Posts tagged Jeremy Adams
CU gets payback for home loss, advances PAC-12 tournament to another possible payback
Mar 14th
The opportunity for payback came quickly for the Colorado Buffaloes and they didn’t let it pass. Beaten and embarrassed last weekend on their home court by lowly Oregon State, the Buffs regrouped and eliminated the Beavers 74-68 on Wednesday in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.
And the second round brings another opponent the Buffs and their fans might always feel is owed a little something.
No. 5 seeded CU (21-10) advances to face No. 4 seed Arizona (24-6) on Thursday. The Buffs and Wildcats split their two regular-season meetings, each team winning at home but Arizona needing a disallowed three-pointer at the buzzer to win in the teams’ conference opener in overtime in Tucson.
“Yeah, we do feel like we’re 2-0 (against the Wildcats),” said CU sophomore guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who led the Buffs with 20 points on Wednesday, including eight straight after the Beavers had pulled to within a point in the second half. “We don’t go back and cry over spilled milk. We know it goes in the record book as a loss.
“But a lot of people around the country have the same feeling that we do. Even some of their players do because
we kind of talked about it on the floor last time (in CU’s 71-58 Valentine’s Night win in Boulder).”
Game three of the growing rivalry tips Thursday at 3:30 p.m. MDT (Pac-12 Network) in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. “I think there is a lot of mutual respect between the programs, and I respect their coach and their coaching staff,” CU coach Tad Boyle said. “I think what we did last year, and this year and these young men sitting beside me, I think we’ve earned some respect as well. So I look for a heck of a game.”
CU defeated Arizona twice last season, the final time (53-51) for the inaugural Pac-12 championship in Los Angeles. Out of that game, followed by Sabatino Chen’s waived-off buzzer beater on Jan. 3 in Tucson, burst a rivalry.
But to force another meeting, the Buffs had to dispose of the Beavers (14-18) Wednesday. And in Boyle’s words, the disposal process was unsightly. “Sometimes in tournament games you’ve got to win ugly,” he said, adding he couldn’t remember when his team shot from beyond the three-point arc (43.8 percent) than in front of it (39.3).
But in the second game with OSU in five days, CU had something that was missing on Saturday in Boulder – junior forward Andre Roberson, who returned after missing two games with a viral illness. He scored 12 points, added seven rebounds and, according to OSU coach Craig Robinson, was Wednesday’s difference-maker.
Asked that specifically, Robinson answered, “Is that a trick question, or did you not see Andre Roberson out there?”
Without ‘Dre’ last Saturday, the Buffs were outrebounded by the Beavers 38-32. With him back in the lineup, and with Josh Scott contributing 10 boards – eight big ones in the first half – and Xavier Johnson getting eight more, CU outrebounded OSU 43-30.
Roberson also was enough of an inside presence on the defensive end to help limit the Beavs to 39.7 percent from the field. He also contributed to CU having an 18-12 advantage in second-chance points.
“Roberson gave them a different look,” said OSU guard Roberto Nelson, who led his team with 20 points. “He does a lot for their team. There’s a reason he’s one of the best players in the league.”
But ‘Dre’ said he didn’t feel like that in his return to the court. “I was just trying to work myself back into shape and get the rustiness out,” he said, undoubtedly alluding to his five turnovers. “When you haven’t played in a long time, hadn’t touched the ball or run or anything . . . hey, I was relying on one day and that was (Tuesday). I felt like I did a pretty good job actually.”
He entered the tournament as the nation’s leading rebounder (11.5 rpg) and said this of Wednesday’s effort: “I slacked a little bit on the rebounding end. But I’ll pick it up (Thursday).”
In addition to Dinwiddie’s 20 and Roberson’s 12, CU got 16 points from Johnson and eight first-half points off the bench from Jeremy Adams, who continues to be a late-season force. Boyle said Adams “gave us some great first-half minutes . . . he made some shots (and) is a lockdown-type defender. I think I’d put him in there with ‘Sab’ (Sabatino Chen) and Andre in terms of his understanding of our defensive concept.”
