On Sunday, Stanford men’s basketball fell to Colorado on the road by a final score of 84-62. Colorado forward Tristan da Silva (25 points & 4 rebounds) and guard KJ Simpson (21 points, 7 rebounds, & 4 assists) led the way for the Buffaloes while forwards Brandon Angel (14 points) and Spencer Jones (13 points) were the top scorers for the Cardinal. Colorado improves to 14-11 overall and 6-8 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 10-13 overall and 4-8 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Stanford MBB at Colorado
Stanford got out to an early 8-7 lead with 15:49 to go in the first half. Spencer Jones was up to 4 points for the Cardinal on 2-3 shooting from the field. Stanford was shooting 4-7 from the field while Colorado was shooting 3-6.
With 11:54 to go in the half, Colorado led 19-15. da Silva was up to 11 points for the Buffs on 4-5 shooting from the field and 1-1 shooting from 3-point range. Stanford needed to contain him. Michael Jones had 5 points off the bench already for the Cardinal with a 3-pointer and a bucket inside.
Stanford would continue to fall behind as Colorado led 31-22 with 7:46 to go in the half. Stanford was in some early trouble. Colorado was shooting 12-18 from the field, 4-6 from 3-point range, and 3-3 from the foul line. Stanford was shooting 10-17 from the field, 2-5 from 3-point range, and 0-2 from the foul line. Michael Jones was a bright spot for the Cardinal up to this point as he had 8 points on 3-3 shooting from the field and 2-2 shooting from 3-point range.
With 2:55 to go in the half, Colorado led 37-31. Stanford was hanging tough. Michael Jones and Spencer Jones each had 8 points. Harrison Ingram had 3 points, getting Stanford their most recent bucket inside in an iso situation in the post.
At halftime, it was tied 39-39. Michael Jones was up to 10 points after making two foul shots after Colorado was called for a hook and hold while Michael O’Connell had a bucket inside to beat the buzzer. Stanford finished the half on a 6-0 run over the final 1:21.
The second half was all Colorado from the jump as the Buffs started the half on a 10-0 run as da Silva was up to 17 points. It was now a 49-39 lead for the Buffs with 15:56 to go. Stanford needed to get back to doing what they were doing in the first half.
With 11:59 to go in the game, Stanford continued to fade as it was a 55-41 lead for the Buffs. A bucket by Spencer Jones finally ended Colorado’s 16-0 run. Colorado was playing better defense this half and then Stanford appeared to be getting fatigued. Perhaps it was the 5,318 feet of elevation making its presence felt. More than 1,000 feet higher than Salt Lake City.
Colorado’s lead would become 70-49 with 6:53 to go. da Silva (22 points & 4 rebounds) and Simpson (15 points, 6 rebounds, & 4 assists) were leading the Buffs. Stanford had gone cold in the second half, shooting 4-18.
With 3:47 to go, Colorado led 79-56. Simpson was now up to 21 points. He and da Silva had both been great. Spencer Jones (13 points) had now fouled out. It just wasn’t the Cardinal’s night.
In the end, Colorado walked out with an 84-62 victory. Stanford played great in the first half, but in the second half, they appeared to run out of gas. From my observations, it seemed like a combination of Colorado tightening up their defense and then the altitude in Boulder makings its presence felt.
For Colorado, this is a nice win because they completed a home sweep of the Bay Area schools. They were unable to get the road sweep because of their loss at Cal, but they wanted to ensure that this time they defended their home court and to their credit, they did. Stanford is also climbing up in the Pac-12 standings and by getting this win, Colorado has a bit of breathing room between themselves and the Cardinal.
As for Stanford, this is a disappointing loss for two reasons: 1. Their five-game winning streak got snapped. 2. They utterly fell apart in the second half.
The first reason isn’t that big of a deal. Stanford is playing much better as of late and they had to know their streak would get snapped at some point. Given how hard it is to win in Boulder due to the altitude, it made sense for the streak to end here. Especially since they were coming off an emotional win at Utah.
The second reason is legitimately disappointing. After a strong first half, Stanford totally came unglued. I think the altitude did a play real role in that, but that’s not an excuse for Stanford. They had to know coming in that the altitude was going to be a factor. Especially since they’ve been playing with a pretty tight eight-man rotation. Stanford would have been wise to loosen up the rotation a bit for this game and then of course go back to it going forward. They had nothing to lose in this game and might as well have tried to switch things up in this department.
At this point, all that Stanford can do is shake this loss off and get ready for the Arizona schools at home. Stanford is playing much better as of late and they can’t let this loss create any kind of hangover going forward. If they can bounce back with a home sweep over the Arizona schools, that would be huge.
On that note, Stanford’s next game will be on Thursday at home against Arizona State. That will tip-off at 7:00 PM PT on FS1.
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