BOULDER — Nique Clifford heard the boos every time he touched the ball on Saturday night.

The former middling starter for Tad Boyle’s Buffs, Clifford is now a star for Niko Medved’s Rams in his fifth season of college basketball. He’s turned into legitimate NBA prospect, but his long-awaited return to the CU Events Center didn’t exactly go as planned.

The Colorado Springs native had his worst night of the young season — 10 points on 4-for-15 shooting from the field to go with two turnovers and just one assists — and one of his worst since making the move to Fort Collins 18 months ago.

The game, a 72-55 blowout win for Colorado, felt eerily similar to the last time these two teams met in Boulder — back when Clifford was still a Buff and a similar battle between two seemingly evenly matched teams ended up in a big win for Boyle’s team.

It was one he felt his team desperately needed after some uneven home performances early in the season.

“Really a step in the right direction tonight for our team, our program,” Boyle said. “I thought we brought the fight to Colorado State from the get go. The job that Andrej Jakimovski did on Nique Clifford was great. It wasn’t just one person, but Andrej did a great job getting through screens and making him work for everything he’s got because Nique has turned into a hell of a player.

“There’s no doubt about it, he’s talented.”

Clifford played a big part in CSU’s 88-83 win over CU last season at Moby Arena, but his old team — and the fans who cheered him on for three seasons — got the last laugh.

“It’s kinda funny,” senior guard Julian Hammond III, one of the few remaining CU players who played with Clifford, said. “It is crazy, but we saw Lawson (Lovering) get booed really, really badly last year when he was here (with Utah).”

While the Rams were left with some soul searching to do in their final few games before Mountain West play begins, the Buffs were given the blueprint for how this year’s team will be successful.

It’s not a surprise for a team that had three players drafted into the NBA in the offseason, but there are no stars on this CU roster. It’s a deep group of capable, talented players. RJ Smith played well in his first career start. Bangot Dak had a career-high 16 points in 18 minutes off the bench. Trevor Baskin once again did a little bit of everything with 9 points and 11 rebounds.

There is a high-quality Big 12 team in that Buffs locker room somewhere; Boyle just has to continue to find the right combination on a nightly basis — something that’s easier said than done in the league CU will be welcomed back into later this month.

“It’s gonna be interesting. I know who we open up with (Iowa State). We just got spanked by them in Maui,” Boyle said, referring to the blowout loss to the Cyclones last month.

“I think this team can play with anyone in the country on any given night — in stretches. You can’t rest on your laurels in this business. You got to build on the things that you just did well. We can’t take a step backwards.”

GAME RECAP

Colorado 72, Colorado State 55

What happened: The Buffaloes (7-2) routed the Rams (5-4) for the second straight meeting in Boulder as Tad Boyle’s team used a dominant first half and an impressive defensive effort to cruise to the win on Saturday night at the CU Events Center. CU held CSU to just 31% shooting from the field as a team, leading by as many as 26 points in what is the Buffs’ 93rd win all-time from the team from Fort Collins.

Start of the night: Bangot Dak was touted as a potential breakout star for the Buffs in the preseason, but the sophomore big man struggled coming out of the gates as he adjusted to a much more expanded role. Dak had a career-high 16 points on an efficient 7-for-8 shooting from the field as he led the Buffs in scoring in 18 minutes off the bench.

Quotable: “I really thought we were gonna play well here tonight. I thought we were in a pretty good place. I thought our preparation was good. Quickly, things snowballed and you could see quickly that we were not able to execute on either end of the floor. When the game started to get away from us, instead of having the maturity to pull back in, it just kinda compounded itself.” — CSU coach Niko Medved 

Up next: Both teams have two nonconference games left before conference play begins. CU remains at home to face South Dakota State on Friday at 7 p.m. with coverage on ESPN+. CSU has a neutral site game against VCU next Saturday in Henderson, Nev., with coverage on Baller TV.