3 takeaways: Colorado basketball rides wave of Deion Sanders-feuled energy to roll rival CSU

BOULDER — The wave of energy slowly grew, starting before the game even tipped.

CU Events Center was a cauldron of energy from the minute the doors opened.

The Colorado crowd was primed for the rivalry renewal with Colorado State.

Waves of noise crested in the first half of an entertaining game.

Then the tsunami of energy truly came early in the second half.

The CU men’s basketball team surged to build a huge lead en route to a 93-65 win as new football coach Deion Sanders brought down the house with an appearance as the Buffs ran away with the game in front of more than 10,000 fans.

“We just completely had it handed to us here tonight," CSU coach Niko Medved said.

Here are three takeaways from the Rams' second loss in a row.

Out-everything’d

It can be too casual a crutch or cliche to say a team was out-toughed. But that was the case in this one.

Colorado (5-5) was dominant in the paint, on rebounds, on defense and, really, in every way.

CSU (6-4) averages 10 turnovers a game but the Rams had that many in the first half. Many were of the catastrophic variety and led straight to points.

The Rams shot 48% in the first half but still trailed by eight due to some careless ball-handling and passing.

It was tied late in the first half before a big closing sequence. CU switched to a zone, which disrupted CSU’s shooting, and the Rams allowed a 10-2 run to close the half.

The Rams led 22-18 at one point before turnovers led to fastbreaks and the game flipped quickly.

“Thought they kind of just really overwhelmed us with their pressure. I thought a lot of our turnovers led to touchdowns. We were never able to regroup. I thought their physicality really got to us," Medved said. "It started with three consecutive touchdowns. We just gave it to them — dunk, dunk, dunk. That really got them going."

Then the second half happened, too.

Big turnaround near the half

CU star guard KJ Simpson took over to start the second. He scored 10 points in the first 4:20 of the half, including missing a contested dunk but beating all CSU players to the rebound to grab the loose ball and hit a 3-pointer. And around the same time, Coach Prime entered and the noise just about lifted the lid off the stadium.

That was a microcosm of the game. CU made all the important plays.

Simpson finished with a game-high 27 points. Isaiah Stevens led CSU with 15 points.

The eight-point halftime lead quickly grew to 17, then to 29. It was never a single-digit game the entire second half after CU scored its first bucket out of the locker room. The Buffaloes scored a whopping 55 second-half points and shot 64% in the final 20 minutes.

CU outscored CSU 54-24 in the paint and out-rebounded the Rams 42-23.

"Our communication was terrible, our ball-screen defense was terrible, we didn’t guard the ball, we weren’t in the gaps," Medved said. "I could just go on and on. All of it as the game went on was really, really poor."

CSU seeking answers

In a vacuum, this loss isn’t a huge shock or a huge reason for alarm. CU was bound to play well in the fever-pitch of Deion-mania and a road win was going to be tough.

But it’s the way it happened and the fact that it followed CSU’s bad loss at home to Northern Colorado that creates concern.

It’s still relatively early in the season and there's time to turn things around, but there’s plenty of work to be done to figure things out.

“You can’t go out there and lose a game like this and say you’re not concerned. That would be pretty crazy to do that," Medved said. "Of course, when you go out there and lose a game the way we did, yeah you’re concerned. We should be concerned. I hope everybody is. The good news, we're 10 games in. You have a lot of basketball left to play still here, so let’s not write the story yet."

CSU hosts Peru State (2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11) in what should be an easy win, but then two tough games (Saint Mary's and USC) to end nonconference play. The Rams need much better play and results in those.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado basketball rolls rival CSU with Deion Sanders in the house