Quick break
Why the Buffs won: CU tied a season high with 11 made 3-pointers and held Oklahoma State to a .303 shooting percentage in the second half.
Three stars
1. Barrington Hargres. Led CU’s offense to perfection, going 3-for-6 on 3-pointers with 16 points, eight assists, four rebounds and three steals.
2. Bangot Dak. Went 5-for-8 from the field and 6-for-7 on free throws before finishing with a team-high 17 points and seven rebounds.
3. Sebastian Rancik. Didn’t have his best shooting performance, finishing 3-for-9, but he grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds for his third double-digit rebound total in the past four games.
Next: The Buffs host Kansas State in the penultimate home game of the regular season Wednesday (7 p.m., Fox Sports 1).
Colorado has been below its best several times in recent weeks. In most of those cases, the Buffaloes were defeated accordingly.
Still, the CU men’s basketball team may have turned a corner on Saturday. The Buffs were certainly not at their best, but they were more than good enough to keep the good atmosphere going at home.
The Buffaloes squandered a big lead in the first half but didn’t ruin their recent home momentum, defeating Oklahoma State 83-69 in a Big 12 Conference battle at the CU Events Center. It was the third home win in a row for the Buffs.
“If you’re not playing your best and you can come out of a Big 12 game with a double-digit win, you feel pretty good. Take it and move on,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “We have the ability to play so much better than we played on Saturday. Take it. Move on. We have to continue to learn and grow with this young team.”
The Buffs matched a season high with 11 made three-pointers and used 10 offensive rebounds to post a 12-8 edge on second-chance points.
Still, it was certainly not a flawless performance for the Buffs. Oklahoma State defeated CU 39-36. Two of the Buffs’ 12 turnovers occurred on errant inbounds passes under their own basket, resulting in fast breaks the other way for Oklahoma State, giving the Cowboys four points. CU twice fouled Oklahoma State on three-point attempts, leading to five additional points for OSU.
The Buffs countered these mistakes with one of their best defensive performances of Big 12 play. Oklahoma State shot .303 after halftime and finished with a .377, the second-lowest shooting percentage this season among CU’s conference opponents. The Cowboys finished just 5-for-23 on 3-pointers, and the Buffs held OSU leading scorer Anthony Roy, who entered the game averaging 17.5 points, to a season-low six points with an 0-for-7 mark on 3-pointers.
“We were really proud of getting Anthony Roy from the three-point line,” CU guard Barrington Hargress said. “That was a big thing from us, and we just made it a tough, physical game, knowing that they were going to try to go downhill and get into the paint.”
CU used a 20-2 run to build a 17-point lead in the first half, but OSU cut the margin to 42-34 at halftime. The Cowboys then opened the second half on a 14–5 run to take a one-point lead, and the game was tied 53–53 before the Buffs retook the lead for good with eight straight points, with Ian Inman scoring the first five before fellow freshman Isaiah Johnson added a 3-pointer.
Oklahoma State stayed within four points with about 10 minutes to play, but five straight points from CU’s Bangot Dak, followed by a layup by Hargress against Alon Michaeli, sparked a 15-4 run for the Buffs.
“We kind of limped into halftime, and they came out in the first four minutes (after halftime) and took it to us and took the lead. Then we finally woke up,” Boyle said. “I don’t know what to testify about this other than we stringed together a bunch of stops. We did a better job in the second half of understanding who the shooters were and who the drivers were. It was critical to keep Roy, who is a great shooter, from three to 0-of-7.”
Colorado 83, Oklahoma State 69
OKLAHOMA STATE (16-11, 4-10 Big 12)
Fallah 4-9 6-9 14, Clary 2-2 3-3 8, I.Coleman 2-7 1-4 5, C.Coleman 5-11 0-0 11, Miller 2-9 5-5 11, Roy 3-10 0-0 6, Curry 2-6 0-0 4, Vukovic 2-5 3-4 7, Crotty 1-2 0-0 3, Ahmed 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-61 18-25 69.
COLORADO (15-12, 5-9)
Dak 5-8 6-7 17, Rancik 3-9 0-0 7, Hargress 5-10 3-3 16, Johnson 3-11 1-2 9, Sanders 3-5 1-2 8, Michaeli 5-8 0-0 12, Holland 2-4 0-1 4, Inman 2-4 3-3 8, