UW men squander late lead, drop Pac-12 opener to Colorado

Washington’s men’s basketball team fared well against a challenging slate of nonconference opponents that included tough battles against No. 13-ranked Gonzaga, No. 15 Colorado State and Xavier.

It became apparent early in the first half Friday, however, that the Huskies weren’t ready for Colorado’s physical and punishing assault.

Still, UW had plenty of chances and squandered a seven-point lead in the final 5 minutes before falling 73-69 in its Pac-12 opener at CU Events Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Keion Brooks Jr. scored 20 points, Sahvir Wheeler had 17 and Moses Wood 14 for the Huskies, who dropped to 8-4 overall.

An enticing early conference matchup between teams ranked among the top 60 in the NET lost some of its luster due to a handful of injuries.

Huskies center Franck Kepnang missed his second straight game due to a knee injury and the Buffaloes were without senior forward Tristan da Silva (ankle) and freshman forward Cody Williams (wrist).

The Huskies would have had difficulty slowing down CU’s Eddie Lampkin Jr. with a healthy Kepnang, and without him, the 6-foot-11, 265-pound senior bullied and battered Braxton Meah, who made his second straight start in place of Kepnang.

Ahead 15-12, UW coach Mike Hopkins switched to his trademark 2-3 zone, which had been rarely used during the nonconference games.

The defensive tactic produced three quick turnovers, but UW missed 11 of its next 12 field goals while the Rams used a 13-2 run to take a 25-17 lead with 6:33 left in the first half.

Washington answered with a 7-0 spurt that included a couple of layups from Brooks and Wheeler before Wood canned a 3 to cut CU’s lead to 25-24 with 5:22 remaining.

The Huskies’ offense went cold again and Colorado drained a couple of 3s to go up 32-26 at halftime.

The Buffaloes never led by more than seven points in the second half before Wood gave Washington its first lead after halftime with a 3-pointer to go up 57-56 at the 8:23 mark.

The Huskies pushed their lead to 63-56 following Wheeler’s pass to Brooks for an alley-oop dunk with 5:56 left.

Momentum swung toward Colorado, which scored eight unanswered points to surge ahead 64-63.

Washington regained a 65-64 lead on the ensuing possession with Wheeler’s jumper, but the Huskies missed four of their final shots and it was all Colorado from there.

KJ Simpson finished with a game-high 21 points for the Buffaloes (10-2).