Roberson, the Pac-12’s Defensive Player of The Year, knocked down a three-pointer followed by a pair of free throws that gave the Buffs a 12-point lead (61-49) with 2:43 remaining. It was CU’s largest advantage of the afternoon, with Roberson’s trey the Buffs’ final field goal of the game.
Oregon State pulled to within five points in the final three minutes, but CU hit 15 of 21 throws in the last 2:43 to advance against No. 18 Arizona. The Buffs are 4-2 against ranked opponents this season, their most wins in that category since the 2002-03 season.
After a back-and-forth first half Wednesday, the Buffs took 32-26 lead at intermission – and they did it dramatically. After a Beavers turnover with 1.1 seconds remaining, Chen inbounded the ball just across the mid-court line to Dinwiddie, who cleared himself to shoot with two dribbles and let his shot fly.
The horn sounded with the ball in the air – and CU had its fourth (and longest) three-pointer of the first half in 11 attempts.
Said Dinwiddie: “I just wanted to get open and get it up there . . . It gave us momentum; they had just come back.”
Prior to their six-point halftime advantage, the Buffs had led by as many as seven before the Beavs regrouped and tied the score at 23-23 with a 7-0 run. They made it a 10-2 spurt and went up 26-25 before CU closed out the half with a short jumper by Scott, a pair of free throws by Chen and Dinwiddie’s half-court swish.
At tip-off all CU eyes were on Roberson, who was cleared to play in the tournament on Tuesday morning. Roberson started, took a break at the 14:23 mark, then reentered the game with 12:13 remaining.
But less than three minutes later, with 10:47 left before intermission, Roberson picked up his second personal foul and went to the bench for the remainder of the half. If he needed rest, he hadn’t figured on getting it this way. He finished the half with two points and one rebound in seven minutes.
Oregon State, which defeated CU 64-58 last Saturday, crept to within 53-46 before Askia Booker hit a triple to put the Buffs back in front by double-digits (56-46). Booker had been scoreless (0-8 from the field) until that basket.
“I mentioned to our staff in the locker room (that) he was one-for-nine,” said Boyle, “but the one he hit was a big-time shot.”
Still, the Beavers were intent on making it a close game. When Ahmad Starks drained a three with 1:54 to play, his team trailed by only 63-57, and a trey by Eric Moreland (14 points, 13 rebounds) made it a five-point game (65-60) with 1:35 left.
A three-point play by Nelson pulled the Beavs to 72-68 in the final 10 seconds, but Dinwiddie’s final pair of free throws with 6.5 left sealed it and sent the Buffs into Thursday’s second round against the Wildcats.
Dinwiddie said the Buffs “have to stick with what we do – hold them to under 40 percent field goal percentage and outrebound them. (Then) we have a good shot at winning the game. That’s pretty much our focus every game. They’re a team that plays pretty stout defense. I guess a lot of people kind of say they’ve turned into our rivals because we’ve faced them so many times . . . faced them in the (Pac-12) championship last year. They’re always a great match up.”
Added Roberson: “They’re a great program. They play just like us – same philosophies. It’s like the cat going to get the mice; we’ve got to come hungry . . . and be ready to play.”
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Roberson’s Career-High 24 Pushes Buffs Past Cardinal
Feb 28th
Release: 2/27/2013
STANFORD, Calif. – Andre Roberson woke up “sick and woozy” on Wednesday morning. By Wednesday night, he was much, much better – and Stanford was feeling ill.
Behind Roberson’s career-high 24 points and eight rebounds, Colorado edged the Cardinal 65-63, giving the Buffaloes their first Pac-12 Conference sweep of Stanford and their first-ever win at Maples Pavilion.
“Our players deserved that win,” said CU coach Tad Boyle, whose team improved to 19-8 overall and 9-6 in the conference.
“For what they’ve been through, how they battled and the heart they played with, they deserved that.”
Roberson, a 6-7 junior, got scoring help from sophomore Spencer Dinwiddie with 19. They were the only two CU players in double figures.
