Fast break
Why the Buffs won: CU held Washington to a .333 shooting percentage and answered the Huskies’ comeback bid by dominating the final 11 minutes.
Three stars
1. Bangot Dak. Won tournament MVP honors after posting his first career double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
2. Isaiah Johnson. The freshman guard went just 1-for-4 from the floor, but he went 10-for-14 at the free throw line, drawing seven fouls on UW before finishing with 13 points.
3. Barrington Hargress. It was a modest game scoring-wise for CU’s point guard with seven points, but he dished out eight assists with only two turnovers and also added three steals.
Up next: CU has a quick turnaround with a Monday home date against Cal Baptist (7 p.m., ESPN+).
PALM DESERT, Calif. — Bangot Dak has been at Colorado during the good times, like the NCAA Tournament run of two years ago. He was also around for the misery of last year’s 21-loss campaign.
The latest outing by the CU men’s basketball team dipped into both of those worlds. In the first half of Friday’s battle against Washington, the Buffs looked every bit like an NCAA Tournament team. In the first 10 minutes of the second half, CU resembled the team that finished last in the Big 12 last year.
Yet in another sign the 2025-26 campaign will be a much different season, Dak and the Buffs didn’t buckle.
CU made sure it was an unfriendly Pac-12 reunion for Washington, answering the Huskies’ comeback bid in the second half to earn an 81-68 win in the finale of the Acrisure Holiday Classic.
Dak led the way with his first career double-double, finishing with 15 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. But it was yet another impressive all-around effort from the Buffs, who had five players score in double figures while putting together arguably their best defensive performance of the season.
“I just kind of try to remember a spot that happened last year,” Dak said. “We had many moments every single game last year where we’re in the game, or we’re right there trying to get over the hump. I feel like just that little bit of extra effort, that little bit of extra work, is going to get you over the hump. That’s something I keep trying to remind our dudes, and it’s been working. That’s all it is — a little bit of extra effort to get over that little hump.”
CU dominated the first half, holding UW to a .281 shooting percentage while building a 47-30 halftime lead. The Huskies, though, didn’t go away quietly, unleashing a 22-5 run to begin the second half that evened the score at 52-52 with 11 minutes, 41 seconds remaining.
But the Buffs answered with a 10-3 burst, with Dak scoring four points in a run bookended by 3-pointers from Felix Kossaras. Washington remained within four points when a 3-pointer from Alon Michaeli started a 9-2 run by the Buffs that put the game away.
“It says we’ve got a competitive group of guys,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said about answering UW’s surge. “They want to win. It’s important to them. In the big picture it’s probably good that happened because we can learn from it. It’s another teaching moment. It’s another opportunity for us to say, hey, it’s a 40-minute game.”
Despite Washington’s second-half comeback, the Buffs held the Huskies to a .333 mark from the floor, the lowest field goal percentage by a CU foe this season. The Buffs continued their streak of having at least four players score in double figures and had five reach that total for the fourth time in time in seven games, with freshmen Isaiah Johnson (13 points) and Michaeli (12 points) making big contributions off the bench.
“At the end of the day, basketball is a game of runs. They went on their run and we finished it out,” CU forward Sebastian Rancik said. “We still need to combine 40 minutes. I think we played defense for 30 minutes today and we need to learn to get to 40.
“We’re a very young team. We only have three upperclassmen, so it’s great. Our record doesn’t matter, we have to approach every game the same way. But this will definitely give us confidence.”
Colorado 81, Washington 68
WASHINGTON (5-2)
Kepnang 2-7 2-2 6, Claude 6-18 0-0 14, Diallo 1-8 2-2 4, Peterson 6-13 2-2 18, Yates 2-8 5-6 9, Mandaquit 3-7 1-1 8, Sommerville 1-3 2-2 4, Rencher 2-5 0-0 5. Totals 23-69 14-15 68.
COLORADO (7-0)
Dak 5-10 4-4 15, Rancik 2-10 6-8 11, Malone 3-4 0-0 6, Hargress 3-7 1-2 7, Kossaras 4-7 0-0 11, Johnson 1-4 10-14 13, Michaeli 5-7 0-0 12, Holland 2-3 2-4 6, Sanders 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 25-54 23-32 81.
Halftime: Colorado 47-30; 3-point field goals: Washington 8-21 (Peterson 4-10, Claude 2-5, Mandaquit 1-2, Rencher 1-3, Yates 0-1); Colorado 8-18 (Kossaras 3-6, Michaeli 2-2, Johnson 1-2, Dak 1-3, Rancik 1-5). Fouled out: Rencher. Rebounds: Washington 33 (Kepnang 9); Colorado 42 (Dak 11). Assists: Washington 11 (Mandaquit 6);, Colorado 16 (Hargress 8). Turnovers: Washington 6 (Yates III 5); Colorado 11 (Rancik 3). Total fouls: Washington 24, Colorado 15.