Postseason push: Last-seeded CU Buffs men’s basketball upsets TCU at Big 12 tournament

Fast break

Why the Buffs won: CU held TCU to a .379 shooting percentage and managed to pull even on the boards in the second half (17-17) after getting outrebounded by 11 in the first half.

Three stars

1. CU’s Andrej Jakimovski. Hit four 3-pointers in the second half and led the Buffs with 18 points. Also shared the team lead with seven rebounds.

2. CU’s Julian Hammond III. Played like a senior point guard in the postseason, going 7-fo-9 at the free throw line before finishing with 16 points and three assists.

3. TCU’s Noah Reynolds. A bright spot for the Horned Frogs in an otherwise tough game offensively, Reynolds finished went 7-for-14 with a team-high 17 points.

Up next: The Buffs’ season stays alive at least one more day with a second-round date against eighth-seeded West Virginia on Wednesday (1 p.m. MT, ESPN+).

KANSAS CITY — Barring a miracle run through the postseason, the Colorado men’s basketball team is destined for a 20-loss season.

The Buffaloes, however, are hoping to delay that fate as long as possible.

CU eased some of the ache of its last-place finish in the Big 12 with a 69-67 victory against TCU in the first round of the conference tournament on Tuesday at the T-Mobile Center. The Buffs will face eighth-seeded West Virginia in the second round on Wednesday afternoon.

Despite the last-place finish, the Buffs won their first conference tournament game for the 14th time in 15 seasons under head coach Tad Boyle. After winning just two of the first 19 Big 12 games, CU defeated TCU twice in four days after topping the Horned Frogs in Boulder in the regular season finale on Saturday.

Colorado held TCU to extended streaks without a field goal to open each half, but still had to survive a TCU comeback that saw a 13-point CU lead with 5 minutes remaining get cut to two in the final minute.

“We were far from our best today, and you figure out how to win a game in March, it says something about your guys,” Boyle said. “This team’s come a long way. We’ve been through a lot together and they’ve stuck together. To see them with the fight today, even though we didn’t play our best. You give up 22 offensive rebounds and turn it over 15 times and you win, it’s kind of a head-scratcher. But they did what they had to do.”

The Buffs led for much of the first half after TCU went without a field goal for the first 7 minutes, 54 seconds, but familiar issues for CU allowed TCU to take a 27-26 lead at halftime. The Horned Frogs turned a whopping 15 offensive rebounds in the first half into 10 second-chance points, and CU also committed 10 first-half turnovers.

CU curtailed those problems somewhat after halftime and got hot from long range, with Andrej Jakimovski hitting four second-half 3-pointers while RJ Smith went 2-for-2. TCU still finished with 22 offensive rebounds, the most by a CU foe this season, while posting an 18-3 advantage in second-chance points. But the Horned Frogs recorded just eight of those points after halftime.

The Buffs outrebounded TCU by 16 during the win in Boulder on Saturday, but the Horned Frogs posted a 45-34 advantage in Tuesday’s rematch. Boyle said the Buffs were ready for TCU’s assault on the glass after dominating the rebounding battle four days earlier, but the Horned Frogs’ glass work almost nullified an otherwise stellar defensive performance by the Buffs.

TCU outrebounded CU 45-34.

“We knew that they were going to come out and try to rebound, because we kicked their butts at home. We knew that was coming,” Smith said. “They kicked our butt in the first half, obviously. We responded in the second half by limiting their offensive rebounds, just playing with more of an edge knowing our season’s on the line. And the end of the day, we wanted it more and I think that showed at the end.”

Following the opening drought in the first half, TCU went the first 4:51 of the second half without a field goal, with the Buffs eventually pushing their lead to 14 on Smith’s second 3-pointer. CU led 63-50 after a pair of free throws from Julian Hammond III with 5 minutes remaining, but TCU reeled off a 13-2 run capped by Jace Posey’s third 3-pointer that rallied the Horned Frogs to within two points with 59 seconds remaining.

Hammond, though, connected on a pair of free throws with 20.5 seconds left and, after Noah Reynolds kept TCU within two on a driving bucket, Javon Ruffin iced the win with two free throws with 5.8 seconds left.

“We held them to 26% field goal percentage in the first half and we’re down one,” Boyle said. “I’ve never had a team I think play as poorly in the first half as we did and be only down by one. So we were very fortunate there. But in the second half I thought our guys really competed a little bit harder and battled.”

Colorado 69, TCU 67

COLORADO (13-19)

Baskin 1-5 4-7 6, Jakimovski 7-15 0-0 18, Malone 1-3 0-0 2, Hammond 4-10 7-9 16, Ruffin 3-7 2-2 9, Dak 1-4 2-2 4, Diop 1-1 0-0 3, Smith 2-2 0-0 6, Rancik 1-3 0-0 2, Kossaras 0-1 3-4 3. Totals 21-51 18-24 69.

TCU (16-16)

Punch 3-12 1-2 7, White 5-12 3-5 13, Udeh 2-4 1-2 5, Allette 3-12 2-6 9, Reynolds 7-14 0-0 17, Posey 3-5 0-2 9, Diallo 1-2 2-2 4, Robinson 1-3 1-1 3, Wenzel 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 25-66 10-20 67.

Halftime: TCU 27-26. 3-point field goals: Colorado 9-22 (Jakimovski 4-11, Smith 2-2, Diop 1-1, Hammond 1-2, Ruffin 1-2, Baskin 0-1, Dak 0-1, Kossaras 0-1, Rancik 0-1); TCU 7-22 (Posey 3-3, Reynolds 3-6, Allette 1-3, Robinson 0-1, Wenzel 0-2, White 0-3, Punch 0-4). Rebounds: Colorado 34 (Baskin, Jakimovski 7), TCU 45 (Udeh 11); Assists: Colorado 16 (Ruffin 4); TCU 8 (Allette, Reynolds 2). Turnovers: Colorado 15 (Jakimovski, Hammond, Dak 3); TCU 14 (Wenzel, Diallo 3). Total fouls: Colorado 14, TCU 19. A: 6,406 (18,972).