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Boulder, Colo. • A lot of BYU fans probably weren't able to watch the Cougars take on Colorado on Saturday night, seeing as how the game at the Coors Event Center on a wintry night along the Front Range and was televised by the not-widely distributed Pac-12 Network.
They can go back to the last time the Cougars faced a Pac-12 opponent on the road, because this 92-83 loss in front of a mildly disappointing crowd of 8,913 was similar in many aspects to the 83-75 loss to Utah 10 days ago.
During the first half, the Cougars couldn't hit shots until the game was mostly out of reach. The Cougars fell behind by 25 points before attempting a second-half rally, were out-rebounded 49-41 and lost by roughly the margin oddsmakers said they would.
Sound familiar?
"We played better tonight than we played our first night out on the road [a 66-65 loss at Long Beach State], so that's good," said BYU coach Dave Rose. "We will build on that. But we have to play with more confidence and we have to play with more consistency. We need to be a little bit quicker defensively."
And they've got to figure out a way to get off to better starts. The Cougars (6-3) never led, but tied it at 15-15 after trailing 10-4 in the first few minutes when Kyle Collinsworth put together back-to-back buckets. That's when Colorado (8-1) went on a 12-2 run that proved to be the difference.
The Buffs hit six 3-pointers for a 17-point lead and it was pretty much over for the Cougars. Colorado led 48-36 at halftime, although it could have been more if freshmen Zac Seljaas and Nick Emery hadn't made 3-pointers in the final 1:35 of the first half.
Colorado coach Tad Boyle praised the Cougars for battling back in the second half, saying he "knew they were going to make a run, there's no question," and calling it his club's best win of the season.
"We beat a really good team tonight," Boyle said. "It is going to be one of those wins as we look backwards [that they'll appreciate]. They're 6-3 right now ... but they are going to win a lot of games as the season unfolds."
BYU missed its first nine shots in the second half, and Colorado's 13-0 run to open that period gave the home team a 61-36 lead with just over 15 minutes remaining.
Colorado played like it was suddenly disinterested, with that 25-point lead, and BYU played spectacularly over the course of the next five minutes. When Emery nailed another 3-pointer, the lead was down to 64-54.
"I don't think it ever got away," said Collinsworth, who finished with 17 points, six assists and six rebounds. "We had a chance to win it, and our mindset until there were about nine seconds left was we thought we could win this game. … We didn't play well. We were up and down. But we had streaks where we were good and got some positives to take away from this."
The biggest positive was the play of the freshmen, Emery and Seljaas. Starting again, Emery had 23 points, while Seljaas had a career-high 18 off the bench. They picked up the slack for senior Chase Fischer, who was 0 for 9 from 3-point range and 2 for 14 altogether.
"It was a good sign tonight, to find two young kids come out and play in a tough spot and actually find their games and play well."
Asked what BYU could have done better to get that first true road win, Collinsworth replied: "Don't get down [by] so much."
They also need to keep center Corbin Kaufusi out of foul trouble. The 6-foot-10 sophomore went to the bench with his second foul with 10:42 left in the first half, and BYU had no answer inside for CU's Josh Scott. The senior had 16 of his 22 points in the first half on 7-for-9 shooting.
George King led the Buffs with 23, and Colorado was 10-for-24 from 3-point range.
"First of all, Colorado is a good team," Rose said. "They space the floor really well and they've always got five really good offensive players on the floor at one time. They really spread us out and got to where they got the shots that they wanted early. We changed our defense and slowed them down a little bit."
But it was too late. BYU was 9 for 29 from 3-point range.
"We had a lot of looks that we are used to making," Rose said. "We had a hard time getting started. We got behind and went inside and their size and length and strength caused us issues. We finally got a little run where we started to hit some shots and put a little pressure on them. But they were really consistent in answering it. Every time we made a run, they answered it pretty well."
Emery's fourth 3-pointer cut CU's lead to 87-80 with 1:45 left, but the Buffs made their free throws — 20 for 23 —to keep the Cougars from getting closer.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Storylines
R The Cougars never lead and fall 92-83 in a nonconference game that could have NCAA Tournament bid implications.
• Freshmen Nick Emery and Zac Seljaas combine for 42 points for the Cougars; Chase Fischer goes 0-for-9 from 3-point range.
• BYU drops to 0-3 in true road games this season.
Colorado 92, BYU 83
BYU (6-3)
Davis 2-8 6-7 10, Kaufusi 4-7 1-2 9, Fischer 2-14 0-1 4, Emery 8-16 3-3 23, Collinsworth 6-18 4-5 17, Seljaas 7-11 0-0 18, Toolson 0-0 0-0 0, Calvert 0-0 0-0 0, Chatman 0-0 0-0 0, Shaw 0-1 0-0 0, Austin 1-2 0-0 2, Hartsock 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-77 14-18 83.
COLORADO (8-1)
Gordon 3-8 3-4 9, Scott 9-16 4-4 22, Collier 2-6 4-4 9, King 6-9 7-8 23, Fortune 2-10 2-3 7, Akyazili 1-2 0-0 3, Talton 3-5 0-0 8, Fletcher 1-7 0-0 3, Miller 4-5 0-0 8. Totals 31-68 20-23 92.
Halftime_Colorado 48-36. 3-Point Goals_BYU 9-29 (Seljaas 4-7, Emery 4-11, Collinsworth 1-2, Fischer 0-9), Colorado 10-24 (King 4-6, Talton 2-3, Collier 1-1, Akyazili 1-1, Fortune 1-5, Fletcher 1-6, Miller 0-1, Gordon 0-1). Fouled Out_None. Rebounds_BYU 41 (Davis 11), Colorado 49 (Scott 10). Assists_BYU 10 (Collinsworth 6), Colorado 18 (Fortune 5). Total Fouls_BYU 20, Colorado 18. A_8,913.