FORT COLLINS — With apologies to KJ Simpson, freshman Cody Williams provided the bright spot.
It didn’t pay dividends, yet the continued growth of a young talent who quickly is gaining confidence is sure to give the Colorado men’s basketball team a boost as conference play inches closer.
It wasn’t CU’s night on Wednesday, as the 20th-ranked Colorado state Rams jumped to an early lead and held off the Buffs late in an 88-83 CSU win at sold out Moby Arena. But Williams, with help from Simpson, nearly rallied the Buffs back into the game, scoring all 21 of his points after halftime.
“When we play together, start moving the ball more, things just open up for everybody,” Williams said. “We didn’t do that the first half. It was kind of stagnant. Not a lot of movement off the ball, that’s why we couldn’t get anything created. I think we just started playing together, playing calm basketball offensively in the second half.”
Williams was scoreless after the first half while missing his three field goal attempts, but he dominated the second half. Williams went 8-for-9 in the second half, also going 4-for-5 at the free throw line.
After going 1-for-4 with four points in the season opener against Towson, and then missing the second game due to a minor injury, Williams has averaged 14.6 points in the past five games while shooting .636 overall (28-for-44) and 4-for-6 on 3-pointers.
“The second half, he was aggressive,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “We want him to be aggressive. His aggressiveness in the second half was so much different than his aggressiveness in the first half, for whatever reason.”
Lagging D
CSU finished .509 overall and .409 on 3-pointers (9-for-22). The field goal percentage was the highest for a CU opponent this season, and CSU’s nine 3-pointers were the second-most by any foe. CSU’s seven turnovers also was the lowest total by a CU opponent this season by a wide margin. The previous low for an opponent was 11 turnovers by Towson in the season opener.
“We lost that game in the first half, there’s no doubt about it,” Boyle said. “Turning the ball over, and we couldn’t stop them. When the home team has trouble scoring on multiple occasions, you take the crowd out of the game. But when they score, or they get fouled and get to the free throw line and you never string together stops, the crowd’s going to be in the game. They were in the game the whole night because we didn’t take them out of the game.”
Notable
CU senior Tristan da Silva finished with a season-low six points, going 0-for-5 on 3-pointers. In four home games, da Silva has shot .684 (13-for-19) on 3-pointers, but in three games away from home he is 0-for-12 from long range. … KJ Simpson went 9-for-9 at the free throw line and is shooting .909 (40-for-44) from the line so far this season. … With four assists, Simpson increased his career total to 228 and moved past former CU guard Spencer Dinwiddie for 22nd on CU’s all-time list. … CU shot a torrid .690 in the second half at CSU (20-for-29) to finish with a .545 mark. It was the Buffs’ best shooting percentage in a true road game since posting a .586 mark at Air Force on Nov. 24, 2018. CU has shot at least 52% in five of seven games this season.