The Colorado Buffaloes got exactly what they needed out of Sunday’s exhibition against North Texas: a tight, physical finish and a 67-64 win at the Auraria Event Center in Denver.
It was the kind of game that kept swinging back and forth late, with Colorado holding a three-point edge and 10 seconds left before North Texas missed two threes at the buzzer. The Buffs survived a rugged night that featured 50 combined free-throw attempts and a game that stayed tight until the final possession.
Head coach Tad Boyle saw the value in the challenge.
"This was a great test for us this year," Boyle said. "On Oct. 18, to play a team like North Texas, with veteran guards, a tough-minded coach and system, and it was a physical game, obviously.
Our guys answered the bell down the stretch. These are all about learning opportunities for our team."
The exhibition, played as the Mile High Hoops Classic, gave Denver fans a chance to see the Buffs up close without the trip to Boulder.
"It was great having the Denver people who didn't have to drive to Boulder," Boyle added. "Before we left the gym, there were still a bunch of kids getting autographs from our players that maybe don't get a chance to come up to Boulder for a game. It's a great venue."
Colorado leaned on some new faces to get the job done. Guard Alex Dickeson, a freshman from Adelaide, Australia, scored a team-high 15 points. Graduate student forward Justin Neely, a transfer from UNC Greensboro, filled the stat sheet with six assists and nine rebounds, both team highs.
"I think it was great," Dickeson said about the game. "North Texas put up a great fight, and coming into this we knew they were going to be physical, getting up into our team defensively, so we needed it."
The Buffs also brought plenty of resistance on defense, piling up seven blocks. Center Noah Feddersen had three of them.
Colorado opened the game sharp, racing out to an 8-0 run behind four points from fifth-year guard Barrington Hargress. The Buffs led 10-5 at the first media timeout, and their defense started to squeeze from there, forcing six straight North Texas misses during a four-minute drought. One of the biggest plays of the half came with 10 minutes left, when Dickeson rose up to reject Amar Amkou’s layup attempt.
North Texas kept hanging around, though. Cole Franklin’s second-chance layup pulled the Mean Green within 23-22 with three minutes left in the first half. Dickeson answered with a three-pointer to push Colorado back in front by four, and Neely followed with a layup while drawing a foul, then made the free throw to send the Buffs into halftime up 32-27.
Neely was the driver of the first half for Colorado, posting seven points, five rebounds and three assists, all team highs at the break. He also went 5-for-5 at the line.
The Buffs shot 47% from the field in the opening half, while North Texas was held to 37%. Colorado hit three of 11 from deep, and the Mean Green missed all seven of their three-point tries before halftime.
North Texas came out stronger after the break and quickly tightened the game. The Mean Green rattled off three straight made shots and tied it 36-36 at the 16-minute mark when Casmir Chavis scored through contact and completed the three-point play. Colorado answered in style on the next stretch, as Neely found Jalin Holland for a bounce-pass assist and a highlight dunk to put the Buffs back ahead.
The game tilted again after the under-12 timeout. Chavis scored on a driving layup to give North Texas its first lead, and the Mean Green then strung together an 8-0 run. Colorado’s scoring drought ended when Dickeson drilled a three with nine minutes left, trimming the deficit to 46-44.
From there, the game turned into a straight-up grind. Dickeson added a right-handed driving layup, then Alexander Aenas buried North Texas’ first three-pointer of the game with 6:22 remaining. Je'Shawn Stevenson followed with another three, and the Mean Green went up 53-50 with four minutes to play.
Colorado answered at the line. After a pair of fouls by North Texas, the Buffs sank four straight free throws to pull back ahead 59-58 with two minutes left. In the final minute, Hargress added two more from the stripe to make it 67-64, and Colorado’s defense closed the door from there.
In Other News...
Deion Sanders Left Colorado Fans With One Bigger Question
Colorados latest outing had the feel of a turning point for much of the night, even if it ended with another loss. The Buffaloes erased a 13-0 halftime deficit against Utah, grabbed the lead in the third quarter and briefly had the momentum before the game slipped away, leaving them with a four-game losing streak and another close result to sort through.
Deion Sanders and several players spoke afterward about the performance and where the team goes from here, but the bigger question around Boulder is still the same one hanging over the season. Colorado now turns to Oklahoma State next, a matchup that comes with its own challenge, and Sanders made it clear he is still waiting to see what this group can become as the schedule rolls on. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Just Exposed A Concern Hanging Over Utahs Big Stage
ESPNs College GameDay is headed back to Utah on October 24, setting the stage for an undefeated Utes team to welcome Houston into one of the Big 12s bigger early-season spots. Utah has rattled off 12 straight wins and has looked the part of a program built for this kind of spotlight, but the last outing also served as a reminder that even the most polished teams can be pushed when the margin tightens late.
The Colorado game showed some defensive vulnerability the Utes will want cleaned up before the national attention arrives again. Utahs schedule still has enough weight to keep the conversation lively, but the immediate focus is on handling Houston with a little more control than it needed the previous week, especially with the kind of stage GameDay tends to amplify. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Showed Progress But One Late Problem Changed Everything
Colorados loss to Utah came with a few bright spots on defense, even in a game that left the Buffaloes searching for answers. Naeten Mitchell, Randon Fontenette and Gideon Lampron all showed up in ways Colorado can build on, giving the unit some fight and disruption even as the scoreboard leaned the wrong direction.
The offense, though, never found the same rhythm, and the late-game sequence only sharpened the frustration. Isaac Wilson was left to reckon with a costly second-half turnover and the kind of ending that can swing a game in an instant, while Micah Welchs workload was surprisingly limited as JaQuail Smith took on the heavier rushing load. For a team trying to turn progress into a win, the margin for error disappeared when Colorado needed clean execution most. [Read more 🡒]