Following an ugly, one-sided loss to the Utah Utes, during which the Colorado Buffaloes failed to lead for even a second, Tad Boyle’s squad bounced back and won a tightly contested slobber-knocker on the road.

Both teams delivered a barrage of haymakers to their opponent throughout the rest of the game, as each unit experienced its own sets of runs and spurts, and yet no matter how many bone-cracking blows connected, the two sides remained standing, still firing away.

Tristan Da Silva got the scoring started, with a tough shot inside for the Colorado Buffaloes, but Arizona State quickly uncorked an 8-0 run, which put them in the driver’s seat for much of the first chunk of the game, and continued the Buffs’ trend of struggling to produce on offense early in contests.

Luke O’Brien, who was making his second start of the season, stirred Colorado’s offense awake with a big three, which was compounded by a three from Da Silva, to tighten the gap and spur the competitive brawl that raged on for the ensuing hours.

Arizona State’s early control of the game was driven largely by a level of carelessness from the Colorado Buffaloes. As Arizona State once again expanded the lead, this time to 20-14, they were fueled by CU turnovers and open three-point shots, as there were four of each just five minutes into this showing.

As the Buffaloes looked to hang shot-for-shot with the Sun Devils, Julian Hammond continued to offer valuable scoring contributions off the bench, as he went two-for-two during this stretch to help CU hold serve and bring them within two points, with seven minutes left to go in the first half.

Turnovers once again allowed Arizona State’s lead to balloon back up to eight, before K.J. Simpson decided to take over the game, and scored six of his own (including a half-ending, buzzer-beating three-pointer) to help the Buffaloes close the half on an 8-0 run that knotted the scoreboard up at the intermission.

For as frustrating as Colorado’s trend of sluggish starts has been this season, their ability to consistently catch fire and flip the game on its heels as halftime approaches is equally as impressive.

Then, as the second half got underway, it was once again Julian Hammond and Luke O’Brien coming to the rest, as that pair hit two three-pointers early in the second frame, to help give the Colorado Buffaloes their first lead of the game, at 44-42.

Unfortunately, that lead was short-lived. The moment the Colorado Buffaloes extended it to three points, at 47-44, Arizona State Sun Devil legend James Harden entered Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, and the momentum swung dramatically.

Tad Boyle was soon on the wrong side of a 7-0 run, and back in a multiple-possession hole, with eight minutes on the clock, but the Buffs never wavered.

Tristan Da Silva connected on a three, and then Javon Ruffin connected on a pair of shots from behind the arc, while the CU defense hung tough, and the Buffs flipped the game back in their favor with just three minutes to go.

The offense continued to sputter due to their inability to find consistent looks and kept the door open for ASU to have multiple looks at tying the game up, or even taking the lead, but Da Silva finally delivered the dagger three-point shot with 1:09 left.

That shot not only won the game for the Buffaloes, and snapped the team’s six-game road losing streak but it also secured Da Silva his sixth 20-plus point game in his last seven outings.

As always seems to be the case in the Colorado Buffaloes’ wins, Da Silva (23 pts, 4 rebs, 1 ast on 50/86/43 splits) and Simpson (12 pts, 6 rebs, 3 asts) led the way, and they got valuable contributions from their bench.

O’Brien, being called up to start, was the team’s leading rebounder (10) and helped space the floor for Colorado with his 40-percent hit rate from three. Ruffin was the team’s second-best rebounder (seven) and fueled the Buffaloes’ late surge for the lead.

It was an excellent display of the type of team CU has to be if they want to make any amount of noise down the stretch this season. Now, we’ll have to see if they can carry it into their matchup with No. 8 Arizona, on Saturday night.