BOULDER — A nine-point win and a 34-point loss in the span of two weeks felt the exact same to Tad Boyle.

After the Colorado coach ranted about his team not deserving their charter flight home following a blowout loss at Texas Tech, Boyle talked about dodging bullets in his team’s 79-70 win over Kansas State on Wednesday night at the CU Events Center.

“The epitome of winning ugly, you saw it tonight on display,” Boyle said. “Not too happy about it. It’s my job to make sure we live in the truth. I call it like I see it. I feel tonight like I did after Texas Tech. We all know winning is important … but it’s how you win, it’s how you lose. It’s the way you play the game and that’s what our players have to understand. Tonight, we had some freshmen play like freshmen.”

With March just days away, though, that excuse doesn’t fly for these young Buffs. Dating back to last summer when they had 10 practices and a trip to Australia, Boyle doesn’t see his young team in the same light that he did back in December.

When they play well and jump out to big leads, like they did with a 19-point first-half lead and a 22-point lead over the Wildcats in the second half, he expects them to build on them and deliver a knockout blow.

That 22-point lead quickly became a three-point advantage before CU ultimately held K-State scoreless for the final two minutes and scored the final six points.

“We just don’t have that killer instinct that you gotta have in this league to put people away,” Boyle said. “I thought we should’ve learned that against Oklahoma State. We let the same thing happen, the way we finished that first half. It’s just unacceptable. We’ve still got a lot of room for improvement.”

It wasn’t just the fact that the Buffs nearly let such a big lead slip away, it’s the way it happened that most frustrated Boyle. They turned it over 17 times and had poor body language during the stretches where things weren’t going their way.

“The thing that made me want to puke tonight is the way our guys kinda reacted to unforced errors,” Boyle said. “They felt like the world owed them something. They started feeling sorry for themselves and there’s nothing that’s more sickening to my stomach than guys that feel sorry for themselves.

“Basketball is a game of runs, we all know that, but the good teams, from a defensive standpoint, they stop the runs. We gotta be more consistent and that’s one of the problems with this team.”

But even amid some of the struggles with consistency, the flashes this young group have displayed are undeniable. Wednesday’s win was the team’s fourth in a row in Boulder, a return to what Boyle has long expected from his teams at home. It was also their sixth in Big 12 play, doubling up last year’s win total in conference play with three games to go. 

This recent stretch has also been fueled by a freshman class that is boasting strong potential, should they all stick together.

Phenom Isaiah Johnson led the way with 18 points to go with nine rebounds and seven assists, both career highs, while Ian Inman scored a career-high 17 points off the bench and the likes of Josiah Sanders, Jalin Holland and Alon Michaeli all played key minutes.

“We’ve been through a lot,” Johnson said. “Some of us were thrown into the fire early and some have come along, like Ian (Inman). We’ve grown together. We experienced a lot being in tough road games. That’s something that you can’t teach. You have to experience it.”

Boyle just hopes they don’t need too many more examples like Wednesday night’s. Maybe next time, that 22-point lead will turn into a 20-point win or bigger.

“We dodged a bullet tonight,” Boyle said. 

GAME RECAP

Colorado 79, Kansas State 70

What happened: The Buffaloes (16-12, 6-9 Big 12) won a fourth straight home game, holding off the Wildcats (11-17, 2-13) to double their conference win total from a season ago. Tad Boyle played six freshmen and zero seniors and got important production off the bench, led by Ian Inman’s career-high 17 points on 5-for-7 shooting from 3-point range.

Star of the night: Isaiah Johnson flirted with a triple-double as he continued his stellar freshman season, leading the Buffs with a team-high 18 points to go with nine rebounds and seven assists, both career highs.

Quotable: “I hate replay. I hate it. Just play the game. The game’s played by humans, it’s coached and officiated by humans. Our game has become so technology-driven and that’s what great about sports, sports have nothing to do with technology. Play the damn game, officiate the game. Bunch of hogwash.” — Boyle on the many stoppages and length of the game 

Up next: CU hits the road for arguably its toughest away game of the season on Saturday at Houston (10 a.m. ESPN2).