Colorado guard Isaiah Johnson (2) defends a layup attempt during the game against UCF at the CU Events Center on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Scott Tan/CU Independent)
CU Boulder’s game against UCF was a story of two halves, and seemingly two different Colorado teams. The Buffs’ offense produced some of its best scoring, while the Buffs’ defense couldn’t stop anything against UCF on Saturday, Jan. 24.
“We’re doing what we need to do offensively,” head coach Tad Boyle said. “But we’re just not good enough defensively.”
Senior guard Barrington Hargress ended with 18 first-half points, but finished with a total of 20 on 68% shooting after being in foul trouble for most of the game. Freshman guard Isaiah Johnson put down 20 on 54% shooting and six assists while sophomore forward Sebastian Rancik added another 20 to the Colorado scoresheet.
Despite these efforts, struggles defending the perimeter and an underwhelming shooting performance in the second half spelled the Buffs’ 95-86 demise against the Knights (15-4, Big 12 4-3).
Colorado (12-8, Big 12 2-5) started on a 7-0 run before an alley-oop dunk from UCF’s John Bol and a three-pointer cut the lead to just two. The Knights and Buffs traded technical fouls and Rancik and Bol exchanged words.
Colorado got excellent inside scoring with Bangot Dak and Alon Michaeli, which culminated in a fast-break-and-one dunk from Michaeli.
The Buffs’ defense struggled to defend the perimeter as the Knights kept themselves within a few points, only missing the mark on one of their seven attempts through the first ten minutes.
Offensively, the Buffs got into a rhythm as back-to-back 3-pointers and a fast-break layup from Johnson put the Buffs up eight headed into the under-eight minute timeout.
Hargress was the spark plug that started the Buff’s offense, generating plenty of his own chances, either from beyond the arc or on a pull-up jumper. Hargress hit on all six of his shots in the first half, including three 3-pointers before being benched for the final minute-and-a-half following his second personal foul, tallying 18 first-half points.
Johnson was able to beat the buzzer to cut into the UCF lead and put the score at 49-47 heading into halftime.
Both teams shot north of 60% from the field, but 30 of the Knights 49 first-half points came from three-pointers.
Colorado forward Alon Michaeli (3) goes up for a layup during the game against UCF at the CU Events Center on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Scott Tan/CU Independent)
The second-half offense dried up as the Buffs didn’t make a field goal until over three minutes into the frame, but so did the UCF three-point shooting, going just one for five after shooting over 77% in the first half.
Three fouls in a 15-second span going against the Buffs helped the Knights to a 12-point lead with 10 minutes left in the second half.
Under five minutes, the Buffs began to slowly eat away at the UCF lead, throwing in a full-court press and capitalizing on being in the bonus.
Redshirt freshman Jalin Holland hit a big 3-pointer to cut the lead to seven with three-and-a-half minutes left as the Buffs desperately attempted to crawl their way back into the game.
With just 0.6 seconds on the shot clock, senior guard Riley Kugel banked in a three to push the lead to nine and out of reach for the Buffs.
UCF shot the three-ball at a 62.5% clip, the second-highest mark of the season, and the Buffs just couldn’t stop it.
“Some of it was our defense, some of it was shots that we were willing to live [with],” Hargress said.
“The whole game plan tonight was we had to get really good sound ball screen defense,” Boyle said.
“We did none of that. We tried three different ball screen coverages. None of them worked.”
Still, the offense shot at over 50% for the first time in league play.
“[We] scored 86 points, [shot] 52 percent from the field, [our] offense is not the problem,” Boyle said.
But with such a young group in black and gold, finding that groove and rhythm in this system has been challenging.
“And we’ve got a good freshman group, but with freshmen, you’re going to be up and you’re going to be down,” Boyle said. “We need more consistency from our upperclassmen.”
Colorado will look to find that consistency in their next game in Ames, Iowa, taking on the No. 9 Iowa State Cyclones (18-2, Big 12 5-2) on Thursday, Jan. 29. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. MT and will be streamed live on FS1.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Jake Chau at jake.chau@colorado.edu.
