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BOULDER, Colo. — If Gabe Madsen didn't have the ball in his hands, Utah men's basketball couldn't do much on offense.
The junior guard had 16 first-half points — no player had more than 4 points in the half — to keep Utah in a game where Colorado built up a 17-point lead in the opening half and looked ready to blow the game open.
With Madsen's help, Utah cut the deficit down to 9 points at the halftime break, but the relatively stagnant offense resumed in the second half (and Colorado's lead ballooned to 31) and the Runnin' Utes had no answer on the road.
In the end, the Buffaloes shot 54% from the floor and 48% from 3-point range to pull away for an 89-65 win.
"I thought they played well and they made us pay; that's what good teams do," Utah head coach Craig Smith said. "They make you pay for mistakes that you make, and they certainly did that tonight."
Deivon Smith contributed a little more in the second half to help Utah (16-11, 7-9 Pac-12) make an early push in the closing half, but it wasn't enough to combat the poor defensive play and all-around missed shots around the rim from the team.
Smith finished with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists in the loss.
The offense was a problem, but Utah gave up too many points in the post (42) with a porous defense, and then failed to adequately contest Colorado (18-9, 9-7 Pac-12) behind the perimeter to allow 10 made 3-pointers. It all totaled to not enough of anything going well for the Utes in another road loss.
Craig Smith said his team's defense, which has been inconsistent especially of late, needs to be felt more by the opposing team. Too often, his team's defense is there, but it's not enough to disrupt a shot.
"I didn't think we executed our defensive game plan very well, and certainly not consistently from our ball screen defense to our weak side defense," he said. "We had very little presence on the ball. ... They didn't feel us, like we didn't have active hands, we weren't into the ball, we just had no presence. We have to be able to have much more of a presence on the ball. You can't just like guys stare us down and then just J us up.
"We just didn't have enough tonight."
Colorado's KJ Simpson seemingly couldn't miss from anywhere on the court, benefitting from Utah's lackluster defense, The dynamic guard finished with a game-high 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including five made 3-pointer, and four rebounds and three assists in the win.
In total, four players scored in double figures for the Buffaloes, including 20 points and nine rebounds from J'Vonne Hadley — 17 of his points came in the first half — 13 points and seven rebounds from Eddie Lampkin, and 12 points by Tristan da Silva.
Utah opened up the game with a quick driving layup from Madsen, who also completed the additional and-one bucket to give the Utes an early 3-0 lead, but Colorado then went on a 12-0 run to quickly put distance between the two teams. And the Buffaloes never looked back.
It took Lawson Lovering dunking the ball four minutes later for Utah to finally end the scoring drought — one of many Saturday night. The damage was already done, though.
Madsen finished with a team-high 18 points, including three 3-pointers, and four rebounds.
