Washington men can’t stop Buffaloes from stampeding in another loss

SEATTLE – There’s been one truism during Mike Hopkins’ seven-year tenure with the Washington men’s basketball team: When the Huskies give up 80 points they almost always lose.

On Wednesday night, Colorado came into Alaska Airlines Arena, where it had a 2-14 record and seven-game losing streak, and put 50 points on the scoreboard before halftime.

It was an ominous sign for UW, which is 8-39 under Hopkins when allowing 80 points.

The Huskies could never slow down the Buffaloes who ran away with a 98-81 victory in front of 5,210 in a game UW associate head coach Will Conroy said: “We absolutely need to have.”

The Husky defense, which allowed 90 points in a loss in its previous outing, made so many miscues, it was tough to keep track.

“Excuse my language, it was all (messed) up,” UW forward Keion Brooks Jr. said when asked about the Huskies’ defensive problems. “The main thing is, we got to start buckling down and playing some defense. and get some stops.

“If not, we’re not going to beat anybody giving up 90 points every day.”

Washington had difficulty keeping track of J’Vonne Hadley who scored a game-high 24 points and Eddie Lampkin Jr. who had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Cody Williams added 19 points, Tristan da Silva had 10 and KJ Simpson finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for Colorado, which improved 15-5 and 6-3 in the Pac-12.

“It wasn’t our best effort,” UW coach Mike Hopkins said. “From the beginning of the game, they came right at us and I felt like we couldn’t stop them. … It seemed like we were a little bit slower and couldn’t keep them in front. They did whatever they wanted to do.”

Washington had brief one-point leads twice in the first half, but the Buffaloes led for 13½ minutes.

Wilhelm Breidenbach’s jumper tied the game at 21-21 with 8:39 remaining before the break when the Buffaloes seized momentum and never relinquished the lead.

CU made nine of its final 13 shots in the first half, including a three-pointer from Bangot Dak at the buzzer that gave the Buffs a 50-41 halftime lead.

Colorado shot 57.1% in the first half and Washington converted 53.1% of its shots while converting 10 of its final 14 attempts.

Da Silva scored the first five points in the second half, including a three-point play gave CU a 55-41 lead, and UW never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

Brooks scored a team-high 21 points while Paul Mulcahy, Moses Wood and Braxton Meah each finished with 11 and the Huskies fell to 11-9 and 3-6.

Colorado converted 26 of 28 free throws while Washington was 10 of 18.

Washington plays Utah on 7 p.m. Saturday.