In a postgame interview on KOA Radio, Roberson said after waking up feeling subpar on Wednesday morning, “I drank a lot of fluids, took some medicine. But Trae (Tashiro, trainer) had me on the right path and I had to come out here and take care of business. You have to fight through it.”
The win kept the Buffs in contention for the No. 4 seed in the Pac-12 tournament (March 13-16, Las Vegas). Said Roberson: “This means a lot for us . . . also in terms of the Pac-12 standings we’re trying to get that fourth seed. We’ll see how it goes.”
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Stanford (16-13, 7-9) had three players in double digits – Andy Brown with 17, Chasson Randle with 16 and Dwight Powell with 12. Powell almost ended with 14 points, taking an in-bounds pass with 2.4 seconds to play, turning on Roberson and going to the basket for a jam that would have sent the game into overtime.
But he had too much court to cover in too little time – and Roberson knew it. “I knew they were going to play the three or attack the rim,” Roberson said. “He went past me and I said, ‘Oh, shoot’ . . . but the ball was still in his hand when the light went off.”
After a collective CU sigh that might have rattled windows in the Rockies, the Buffs had their eighth win in 10 games and their third consecutive conference road win for the first time since the 2000-01 season.
Boyle called Roberson “a beast” for his offensive effort and lauded his overall defense on the 6-10 Powell. Boyle also said when Dinwiddie “plays aggressively and attacks the rim, and Andre plays like he did, those two are special.”
But overall, it was another special night for the Buffs. They won without 6-10 freshman center Josh Scott, who received an elbow to the head on Feb. 16 against Arizona State and did not play last week against Utah. Scott made the trip to the Bay Area but was held out of Wednesday night’s game. In CU’s 75-54 win against Stanford on Jan. 24, Scott scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Scott’s status for Saturday, when CU plays at fast-improving California (2 p.m. MST, ESPNU), is to be determined. Against Cal in Boulder on Jan. 27, Scott contributed five points and three rebounds. Nonetheless, the Buffs won 81-71, but since then the Bears have won seven of eight – including five straight.
Boyle said Scott “is getting closer every day . . . we wouldn’t have brought him if we didn’t think there wasn’t a chance of him playing.”
CU led only once (2-0) in Wednesday night’s first half and trailed 32-31 at intermission. Over the first 6:00, the Buffs shot horrendously, making only two of their first 13 shots and trailing by as many as 10 points (15-5).
But they refused to roll over, launching an 11-2 run that brought them to within 17-16 with 10:06 left before the break. They forged ties at 25-25 and 27-27 before the Cardinal answered with a 5-0 run to go up 32-27.
But CU closed the half with baskets by Dinwiddie and Jeremy Adams to account for their one-point deficit at intermission.
Dinwiddie’s 10 points topped the Buffs in the first 20 minutes, followed by Roberson with eight and Adams with seven off the bench, giving him 13 in the first halves of his last two games.
The difference in the first half for Stanford was its three-point shooting; the Cardinal hit five of their nine trey attempts while the Buffs were one of eight from beyond the arc. Stanford finished 9-of-20, CU 4-of-18.
The Buffs shot 42.9 percent from the field to the Cardinal’s 39.0 percent and outrebounded the home team 34-33. CU scored 36 points in the paint to Stanford’s 22.
The Buffs made only one of their first four shots over the first four-plus minutes of the second half, and the Cardinal outscored them 8-2 to go ahead 40-33 with 15:36 remaining. And when Randle drained a three-pointer from the right wing,
Stanford had matched its largest lead of the game – 10 points – at 43-33.
But as they did in the first half facing a 10-point deficit, the Buffs had a swift response. Dinwiddie scored five points to spark an 8-0 run, pulling CU to within two (43-41) with 11:50 to play. Less than two minutes later, a triple by Roberson with the shot clock at :02 brought the Buffs to within one (45-44).
And “Dre” was just getting started. He drained another trey, followed that with a layup, then watched Askia Booker hit a layup to send CU ahead 51-45 – the Buffs’ largest lead of the night.
