Buffs top Cardinal in Pac-12 opener
BOULDER» According to the blueprint for success typically followed by the Colorado men’s basketball team, Sunday should have been a rough one.
As the Buffaloes battled Stanford in the first November conference game in program history, CU’S defense couldn’t contain the Cardinal. The visitors also left the CU Events Center having outrebounded the hosts 32-28.
Defense and rebounding are the pillars head coach Tad Boyle has built his program around during his 12 years in Boulder. Yet on Sunday, it was Evan Battey and the Buffs’ offense that took center stage. The end result was another nerve-racking victory in the final minutes, as CU outlasted Stanford for an 80-76 win in the Pac-12 Conference opener.
“Our defense and rebounding was not good enough to win tonight,” Boyle said. “But our offense won us the game. We shared the ball. We moved the ball. And I was really pleased with our offensive effort tonight. We needed every three. We needed every free throw down the stretch because our defense was not very good and they’re a good rebounding team.”
In a back-and-forth contest throughout the evening, the game was tied 66-66 when CU reeled off seven consecutive points to take control. Stanford remained within two points on a 3-point play from Lukas Kisunas with 36.5 seconds remaining, but free throws from Keeshawn Barthelemy (2-for-2) and Elijah Parquet (1-for-2) again gave CU a five-point cushion.
Stanford freshman Harrison Ingram kept things interesting with a 3-pointer with 13.5 seconds left, trimming CU’S lead to 78-76, before Barthelemy hit two more free throws with 12.2 seconds left to ice the league-opening win.
Sophomore Tristan da Silva took on the challenge of slowing Ingram, one of the top freshmen in the Pac-12. Ingram entered the game as Stanford’s leading scorer at 12.7 points per game, but he was held to eight points on a 3for-13 showing in large part due to the work of da Silva.