ORLANDO — In terms of rebounding from a listless performance, the Colorado men’s basketball team did exactly what it wanted to do in many aspects in an unfamiliar arena.
The Buffaloes posted one of their top shooting percentages of the season, posting by far their best mark in Big 12 Conference play. CU held the opposition under 40% in its own gym. The Buffs outrebounded a Big 12 foe for the first time this season and enjoyed a strong bounce-back performance offensively from their senior point guard.
But then there were the turnovers, a familiar nemesis for the Buffs. And boy, there were a lot of them.
CU kicked away a golden opportunity to pick up a road win thanks to an ugly glut of turnovers, particularly in the second half, as Central Florida rallied to top the Buffs 75-74 on Wednesday night at Addition Financial Arena.
It wasn’t a result that was difficult to dissect. The Buffs otherwise were excellent on offense, and played well enough to win defensively and on the glass. However, a season-high 22 turnovers led to a 24-10 advantage for UCF in points off turnovers. In a one-point result, that was the entire story as CU fell to 0-3 in league play for the first time since an 0-7 start in the Pac-12 in 2016-17.
“I told the team I don’t know how the hell we’re in this game when we turn it over 22 times, and they scored 24 points off our turnovers,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “That says something about our fight and our ability to compete. (Turnovers) have been an Achilles heel of Colorado all year long. They reared their head tonight. When we got our defense set and took care of the ball, we guarded them pretty darn well.”
The comedy of errors erased an effort that saw the Buffs shoot .522 overall, their second-best mark of the season, while going 7-for-13 on 3-pointers. Defensively, CU held UCF to a .392 mark and outrebounded the Knights 33-28. UCF posted a 7-2 advantage in the first half on second-chance points off seven offensive rebounds, but UCF had only two offensive boards and two second-chance points after halftime.
Yet on the heels of a listless loss last week at Arizona State, the Buffs suffered another road defeat despite a far superior effort thanks solely to their own miscues.
Colorado led 56-46 after Bangot Dak 3-pointer with 14 minutes, 16 seconds remaining, but the Buffs went over six minutes before converting another field goal. During that span, the Buffs piled up seven turnovers, and UCF took advantage with 12-0 run to take a four-point lead with less than 5 minutes remaining.
The Buffs recorded 14 of their 22 turnovers in the second half.
“We had some calls that we thought should’ve gone our way. We started complaining a little bit, and when you start complaining, that’s when teams go on runs,” said CU guard Julian Hammond III, who balanced a career-high 26 points with five turnovers. “On the road, you want to shut that down real quick. But we had a hard time doing that.”
The Buffs recaptured the lead with four consecutive free throws, followed by a 3-point play, from Hammond, a burst that gave CU a 74-71 lead with 3:01 to go. The Buffs didn’t score again and were unable to convert despite several good looks in the final seconds.
Two free throws from UCF’s Keyshawn Hall with 1:09 remaining tied the game at 74-74, and a free throw by Deebo Coleman gave the Knights a one-point lead with 33.5 seconds to go. The Buffs had two looks go awry before the ball went out of bounds to UCF with 4 seconds remaining, but a five-second call against the Knights gave CU one final chance.
The Buffs executed an inbounds play that got the ball to center Elijah Malone in the paint, but he couldn’t convert.
“Our fight, and our competitiveness, our toughness on the road, I have a totally different feeling in my gut right now than I did after Arizona State,” Boyle said. “After Arizona State I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed to be the coach of Colorado. I was embarrassed by how we got out-toughed and outhustled. Tonight, I didn’t think we got out-toughed and outhustled.
“We held them to 39%. We outrebounded them by five. I can live with that on the road in the Big 12. It’s just, again, you’d better take care of the ball. There’s a lot of good things you can take from this. But there’s one thing you look at, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Until we get that figured out it’s going to be hard to win these kind of games.”
Fast break
Why the Buffs lost: Turnovers. That’s the only facet that lagged for the Buffs, but it did so in a big way as UCF turned CU’s season-high 22 turnovers into a 24-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
Three stars
1. CU’s Julian Hammond III. The senior point guard shook off a scorless outing at Arizona State to score a career-high 26 points to go with five rebounds and five assists.
2. UCF’s Jordan Ivy-Curry. Hit four 3-pointers and went 7-for-13 overall, finishing with 22 points, six rebounds and four assists.
3. CU’s Andrej Jakimovski. The graduate transfer shook off a recent slump, going 4-for-5 on 3-pointers with 16 points while being one of the few Buffs not bitten by the turnover bug, finishing with just one in 36-plus minutes.
Up next: The Buffs return home to host No. 21 West Virginia on Sunday (1 p.m., ESPN+).
UCF 75, Colorado 74
COLORADO (9-5, 0-3 Big 12)
Diop 1-2 7-8 9, Jakimovski 6-9 0-0 16, Malone 3-8 0-1 6, Hammond 8-14 8-9 26, Smith 2-8 0-0 4, Dak 3-4 3-4 10, Baskin 1-1 0-0 2, Rancik 0-0 0-0 0, Carrington 0-0 0-0 0, Kossaras 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 24-46 19-24 74.
UCF (11-3, 2-1)
Thiam 2-4 2-2 6, Coleman 1-4 3-4 6, Ivy-Curry 7-13 4-5 22, Da.Johnson 5-13 5-6 17, Hall 5-14 6-9 18, B.Williams 1-3 1-2 4, Taylor 0-1 0-0 0, Di.Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, M.Williams 1-3 0-0 2, Jocius 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-56 21-28 75.
Halftime: Colorado 37-34; 3-point field goals: Colorado 7-13 (Jakimovski 4-5, Hammond 2-4, Dak 1-1, Smith 0-3); UCF 10-28 (Ivy-Curry 4-10, Da.Johnson 2-6, Hall 2-7, Coleman 1-2, B.Williams 1-2, Taylor 0-1). Fouled out: Baskin. Rebounds: Colorado 33 (Smith 8); UCF 28 (Hall 7). Assists: Colorado 15 (Diop, Hammond 5); UCF 11 (Ivy-Curry 4). Turnovers: Colorado 22 (Smith 6); UCF 11 (Thiam, Da. Johnson, Coleman, Taylor). Total fouls: Colorado 22, UCF 21. A: 8,204.
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