Colorado grinds out victory over Boise State in First Four - ESPN

DAYTON, Ohio — As an ugly game at UD Arena swayed back and forth, Colorado seemed likely to finish on the wrong end of it.

All-Pac-12 guard KJ Simpson couldn't hit a shot. The Buffaloes continued to let Boise State grab offensive rebounds. The Broncos, 0-9 in NCAA tournament games, were far from impressive but had built a four-point lead with 5:35 to play. An elusive March win was finally in sight.

Colorado coach Tad Boyle called a timeout.

«KJ was really positive, which I thought was great because you need that positivity in the NCAA tournament when you go down four late,» Boyle said. «And we got five straight stops in a row.»

Stunning defense and newfound shot-making tilted the game one final time in Colorado's favor. The 10th-seeded Buffaloes dominated the final stanza against fellow No. 10 seed Boise State, winning 60-53 in a First Four matchup on Wednesday night.

Colorado advanced in the South region and will face No. 7 seed Florida on Friday afternoon in Indianapolis.

«It's just all about having short-term memory,» Simpson said. «You build that with experience. Sometimes the ball's not going to go in the basket, but there's so much more to basketball than just offense.»

Simpson rebounded his miss and scored with 5:18 left, which Boise State coach Leon Rice called «a huge, huge play.» Simpson scored 10 of his 19 points down the stretch, and Colorado held Boise State scoreless for more than four minutes.

«He always figures out a different way to score even if it's not shooting,» center Eddie Lampkin Jr. said of Simpson, who added a team-high 11 rebounds. «If he'll be a leader, we'll win a lot of games, and that's what he's been.»

Lampkin, Colorado's energy source in the post, had 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting, none