Bruins prevail on Buffs home court
The Colorado Buffaloes Men’s basketball fell to the UCLA Bruins 65-71 on Saturday, Jan. 22 at the CU Events Center.
Colorado persevered against the No. 9 UCLA team by coming back from a 17 point deficit, although it ended up not being enough to put them over the edge. The Buffs struggled to find their stride during this game with 21 turnovers and with 14 of them being in the first half. Colorado saw similar results against USC with 16 turnovers earlier this week.
This marks the Buff’s 4th loss to ranked teams, totaling their current conference play record to (4-4) and their overall record sitting at (12-6).
Jabari Walker, the sophomore forward led the Buffs in scoring, with 19 points of his own. Walker brought stability to the Colorado team with consistent plays under the basket.
Johnny Juzang for UCLA boasted 23 points this game, as well as dishing out four assists. With these numbers alongside the pressure the Buffs put on themselves due to the crippling amount of turnovers.
At the start of the second half, the Buffs were down 28-43 but started to gain some momentum with multiple scrappy plays from KJ Simpson. The freshman guard has continued to prove he is fearless against ranked teams by putting up some big numbers for the Buffs. Simpson led the team in the second half with his energy and his enthusiasm which was visible in the arena.
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Simpson was able to get the crowd on their feet and take things down to the wire. With 30 seconds left the score was 63-65, Buffs trailing and the ball. A timeout was called and you could see the intensity in the player’s eyes as they leaned into the huddle with Head Coach Tad Boyle, who was scribbling on the whiteboard.
Colorado seemed to have newfound momentum, but when CU failed to convert and they were forced to foul UCLA’s guard Tyger Campbell. He made back-to-back free throws to extend the lead, the excitement had deflated and the Buffs simply couldn’t recover. The Bruins went on to score four more free throws to ice the game and push CU’s record against ranked opponents this season to 0-5.
“We have to dial into incremental improvement, day to day, week to week,” Boyle said. He is confident in his team’s ability and believes they are learning from their mistakes.
As the Buffs prepare to go on the road to play Oregon, both standout players from the game, KJ Simpson and Jabari Walker discussed the importance of moving forward and not dwelling on the losses this week.
Colorado is hungry to win and will head out on a three-game road trip, first to take on Oregon in Eugene at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25 then they head over to Seattle to play Washington on Jan. 27, and wrap it up against Washington State on Jan. 30.
