Colorado fell to No. 19 Kansas, 75-69, in a men’s basketball game at the CU Events Center on Tuesday night. The Buffaloes’ record now stands at 12-7 overall and 2-4 in Big 12 play. Kansas improved to 14-5 overall and 4-2 in conference games.
A season-high crowd of 8,356 attended the game. Student tickets sold out for the first time since Colorado played Colorado State last season and for the first time in a conference matchup since February 2024.
“It meant a lot having the student body there,” said Isaiah Johnson after the game. “It helped us with our energy. It’s great to see everybody come and support us, and we need that every game.”
Johnson led Colorado with a game-high 19 points, continuing his strong freshman season. He has now scored more than 300 points this season, ranking him 13th among CU freshmen all-time.
Barrington Hargress contributed 17 points, while Alon Michaeli added 13 points for Colorado.
“Tough loss for the Buffaloes,” head coach Tad Boyle said. “Kansas was better tonight. Obviously, they out-rebounded us. I love the fight of our guys. I love the fight of this team, and we cannot lose that, and we will not lose that. You know, it starts with me, but I love our team, I love our guys, I love our fight. We’re not catching many breaks, and that’s just the way it is.
“Honor Huff banks in a 3 at West Virginia when we’re up six with a couple of minutes to go. And tonight, Darryn Peterson does it. We had our chances, you know, I thought we had some really good looks offensively in the second half, but hey, we got to play better. We got to play better.”
Kansas was without head coach Bill Self due to health reasons; assistant Jeremy Case served as acting head coach. Four Jayhawks scored in double figures with Melvin Council Jr. leading with 18 points as Kansas shot nearly 46% from the field compared to Colorado’s nearly 36%.
Kansas outrebounded Colorado by a margin of twelve (45-33), though Colorado had more offensive rebounds (12-9) and second-chance points (15-13). The Buffaloes committed only three turnovers while forcing twelve from Kansas.
“You have got to build on the positive and to have three turnovers against a team like KU, which is a good defensive team,” Boyle explained. “They were switching. They’ve got good guys that can guard the ball; they’re good athletes. I mean, Melvin Council Jr. is a good defender. I think they have got multiple guys that can guard, and their bigs do a good job. And with Elijah out, they were able to switch a lot in the second half, and that was effective for them. We worked on that because we knew they were doing that. Our guards got to do a better job of attacking their bigs, and then our bigs got to do a better job of scoring on their guards and taking advantage of those mismatches. But we didn’t do enough of that tonight.”
The first half ended with Kansas ahead by two points after both teams posted similar statistics; each hit six three-pointers before halftime.
In the second half, Kansas built its lead as high as eleven late in the game after capitalizing on Colorado’s shooting slump down the stretch.
“That was the deciding factor of the game,” Boyle added about transition plays late in regulation time: “Part of it is, we didn’t finish our transition. KU was the better transition team on offense and defense… That play that you refer to happens, and that’s a big turning point, a momentum shift, and we never quite recovered from that… Sometimes the breaks go your way, and sometimes they don’t…”
Colorado’s next game is scheduled against UCF on Saturday at home.
