INDIANAPOLIS — Colorado fought back from a 12-point first-half deficit to tie the game with three minutes remaining Sunday, but the Buffaloes came up short down the stretch and dropped an 81-77 loss to Marquette in the NCAA Tournament second round.

Tad Boyle‘s Buffs thus saw their season come to an end with a 26-11 record while Marquette improved to 27-9 and advanced to a Sweet 16 matchup against North Carolina State.

KJ Simpson led CU with 20 points. Tristan da Silva scored 17, Eddie Lampkin Jr. added 13 and Cody Williams chipped in 12.

Tyler Kolek led Marquette with 21 points.

“Another good game in March,” Boyle said. “Unfortunately we came up on the short end of it tonight, unlike the other night (a 102-100 win over Florida). But give Marquette credit. They played well.”

CU trailed by 11 at the half, 45-34, after the Golden Eagles shot 68% from the floor.

But the Buffs battled back, putting together a 10-2 run to open the second half and finally taking their first lead of the game, 55-54, on a Simpson 3-pointer at the 14:41 mark. Marquette regained the lead but the Buffs stayed within range and tied the game at 74-74 on a da Silva 3-pointer with three minutes to play.

That, though, was as close as CU could come. Marquette took a 3-point lead with 54 seconds remaining, then hit two free throws with 7 seconds on the clock to take a four-point edge and seal the win.

The Buffs shot a respectable 47% from the floor but hit just 10 of their 30 3-point tries — a season-high for 3-point attempts. Marquette finished 34-for-55 from the floor (62%) and made 9 of 21 3-point tries.

The big difference came in the paint, where the Golden Eagles outscored the Buffs, 48-36.

“We didn’t have much of an answer for them defensively all night,” Boyle said. “I would just say that when a team shoots 61 percent against you for the game, almost 62 percent, and you’ve still got a chance at the end, it means you’re doing something right. For this team, what that means to me is they’ve been competing their tails off the whole year because you don’t give up 61 percent and stay in a game. But we rebounded the ball well, we fought, we battled, we just came up a little bit short.”

While the Buffs didn’t advance to the Sweet 16, they did win back-to-back NCAA Tournament games for the first time since 1955. Colorado also finished with a program-record 26 wins.

“I thought we had our chances at the end,” Boyle said. “Had some good looks, didn’t go in. It’s disappointing. But I love this team, I love those guys in that locker room. They’ve got nothing to hang their heads about. They competed their tails off, not just here in Indianapolis but in Dayton the other night, in the Pac-12 tournament, since basically the middle of February. Great year, 26 wins. Something to be proud of.”

HOW IT HAPPENED:  Colorado trailed the entire first half as the Golden Eagles shot 68 percent from the floor to take a 45-34 lead into the break.

The Buffs, though, came out firing to start the second half. Da Silva and Simpson hit early 3-pointers to pull the Buffs within three, 47-44, and they finally took their first lead of the game when Simpson hit CU’s fifth straight 3-pointer of the half for a 55-54 lead at the 14:41 mark.

“We knew we weren’t playing our best game (in the first half),” da Silva said. “It kind of felt like we were supposed to be down 20 or 25 the way we were playing. We kind of had a sense or had a feeling that it was in our hands to kind of turn this game around, and we had all the confidence to come out in the second half and battle the way we did.”

Marquette regained the lead with an 8-2 spurt for a 62-57 edge but the Buffaloes fought back to tie it again. J’Vonne Hadley scored inside, Williams hit a 3-pointer from the wing and a da Silva drive knotted the game at 64-64 with 9:34 to play.

“We just all had the mentality of, ‘I’m not giving up,'” Simpson said. “We’ve done that throughout the whole year. We’ve shown that throughout the whole year. That was just the mindset, that we can go out there and we can still come back and never give up and never give up on the effort.”

Marquette then rebuilt a five-point lead but the Buffs answered one more time with a 7-2 run. Lampkin scored inside off a feed from Hadley, Cody Williams hit a short jumper and da Silva drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key — his 15th points of the second half — to tie the game at 74-74 with three minutes to play.

Marquette came out of a timeout with a 3-pointer before Simpson answered with a drive inside to cut MU’s lead to 77-76. The two teams then traded turnovers and empty possessions before Marquette’s Tyler Kolek scored from the lane to give the Golden Eagles a three-point lead with 54 seconds on the clock.

After a timeout, CU’s Williams hit one of two free throws with 21 seconds left to shave the deficit to two.

But the Buffs, with only three fouls in the half, had to waste precious seconds to commit four straight fouls and get Marquette to the line. They finally accomplished the goal with 7.4 seconds remaining, but Marquette’s David Joplin hit two free throws to give the Golden Eagles a four-point lead, 81-77.

A Simpson 3-pointer at the buzzer then drew iron and the Buffs saw their season come to an end.

“I told our team in the locker room after the game we had chances to win that game,” Boyle said. “Had good looks, just didn’t make them. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes basketball becomes a make-miss game … Our guys competed, and the way they came out in the second half, you saw it, we’ve done that before. We were down 16 at USC, came back and won. We were down to a really, really good Marquette team tonight, came back and took the lead twice, but we couldn’t ever string together enough stops when we took the lead to expand on it … Again, I’m proud of these guys. Their competitive spirit and effort is second to none.”

The Golden Eagles jumped out to an early lead and forced the Buffaloes to play catch-up the rest of the half.

 The Buffs trailed 12-5 less than five minutes in and the Golden Eagles pushed their cushion to double digits with 11:36 till to play in the first half. Two quick buckets sandwiched around a CU turnover gave Marquette a 22-11 lead and the Buffaloes called time out.

The Eagles maintained their edge over the next six minutes, hitting all 10 of their first 10 2-point tries and adding three 3-pointers to take a 37-27 lead with less than five minutes to play in the half.

Colorado did manage to briefly shave the deficit to six late in the half. Hadley hit a 3-pointer and Williams scored back-to-back baskets to pull the Buffs to within 40-34.

But the Eagles answered with the final five points of the half, including their sixth 3-pointer, to take a 45-34 lead into the break.

DECISIVE STRETCH: Colorado trailed by just one, 77-76, with 2:37 remaining. But the Buffs came up empty on two straight possessions and the Golden Eagles pushed their edge to three with 54 seconds remaining. CU’s Williams then hit just one of two free throw tries and Marquette finally sealed the win with two free throws with seven seconds remaining.

WHAT IT MEANS: While the Buffs didn’t advance to the Sweet 16, they did win back-to-back NCAA Tournament games for the first time since 1955. CU also finished with a program-record 26 wins.

KEY STATISTICS: The Buffs shot a 47% from the floor but hit just 10 of their 30 3-point tries — a season-high for 3-point attempts … Marquette finished 34-for-55 from the floor (62%) and made 9 of 21 3-point tries … The Golden Eagles outscored the Buffs, 48-36, in the paint.

NEXT UP: The loss ended Colorado’s season.

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Story by Neill Woelk, Contributing Editor for CUBuffs.com. Content courtesy of the University of Colorado at Boulder.