The University of Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team is halfway through its Thursday night matchup against the Oregon State Beavers. The Buffs are continuing their recent string of strong starts, led by junior guard George King. Colorado leads a close match 41-40 at the half.
Colorado head coach Tad Boyle switched up the starting lineup against the Beavers — junior forward Tory Miller was the only upperclassman to start the game. Freshmen Deleon Brown, Bryce Peters and Lucas Siewert along with sophomore guard Thomas Akyazili started on the court for CU.
In a fight to stay out of last place in Pac-12 conference play, the Buffs came out swinging against the Beavers, who sit tied with CU for last place in the conference, both 0-7. An early game of threes from both benches has turned into a competitive game of back-and-forth. Colorado has struggled to contain Beavers’ sophomore guard Stephen Thompson Jr., who shot an outstanding 83 percent from the field and has dropped 13 points for Oregon State.
King leads all scorers at the half with 17 points, after scoring 10 points straight in the latter half of the first 20 minutes. For over two minutes, King was the only scorer in the game.
Colorado continues to struggle at the line, shooting just 33 percent of free throws. Overall, the Buffs’ offense remains closely matched with Oregon State. Colorado is shooting at 50 percent from the field and 53.8 from beyond the arc, while the Beavers are shooting 59.3 percent from the field and is 50 percent from long range.
The CU Independent will have a full game report after time expires.
Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Writer Olivia Butrymovich at olbu3713@colorado.edu
