Big second half run pushes CU Buffs men’s basketball past Washington State

Tad Boyle warned that aft an unusually agelong midseason hold betwixt games, the Colorado men’s hoops squad wouldn’t precisely beryllium successful midseason signifier erstwhile the Buffaloes returned to the floor.

At agelong past — 19 days to beryllium nonstop — that time yet arrived connected Thursday. And indeed, the Buffs looked much similar a squad playing its archetypal crippled of the season, and not 1 playing its archetypal crippled of the caller calendar year.

Yet overmuch similar the aboriginal games of the 2021-22 season, the Buffs recovered a mode to get the occupation done down the stretch. Spurred by a ascendant tally midway done the 2nd half, the Buffs made it a blessed 59th day for Boyle connected Thursday, resuming Pac-12 Conference play with an 83-78 triumph against Washington State astatine the CU Events Center.

Washington State led for overmuch of the archetypal fractional aft surging up down a 16-4 run. CU answered that burst with 7 consecutive points to support the people adjacent passim the remainder of the half, though the Cougars took a 38-37 pb into halftime.

Consecutive 3-pointers from Washington State’s Tyrell Roberts gave the Cougars a 58-52 pb midway done the 2nd half, but CU ripped disconnected an 11-0 tally to instrumentality control. WSU battled to wrong 71-68 and remained wrong 4 points connected respective occasions down the stretch, but the Buffs came up with a cardinal handbasket each clip to clasp disconnected the Cougars.

WSU had a last accidental aft battling to wrong 79-76 successful the last minute, but elder defender Elijah Parquet worked down the changeable timepiece earlier converting a driving layup to propulsion the CU pb backmost to 5 points.

CU changeable a red-hot 64.3% aft halftime (18-for-28) and finished 19 for 27 astatine the free-throw line, offsetting a sloppy 17-turnover effort by the Buffs.

Senior Evan Battey went 7 for 8 from the tract and paced the Buffs’ discourtesy with 20 points. Point defender Keeshawn Barthelemy scored 16 points with 4 assists, portion Jabari Walker went 7 for 11 with 17 points and 8 rebounds.

Freshman defender Julian Hammond III besides contributed a clutch effort disconnected the bench. After chap freshman KJ Simpson was sidelined for the remainder of the crippled aft taking a changeable to the caput successful the archetypal half, Hammond posted 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 points and nary turnovers successful 14 minutes.

Colorado 83, Washington St. 78

WASHINGTON ST. (8-5, 1-2 Pac-12)

Gueye 1-2 0-2 2, Jackson 3-6 2-2 8, Bamba 5-10 2-4 14, Flowers 2-10 2-2 7, Roberts 9-20 4-4 25, Abogidi 6-6 4-6 16, Rodman 2-3 1-1 6, Jakimovski 0-2 0-0 0, Koulibaly 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-61 15-21 78.

COLORADO (10-3, 2-1)

Battey 7-8 4-6 20, Walker 7-11 2-5 16, da Silva 3-6 2-2 10, Barthelemy 5-12 5-5 17, Parquet 2-6 2-2 6, Clifford 3-6 3-3 9, Hammond 1-4 0-0 2, Lovering 1-2 1-4 3, Simpson 0-1 0-0 0, O’Brien 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-56 19-27 83.

Halftime — Washington St. 38-37. 3-point goals — Washington St. 7-26 (Roberts 3-10, Bamba 2-4, Rodman 1-2, Flowers 1-9, Jakimovski 0-1), Colorado 6-15 (Battey 2-3, da Silva 2-3, Barthelemy 2-5, Parquet 0-2, Walker 0-2). Fouled retired — Jackson, Abogidi. Rebounds — Washington St. 26 (Abogidi 10), Colorado 28 (Walker 8). Assists — Washington St. 12 (Flowers 5), Colorado 17 (Barthelemy, Parquet, Hammond 4). Total fouls — Washington St. 25, Colorado 18.