Fast break

Why the Buffs lost: A slow start was too much to overcome, as CU allowed Texas Tech to shoot .472 in the first half.

Three stars

1. Texas Tech’s JT Toppin. Texas Tech’s reigning Big 12 Player of the Year posted his second double-double in as many games against the Buffs, finishing with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

2. Texas Tech’s Donovan Atwell. Hit five 3-pointers, the second-most by a CU foe this season, and recorded a team-leading 17 points alongside four assists.

3. CU’s Isaiah Johnson. The freshman guard helped spark CU’s second-half comeback, as Johnson went 13-for-13 on free throws before finishing with a game-high 21 points.

Up next: The Buffs hit the road for a pair of Big 12 games beginning Wednesday at Cincinnati (5 p.m. MT, Peacock).

With a raucous crowd on its feet and getting loud, and with the final seconds ticking away, Barrington Hargress raised up for what would have been one of the most memorable buzzer-beaters in Colorado history.

The shot went awry, dooming the Buffaloes to defeat. Yet the fact the CU men’s basketball team was even in that position felt like a minor miracle.

Colorado put on a frantic second-half rally that very nearly toppled one of the top teams in the rugged Big 12 Conference. Instead, No. 14 Texas Tech escaped with a 73-71 victory on Saturday at the CU Events Center, ruining a comeback that saw the Buffs go from trailing by 24 points in the second half to having a chance to win at the buzzer.

It as the Buffs’ ninth consecutive loss against an Associated Press Top 25 team, and their sixth consecutive home loss against a ranked foe. That’s the program’s longest streak of home losses against ranked teams since CU lost six straight during the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.

“I’d love to have that one back. But life doesn’t work like that,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “But I’m really proud of this team for the comeback that they made, the heart that they showed down the stretch and the grit, the toughness. The question that I ask myself and I’ve got to ask them, where was that for 40 minutes? In these 40-minute games, we just have too many lulls.

“We showed grit. We showed toughness. In stretches. But we have too many lulls. And good teams can’t have those lulls.”

In a contest that featured wildly dramatic momentum shifts from start to finish, it was the Buffs who delivered the opening salvo, making five of their first seven shots to help pave the way for an early 16-9 lead. CU still led 18-14 when the Red Raiders took over, outscoring the Buffs 29-9 over the remainder of the first half to take a 43-27 lead at the break.

Boyle cited the beginning of the second half as another significant lull for the Buffs defensively, as Texas Tech scored seven points after the break, eventually pushing its lead to 58-34 with 13 minutes, 39 seconds remaining.

“I thought our defensive energy coming out of halftime was awful,” Boyle said. “I felt it in the locker room. I know we were down (16), but you’ve got to be ready to tear the nails out of the floor and come back and cut that thing to 10 at the first media timeout, or eight. And then get yourself back in the game. We didn’t do that until the end.”

Yet with the Buffs on the brink of getting run out of their own gym, they mounted a comeback. Three free throws by Isaiah Johnson, followed by consecutive inside buckets from Elijah Malone, began a 21-3 run by the Buffs that trimmed Texas Tech’s 24-point advantage to 61-55.

The Red Raiders immediately answered with five consecutive points to push their lead back to 11 points. CU trailed by five after a pair of Johnson free throws with 55.2 seconds left and, after forcing a Red Raiders turnover, Sebastian Rancik knocked down a 3-pointer off an inbounds play to rally the Buffs within two points.

CU notched one last defensive stop, but Hargress’ potential winner at the buzzer was well-contested and off-target.

Johnson went 13-for-13 on free throws, all in the second half, and led CU with 21 points.

“We talked about just getting stops, one possession at a time, taking our time,” Johnson said. “We showed the team we could be. So we’ve just got to be that for the full 40 minutes.”

No. 14 Texas Tech 73, Colorado 71

TEXAS TECH (12-4, 2-1 Big 12)

Toppin 7-14 2-3 16, Watts 5-14 0-0 11, Anderson 6-13 1-3 15, Atwell 6-15 0-0 17, Petty 3-8 0-0 8, Bryan 2-5 0-0 5, Horner 0-0 0-0 0, Akuentok 0-1 1-4 1. Totals 29-70 4-10 73.

COLORADO (12-4, 2-1)

Dak 2-6 1-2 5, Rancik 5-10 0-0 13, Malone 2-3 0-1 4, Hargress 6-13 4-4 17, Kossaras 1-1 0-0 2, Johnson 3-11 13-13 21, Michaeli 3-7 0-0 6, Sanders 1-7 1-2 3. Totals 23-58 19-22 71.

Halftime: Texas Tech 43-27. 3-point field goals: Texas Tech 11-31 (Atwell 5-13, Petty 2-5, Anderson 2-6, Watts 1-2, Bryan 1-4, Toppin 0-1); Colorado 6-21 (Rancik 3-6, Johnson 2-5, Hargress 1-4, Dak 0-2, Michaeli 0-2, Sanders 0-2). Rebounds: Texas Tech 46 (Toppin 13), Colorado 36 (Dak 13). Assists: Texas Tech 20 (Watts 6), Colorado 14 (Hargress 4). Turnovers: Texas Tech 9 (Watts 4); Colorado 7 (Rancik, Johnson 2). Total fouls: Texas Tech 20, Colorado 9. A: 8,232.