Colorado’s men’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday, falling to Colorado State 91-86 at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. The Buffaloes now hold an 8-1 record, while the Rams improve to 7-2.
Despite trailing by seven points at halftime, Colorado surged ahead in the second half with a 16-0 run and briefly led 85-83 with less than two minutes remaining. Freshman Isaiah Johnson contributed 13 points in the second half alone. However, Colorado State responded with an 8-1 run to close out the game.
Head coach Tad Boyle commented on his team’s effort: “What was frustrating to me is we came back and took control of the game. The one thing I’ll say about our guys, competitive spirit and toughness, it’s there. You don’t come back in an environment like this and take the lead, but we can’t sustain it because we can’t get stops.”
The Buffaloes shot 62% from the field and dominated inside, outscoring Colorado State 56-20 in points in the paint. However, Colorado State made a season-high 18 three-pointers, which proved decisive.
Boyle noted the challenge posed by specific CSU players: “We knew that No. 1 [Josh Pascarelli], No. 2 [Brandon Rechsteiner], and No. 35 [Kyle Jorgensen] were their dudes behind the arc,” Boyle said. “They have other guys who can make three’s don’t get me wrong, but those three dudes are their guys who can take the most and make the most. At halftime they had 10 made three’s and those three guys had eight of the 10. We talked about it at halftime, we talked about it at media timeouts. When you let a team make 18 three’s, it’s going to be hard to win.”
Alon Michaeli led Colorado with 19 points; Johnson added 17; Sebastian Rancik scored 13; and Bangot Dak finished with 12 points. For Colorado State, Josh Pascarelli led all scorers with 26 points on eight-of-ten shooting from beyond the arc.
The Buffs will return home for their next game against UTSA at CU Events Center next Saturday.
