Bu≠aloes unable to satisfy Boyle
COLORADO 84, LIPSCOMB 75
boulder » Late in the first half Sunday, the Colorado men’s basketball teamwas squaring up to deliver a knockout punch.
Then the Buffaloes pulled back, gave Lipscomb some breathing room and found themselves in a fight to the finish.
Josh Scott had another great game, Askia Booker finally got rolling and the Buffs held on to defeat Lipscomb 84-75 before 8,403 at the Coors Events Center.
“I think we should have won this game 84-60, 84-65,” said CU coach Tad Boyle. “We didn’t because we don’t have the mentality of a defensive mind-set that it’s important.”
Luckily for the Buffs (4-1), their two leaders, Scott and Booker, played well.
Scott had career highs in points (29) and assists (five), while also pulling down 13 rebounds. Booker had his best game of the season, contributing 18 points and seven assists.
Led by that duo, CUbuilt a 44-20 lead late in the first half.
“We were up by 20 andwewere like, ‘ We’re going to coast to this one,’ ” said CU sophomore swingman Tre’Shaun Fletcher, who scored seven points off the bench. “Then they started making their shots and we found ourselves in a game.”
The Buffs played the final 3:30 of the first half with Booker and Scott resting on the bench, and in that time Lipscomb (2-4) shaved 10 points off its deficit.
“The lineupwe had in at the end of the first half had a great opportunity to show what they can do and what they’re made of,” Boyle said. “I wanted to see, ‘Hey, how can you handle this? Can you stem the tide and increase the lead? Or is it going to go from 24 to 14?’ It went from 24 to 14.”