improve as a team and we need to do that.”

The Buffaloes continue their season on Sunday, December 18, at 4 p.m. MST against the University of Northern Colorado Bears at the CU Events Center. They will also host Southern Utah University on Wednesday, December 21, at 6 p.m. MST, as their last game before Pac-12 play resumes.