The Colorado men’s basketball team got a preseason reminder that nothing in the Big 12 comes easy.
In a physical exhibition at Metro State’s Auraria Event Center on Sunday, the Buffaloes edged North Texas 67-64 after weathering a tense finish and coming up with the key plays late. It was the kind of test Tad Boyle wanted, and he made no attempt to hide that afterward.
“This was a great, great test for us on October 18th to play a team like North Texas,” Boyle said. “Veteran guards.
Tough-minded coach and system. It was a physical game and our guys answered the bell down the stretch.
These are all about learning opportunities for your team. It’s about learning about what we need to get better at in the next week.
“These are really, really great opportunities for our guys for where we need to get better as a team, and where individually each player need to get better.”
Colorado came out fast, scoring the game’s first eight points, and held control for most of the night. But North Texas kept pushing and eventually flipped the script in the second half. The Mean Green used an 8-0 burst as part of a 10-1 run to grab a 46-41 lead, then stretched that margin to 58-53 with 3:09 left.
The Buffs answered from there. Ian Inman started the rally with a layup, and Barrington Hargress and Jalin Holland each knocked down two free throws to put Colorado back in front by a point with 2:04 remaining.
Inman then broke a 59-59 tie with a baseline floater at 1:23, and Hargress added two more free throws to make it a three-point game with 27.5 seconds left. North Texas got two last looks from deep in the closing seconds, but both 3-pointers missed and Colorado escaped with the win.
“That’s definitely something that it takes for winning at this level. You’ve got to be able to execute when it comes down to these close games,” Hargress said.
“Learning how to win those tough games, learning how to find a way whether it’s pretty, whether it’s ugly, it doesn’t matter. We’ve just gotta find a way to win those.”
Boyle treated the exhibition like a real game in terms of rotation. The starting group featured Hargress, Josiah Sanders, Alex Dickeson, Justin Neely and Goc Malual, while Inman, Holland, Noah Feddersen and David Gomez came off the bench.
Dickeson, a rookie guard from Australia, led Colorado with 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting. Neely delivered a well-rounded line with eight points, nine rebounds and six assists before sitting for the final minutes with his left knee wrapped.
“Coming into this, we knew they would be physical and get up into us defensively,” Dickeson said. “That’s going to be the Big 12 every night. We needed that and hopefully we can start bringing that to our game.”
Colorado’s defense did enough to keep the game in hand for stretches, limiting North Texas to 39.4% shooting and just 3-for-17 from 3-point range. But the Buffs had to survive some other issues.
They were outrebounded 32-31, managed only three offensive rebounds on 19 missed shots, and gave up 12 offensive boards that helped North Texas build a 13-4 edge in second-chance points. The Mean Green also held an 18-13 advantage in points off turnovers, taking advantage of Colorado’s 16 giveaways.
North Texas was led by Chavis with 17 points, while Stevenson added 11 and Ndour scored eight. Colorado, meanwhile, spread the scoring around behind Dickeson and Hargress, who finished with 14 points, as well as Inman’s 11.
The Buffs don’t look like a finished product yet, but on Sunday they found a way to close. For an exhibition, that counted for plenty.
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