Colorado sophomore Ian Inman couldn’t let his team lose to San Diego on Tuesday night at the CU Events Center.
The 6-foot-6 guard went for a career-high 26 points and hit eight 3-pointers on 13 attempts. Inman tied Kenny Price for the second-most 3-pointers in a game in CU men’s basketball history. CU (2-1) won 83-75 over USD (2-1) due to his showing.
“Man, it feels good,” Inman said after the game. “It's amazing what you can do as a group when you come together and you collectively work together hard in practice. I'm super proud of my guys.”
Of course, the close showing isn’t what the Buffs wanted. After losing to San Diego State, and with Providence up ahead, CU needed a comfortable game against the Toreros.
Yet, the Black-and-Gold got the opposite. San Diego led Colorado 37-34 at halftime and by one with under five minutes left.
The Toreros, led by Davion Hill and Jevon Hill, forced five more turnovers and won the offensive glass by six. Davion scored 20 points while Jevon scored 18 on six 3-pointers. USD shot 41.8% from the field on 16 more field goal attempts. Davion put Jalin Holland into foul trouble once again.
“It means taking 3s away from shooters, understanding the scouting report, and that's where we have to get better,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “We should have won this game by 20-plus if we guarded their 3-point shooters. They had two of them: Stromer and Javon Hill. They got eight. They were eight of 15. Like, no, it shouldn't happen.”
With Inman’s hot shooting, though, the Buffs hung around and eventually built momentum.
Barrington Hargress scored 16 points, hitting two second-half 3s to give CU a late lead. Plus, after just eight team assists in the loss against San Diego State, Hargress had eight of Colorado’s 23 assists against the Toreros.
The Buffs shot 51% from the field and 13-of-31 on 3-pointers, which helped. But Hargress and the others moved the ball better. Sophomore Josiah Sanders had 15 points on two 3s, and added four assists. Freshman Alex Dickeson scored six points but posted a team-high 10 rebounds and four assists.
“It's huge [to pass the ball]. It's one of the key factors that we try to push in practice,” Hargress said. “Just one of the things that we think is a key factor to winning, and it's going to be something that we always push because we believe that our high assist games are successful games. That's going to be something that we always aim for.”
With big performances and big man Noah Feddersen’s two blocks, Colorado earned a late lead as San Diego fell cold down the stretch. The Hills and Dusty Stromer (11 points, six rebounds) ran out of gas; USD only made two of its final 12 shots after taking a 67-64 lead with five minutes to play.
“Noah's really the only [Big 12 defender] going into tonight's game. I trust him,” Boyle said. “He guards everybody. He shows on ball screens. He blocks shots. He goes vertical. He plays with discipline. He is our best defender right now.”
Starters
CU: Barrington Hargress, Alex Dickeson, Ian Inman, Jalin Holland, Noah Feddersen
USD: Dusty Stromer, Davion Hill, Jevon Hill, Marqui Worthy, Sekou Konneh
Head-to-head
CU: 83 points, 26-52 FG, 13-31 3PT, 18-22 FT, 36 rebounds (5 offensive), 23 assists (15 turnovers), 5 steals, 4 blocks
USD: 75 points, 28-67 FG, 8-22 3PT, 11-16 FT, 32 rebounds (11 offensive), 12 assists (10 turnovers), 7 steals, 0 blocks
Top performers:
CU: Ian Inman had a record-book performance, hitting eight 3-pointers for a career-high 26 points. The sophomore also grabbed five rebounds in 29 minutes. Barrington Hargress followed with 16 points and eight assists. He only had one turnover in a plus-12 showing. Sophomore Josiah Sanders also got going off the bench, scoring 15 points and canning two 3-pointers. He added five rebounds and four assists.
USD: Davion Hill and Jevon Hill produced most of San Diego’s offense. Davion, the guard, scored 20 points on 21 shots and consistently had the ball in his hands. Jevon, the tall forward, laced six 3-pointers for the second consecutive game. His shooting rivaled Inman’s. Guard Dusty Stromer was just 4-of-11 from the field but added 11 points and a team-high six rebounds. He also had two assists.
How it happened
1st half: USD, 37-34
- U16: CU 4, USD 9 - Toreros got off to a hot start. Davion Hill scored an and-one, and Jevon Hill nailed a 3. Davion Hill forced Holland into two fouls in the first three minutes, which sent Holland to the bench. On the other end, CU made just two of its first six shots against USD’s matching zone. Holland and Inman had the only scores.
- U12: CU 17, USD 20 - USD kept running the offense through Davion Hill, who scored again. Stromer got going, hitting a 3-pointer and stealing a pass that led to a layup. Colorado’s offense evened out, making four straight shots. Sanders hit a 3-pointer as CU pushed the pace. But four turnovers against the Toreros’ trapping defense, including two from Justin Neely, hurt the Buffs.
- U8: CU 17, USD 22 - San Diego scored the only bucket for four minutes as both teams missed three straight shots. Both teams turned the ball over several times.
- U4: CU 28, USD 33 - Despite the cold stretch, both teams’ best shooters got going. Jevon Hill laced two triples for the Toreros and Inman hit three 3s in four possessions. But Inman was given a technical after his third make in front of the USD bench. San Diego stayed ahead.
- HALF: CU 34, USD 37 - Colorado went on a quick 5-0 run; Dickeson scored an and-one, and Sanders made a lay-up. Yet, San Diego scored a post bucket to stay ahead. CU ultimately shot 4.5% better from the field, but had eight turnovers and zero offensive rebounds.
2nd half: CU, 83-75 (CU, 49-38)
- USD TO (16:50): CU 40, USD 40 - Jevon Hill hit another 3-pointer to start the second half, but Inman one-upped him with back-to-back triples. Feddersen swatted a layup, leading to Inman’s fifth 3-pointer of the night. USD head coach JR Blount needed a timeout.
- U12: CU 52, USD 49 - USD regained the lead before the under-16 media break. However, the Buffs took the lead thanks to more 3-point shooting. Inman hit his sixth 3-pointer, and he grabbed an offensive board that led to a Hargress triple. Hargress hit another on the next possession to keep the brief lead. The Toreros got inside for scores, but still trailed as CU hit five of its first nine 3-point attempts in the second half.
- U8: CU 56, USD 59 - Jevon Hill matched Inman, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers for his fifth and sixth of the game. Those shots helped USD regain the lead. Both teams committed several turnovers, but five second-half giveaways squashed CU’s lead.
- CU TO (6:26): CU 58, USD 63 - San Diego kept getting to the rim. They made four straight field goals and scored off of a turnover to take a five-point lead. Boyle called a timeout.
- U4: CU 70, USD 67: CU forced a timeout right back and went on a 6-0 run. The teams traded blows before the run. Inman hit his seventh 3-pointer, and Feddersen hit one. Then, Dickeson and Hargress got to the line before a Hargress layup gave the Buffs a three-point lead.
- FINAL: CU 83, USD 75: The Buffs took a commanding lead after Sanders and Inman hit CU’s eighth and ninth 3-pointers of the half. Inman’s was his eighth. USD couldn’t score after Inman’s make, and Colorado made enough free throws to secure the win.
Quotes
- HC Tad Boyle on leadership: “That's the challenge I've given Barrington this year. Barrington has the respect of our team in the locker room. He's got the respect of our team on the court. Everybody likes Barrington. He's a great teammate. So he needs to learn how to open up his mouth. If you're not doing it yourself, then you might want to keep your mouth shut. But you might want to talk about it in the huddles. You might want to talk about it in the timeouts. You might, and I said the same thing to Noah today at the pregame meal. ‘Noah, I just told you you're the best defender we got. You need to open up your mouth and demand that your teammates are playing to the same standard defensively that you are, because that's what leaders do.’ Now, if you just shut up and just keep doing what you're doing, you're a good defender. But you're not demanding it from your teammates. We have to. That's where accountability and peer pressure [come in]/ They've got to get on each other. Not necessarily from a negative standpoint, but just from a ‘Hey, this is what we need from you.’ And because Barrington's smart, he understands. We got a lot of smart players on this team. We had a few that maybe aren't quite as smart right now. But again, that's my job. That's our job as a coaching staff to help them understand whatever it is that they need to understand. But it's early November. Every team has got issues right now. Every team's got a handful of things they have to get better at. We're no different, and there were some we identified tonight, and we're going to work on those in practice. I told our team, ‘You tell me what we got to work on in practice.’ So I'll look at this film, you know, tonight, tomorrow, and then Thursday's practice, we'll work on whatever this film tells me we need to work on, and then we got to get ready for Providence, who's really talented.”
- G Barrington Hargress on the defensive improvements: “We finally started paying attention to the scout. I think what really kept this team in the game was we weren't very good with our scouting reports. It was just letting shooters shoot, letting drivers get open lanes and drive. So really, when we locked in down the stretch, it allowed us to separate and get those kills, and then allow us to really get the lead and ultimately pull out with the game.”
- G Ian Inman on Noah Feddersen: “Noah been doin this. We practice every day. He sometimes shoots the ball better than me, so he's a shooter too.”
What’s next
Colorado heads to Providence (2-1) at 4 p.m. MT on Nov. 14. Peacock will broadcast the contest.
Players Mentioned
Coaches Mentioned
