Tad Boyle has said throughout the season’s early stages he’d prefer his new-look team to learn through winning. Colorado no longer has that luxury. The Buffaloes suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday in a rivalry battle at Colorado State that was loaded with spirit, energy and offe nsive fireworks, yet thin on anything resembling defense. The same could be said of both sides, but it was the Buffs on the wrong end of a 91-86 decision, an outcome that resulted from CU’s inability to follow the defensive script against a very good 3-point team in CSU. The Rams finished 18-for-35 from the arc. CSU guard Josh Pascarelli went 8-for-10, giving him a ridiculous 16-for-18 mark from long range in the past two games. Yet Pascarelli’s 8-for-8 3-point performance in CSU’s previous game, a neutral-floor win against South Florida, helps explain the root of Boyle’s postgame frustrations. It was no secret the Rams take, and make, a high volume of 3-pointers. And CU didn’t take away the arc at any point. “What’s frustrating to me is we came back and took control of the game,” Boyle said of an 18-1 run that gave CU the first of three late four-point leads. “One thing I’ll say about this about our guys’ competitive spirit and toughness is it’s there. You don’t come back in an environment like this and take the lead. But we can’t sustain it because we can’t get stops. “We got nothing down the stretch. You get a kill (three straight stops) down the stretch, you win this game. But we’re not able to do it.” While the performance at CSU marked a new defensive low for the Buffs, it only magnified the defensive lapses that have plagued CU throughout the season. Often, CU’s dynamic offense has glossed over the defensive shortcomings. But that wasn’t the case at CSU, which became the fourth opponent in nine games to shoot at least 51% against the Buffs. Shooting .621, committing only six turnovers and scoring 86 points almost always is a recipe for success. But even those impressive numbers weren’t enough to overcome the Rams’ 18 3-pointers. “We just weren’t locked-in on the scout,” CU freshman guard Isaiah Johnson said. “Coach told us before the game to take away 3-pointers and we just didn’t execute that.” Colorado (8-1) will have ample practice time in the coming weeks to try to iron out the porous defense before the start of Big 12 Conference play. After playing the first nine games of the season in a little less than five weeks, the game schedule slows somewhat over the next month. Following the CSU game, the Buffs play their final four nonconference games over a span of 27 days before visiting Arizona State for the Big 12 opener on Jan. 3. That run begins on Saturday at home against Texas-San Antonio (2 p.m., ESPN+). “You always try to build on the positive things and improve the negative,” Boyle said. “But the problem is the negative have been with us now for quite some time. And I’m not saying we haven’t made incremental improvements. But we’re not where we need to be collectively in terms of our pride.” ...read more read less