Takeaway
With the Pac-12’s leading scorer, Markelle Fultz, sitting with a sore knee, the Washington Huskies lacked firepower against the Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder Thursday night, losing their sixth consecutive game, 81-66 (box). Colorado (14-11, 4-8 Pac-12) held a double-digit lead for more than 23 minutes.
Essential moment
Trailing 68-58 with 5:44 to play, sophomore guard Matisse Thybulle drained a three-pointer off a quick pass. After a timeout, Colorado ran off 11 unanswered points to bury Washington.
Huskies (9-15, 2-10 Pac-12)
Fultz did not participate in a shooting session earlier in the day, before Washington announced he was out. Fultz, averaging a conference-best 23.2 points per game, missed his first game of the season after averaging 35.8 minutes a game.
Junior guard Dan Kingma saw significant time in Fultz’s stead, playing 21 minutes while going two-of-three. Kingma’s previous season-high was two minutes against UCLA on Feb. 4. Freshman guard Bitumba Baruti also played a season-high 15 minutes.
David Crisp paced the Huskies with 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting, while Noah Dickerson scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Colorado’s fourth win in five games was led by George King with 21 points and 12 rebounds, and Derrick White scored 16.
Words
“It happened. When we got in foul trouble, we had to try to make things work, but I thought we as a team stayed together, but we just ran out of gas.” – coach Lorenzo Romar on shuffling the lineup
“Normally I get some conditioning in the day of the game, because I don’t want to be just sitting there while the other guys are getting their work in. I definitely wouldn’t have run that mile on the treadmill if I knew I was going to play 21 minutes.” – Kingma on his pre-game workout affecting him at Colorado’s altitude
Next
The Huskies face Utah in Salt Lake City at Hunstman Center Saturday (1:30 p.m., FS1). Fultz is listed as day to day.
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