After trailing by 10, CU had strung together an 18-5 run, but Stanford wasn’t finished. Another Randle three-ball, followed by a Brown tip, brought the Cardinal back to 51-50.
But the Buffs didn’t surrender the lead, going up by as many as six before a Josh Huestis tip brought the Cardinal to 61-59.
Dinwiddie answered with a layup (63-59) but he also got a technical foul for touching the ball after it came through the net.
Aaron Bright hit one of two free throws (63-60), but Roberson was fouled on a rebound and hit two free throws (65-60) with 15.1 seconds to play. Then a Brown triple from the left corner pulled Stanford to 65-63.
Dinwiddie was fouled with 4 seconds showing, but missed the front end of his one-and-one. Stanford controlled the rebound and called timeout with 2.4 seconds left. Powell got the inbounds pass, pivoted and went to the basket and jammed it . . . but it was too late.
“I saw the light go off (around the backboard),” a relieved Boyle said. “It was a break this team needs and deserves . . . Powell made a good play, there wasn’t just enough time for him, thank goodness.”
Roberson, CU Men Stay With It, Edge Ducks
Feb 8th
EUGENE, Ore. – Colorado basketball coach Tad Boyle had wanted his Buffaloes to play a 40-minute game, and it took them nearly that long to take their first lead on Thursday night against No. 19 Oregon.
But when CU finally got its advantage, it held. Andre Roberson’s lay-in with 29.5 seconds to play, coupled with intense defense on the Ducks over the final 41/2 minutes earned the Buffs a dramatic 48-47 win at Matt Knight Arena.
Thursday night marked CU’s first win in Eugene in 58 years, and it was accomplished in the manner Boyle expected. “Playing Oregon is like a street fight; they’re tough,” he said. “And we tried to prepare our guys for that . . . we gutted it out, we didn’t play our best. We won with our defense and our rebounding at the end.”
CU’s offense was hard to find; the Buffs’ winning total was their fewest in the modern shot clock era. The last time CU won while scoring fewer than 50 points was on Feb. 2, 1967 in a 49-42 victory over Oklahoma State.
On Thursday night, the Buffs shot only 36.5 percent from the field, but they held the Ducks to 36.2 percent. CU’s defense was particularly unforgiving in the final 4:26, holding the Ducks scoreless after they had taken a 47-40 lead.
“You shoot 36 percent on the road . . . you find a way,” Boyle said. “Hopefully our guys can learn from that and take some confidence from it. We’re going to start playing better offensively and making some shots and become more efficient. We’re in a little bit of a funk offensively right now, but we’ll break out of it.”
CU had only one player in double figures – Roberson, who collected his 35th career double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. It his Pac-12 Conference leading 10th double-double this season.
Roberson scored four of his points and grabbed three of his rebounds in the final 2:15. “There was a look in his eye, a determination, an energy that I hadn’t seen before,” Boyle said. “It was reminiscent of what I saw out of Carlon (Brown) and Nate (Tomlinson) and Austin (Dufault) towards the end of last year. Those seniors said we’re going to get this done and find a way. Andre was the same way.”
Said Roberson: “I didn’t want us to lose, and it starts with me . . . I just took it on myself to go out and play defense and continue to fight. We were still right there; we just weren’t getting over that hump to get the lead. I tip my hat to each and every one of our guys.”
The first tip of his hat might go to Spencer Dinwiddie, whose late defense was as critical as Roberson’s, according to Boyle. Dinwiddie pressured E.J. Singler on Oregon’s final full possession into a difficult shot, appearing to get a piece of the ball.
Said Boyle: “Spencer was terrific . . . those two guys (Dinwiddie, Roberson) were the difference in the game for us defensively. He played great defense (on Singler). Whether he got a touch, I don’t know. We had two fouls to give. We talked about maybe giving one on the drive or on the dribble. We didn’t want to foul a shooter, obviously, (Oregon) being down one. We showed very good judgment there.”
