National Basketball Association
Colorado 76, Eastern Washington 68
When: 8:30 PM ET, Thursday, December 22, 2016
Where: Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colorado
Officials:
# Gregory Nixon, # Eric Curry, # Rick O'Neill
Attendance:
6958
By The Sports Xchange
After scoring only two points in nearly the first eight minutes, Colorado used a late first-half run to get back in the game and eventually overtake and beat Eastern Washington 76-68 on Thursday night at Boulder, Colo.
After spending the majority of the first half digging out of a 17-point deficit, Colorado (10-3) outscored the Eagles 44-33 in the second half.
Derrick White's jumper tied the game at 37-all and moments later, Josh Fortune's 3-pointer gave Colorado its first lead of the game less than three minutes into the second half at 40-37.
The game see-sawed back and forth until a free throw by Xavier Johnson gave the Buffaloes the lead for good at 56-55. A couple of Troy Miller baskets extended the Colorado lead and the Buff's comeback was complete.
White and Fortune led the Buffaloes with 17 and 13 points, respectively. Dominique Collier was playing in his second game since missing a month with a foot injury, scored only three points.
Bogdan Bliznyuk led Eastern with 25 points.
The Eagles (8-5) jumped out to a 19-2 lead. The Buffaloes' only points were free throw by White and Collier. Colorado's first field goal, a 3-pointer by Deleon Brown, came at the 12:19 mark and made the score 19-5.
Eastern Washington extended the lead to 31-17 at the 5:37 mark when Bliznyuk connected on a jumper.
But the Buffs' Bryce Peters quickly answered with a layup that ignited a Colorado 15-4 run to close out the half and Colorado trailed only 35-32 at intermission.
Bliznyuk went for 21 first-half points on 8 of 12 and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.
The Buffaloes would have been in more dire trouble if not for going to the free-throw line 21 times and making 14 of those attempts. But that was enough to keep them in the game even though they made only 8 of 23 attempts from the field.
Top Game Performances
| Eastern Washington |
|
Colorado |
|
Bogdan Bliznyuk 25 |
Scoring |
Derrick White 17 |
|
Bogdan Bliznyuk 5 |
Assists |
Derrick White 7 |
|
Jacob Wiley 8 |
Rebounds |
Wesley Gordon 10 |
|
Luka Vulikic 5 |
Free Throws Made |
Derrick White 8 |
|
Bogdan Bliznyuk 1 |
Steals |
Deleon Brown 1 |
|
Jacob Wiley 2 |
Blocks |
Derrick White 4 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Eastern Washington
|
68 |
38.3 |
7-23 |
15-24 |
10 |
31 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
| Colorado
|
76 |
45.1 |
6-19 |
24-33 |
15 |
35 |
8 |
1 |
9 |
For more information, contact us