Colorado
5-2
Georgia
5-3
Buffs Struggle On The Road, Fall To Georgia
December 07, 2014 | Men's Basketball
ATHENS, Ga. - The University of Colorado men's basketball team hoped that their second road trip of the non-conference schedule would be a little kinder to head coach Tad Boyle and his team. Unfortunately for the Buffaloes, the road was as unforgiving as it was in Laramie, Wyoming, as Georgia handed CU a 64-57 loss.
In a game of runs, Colorado fell behind on a seven-minute scoring drought and never recovered, entering the locker room trailing 34-22 at half after the game was tied 22-22 at the final media timeout of the first half.Â
The 22 point first half was the lowest scoring first half CU has had this year, and Georgia's 12 point lead was the largest any team has put up on Colorado in 2014. The Bulldogs' three-point shooting was instrumental in building that lead, hitting 43 percent of their shots from behind the arc.
CU on the other hand, struggled mightily from three, going 2-of-17 from three-point range. Interestingly enough, the second made shot, a trey from junior forward Xavier Johnson brought the Buffaloes to within six points with 1:10 left to play. But it was too little too late for CU, who could only sit and watch Georgia hit free throws that sealed their fate.
Johnson was one of the lone bright spots for CU, along with senior guard Askia Booker and junior forward Josh Scott. The three combined for 48 of Colorado's 57 points, although their shot percentages left room for improvement. Johnson went 4-of-12 shooting while Booker shot 7-of-19 on the day.
Scott managed his third double-double of the season, scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Booker also had a historic day, passing Alec Burks ('11) to move up to 15th place on the CU all-time scorers list. It was the seniors' ninth career 20 point game, second this season, and second straight.
But even a high-scoring day from the senior guard wasn't enough to bring the Buffaloes back, whose first half drought ultimately proved to be their undoing. Colorado fell behind by as much as 16 points, but spent most of the second half digging into the Bulldog's lead.
The brief success that CU had in final 20 minutes, was the byproduct of the Buffaloes winning the rebounding battle in the second half. Scott believes that if they had won the fight on the boards in the first half, the game might've been different.
Nigel Amstock Photos (CU Independent)
"They had us on the boards in the first half," Scott said after the game. "If we played the boards in the first half like we did the second half it may have been a different story in today's game."
To Boyle, the loss was inexcusable.
"We just can't play only a half of basketball and expect to beat good teams," said Boyle after the game. "We have gotten away with that at home, but you can't get away with that on the road."
"That early scoring drought hurt us and failing to get stops," he continued. "In the second half we couldn't get stops at critical times, we cut it to 8 or 9 and times, but then we just couldn't get the stops to cut it to four or six."
Sunday's loss only highlights the Buffaloes troubles on the road this season, and is an uncharacteristic December loss. CU is 20-6 in the month of December during Boyle's CU tenure, but is 0-5 at Georgia all time.
Luckily for the Buffs, they won't truly be on the road until January 7, when they travel to Salt Lake City to face the University of Utah. Until then, CU will be at home in Boulder or in neutral Hawaii at the Diamond Head Classic. The home stretch should prove to be a welcome return for Colorado, who is a perfect 5-0 inside the Coors Events Center.
The first opponent during that home stand will be in-state rival Colorado State on Wednesday, December 10. The Rams are undefeated this season, but will face a Buffaloes team hungry for another victory at home. Tip off will be at 7:00 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