Dinwiddie, who finished with eight points and four assists, gave more credit to Roberson’s ‘D’ than his own. He also said ‘Dre’ “pulled down every single big board we needed. One time he even let out a primal scream after he got one of those boards. He’s big for us because he’s our best rebounder and that means so much for us. As you saw, with his nose for the ball, he got the last shot blocked, got it right back, scored it and it didn’t even faze him. He won the game for us.”
After falling short last weekend in a disheartening loss at Utah, CU (15-7, 5-5) needed a healing night on the court. So did Oregon (18-5, 7-3) after dropping a pair of games in the Bay Area. But it was the Buffs who finished strong this time, closing out the game with an 8-0 run and improving to 2-2 against ranked opponents this season.
CU also has beaten then-No. 16 Baylor but lost at then-No. 3 Arizona and then-No. 9 Kansas. The Buffs’ last road win against a ranked opponent was on Jan. 12, 2011, when they defeated No. 21 Kansas State 74-66.
Oregon freshman point guard Dominic Artis missed his fourth straight game with a foot injury. But until the final minutes, the Ducks weren’t as turnover prone Thursday as they had been in their previous three games, when they totaled 65. By halftime, forging a five-point lead, Oregon had committed just four turnovers to CU’s eight.
But the Buffs committed only four second-half turnovers and never succumbed to the Ducks’ pressure. Oregon also finished with a dozen turnovers.
The Buffs never led in the opening half and trailed by as many as eight points (15-7) with 11 minutes before the break. During the stretch when they fell behind by that margin, they strayed from what Boyle wanted from them – specifically, to attack the rim in transition and run after getting stops. Problem was, the stops weren’t plentiful enough to allow CU to speed up its transition game. The Buffs stayed out of sorts offensively for nearly 6 minutes.
“I’m really proud of our players, to win when you don’t play your best,” said Boyle. “You have to do it at some point of the year, you just do, and multiple times sometimes because it’s not always going to be pretty.”
After the Ducks took their eight-point first-half lead, the Buffs got strong minutes off the bench from Jeremy Adams, who hit a pair of free throws and three-pointer during a 10-2 run that pulled CU into a 17-17 tie.
But Oregon, responding with a 9-2 surge, went back on top by seven points (26-19) and CU needed a turnaround jumper by Josh Scott at the halftime buzzer to trail 28-23 at intermission.
Oregon got 12 first-half points from Singler and eight off the bench from Emory. Singler and Emery finished with 14 each for the Ducks, who had won 20 consecutive home games stretching back to the 2011-12 season (14-0 this season).
The Buffs opened the second half with a traditional three-point play from Dinwiddie – his first points of the game. That cut the Ducks’ lead to 28-26 with 17:57 to play, and another Dinwiddie layup brought CU to within 30-28 less than a minute later.
An Xavier Johnson trey – his second of the game – pulled the Buffs to within 32-31 with just over 15 minutes remaining. But the Ducks outscored their visitors 7-2 over the next 4 minutes and increased their advantage to 39-33 with 11:02 left.
CU pulled to within 47-43 at the 3:01 mark on one of two free throws by Askia Booker, to 47-44 on one of two foul shots by Scott, then to 47-46 on a putback by Roberson with 2:07 to play.
After each team squandered a possession apiece, the Buffs got the ball after an offensive foul by Singler with 50.1 seconds remaining. Boyle called timeout with 46.2 seconds showing, and Roberson’s lay-in gave CU its one-point lead at the 29.5 mark.
After rebounding Singler’s miss in the final 2 seconds, Roberson was fouled and went to the foul line to shoot one-and-one. He missed the first attempt and Oregon’s Arsalan Kazemi rebounded. But with less than a second to play, the Ducks were done.
“Our guys got stops when they had to,” Boyle said. “As painful and as disappointing as that Utah loss was for us, it might have done this team some good. We learned a couple of things: We know we have to play from the get-go, which I think we did . . . we competed. And secondly, knowing we can come back at the end. We came back and we won.”
The Buffs play next at Oregon State on Sunday (7 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Network).
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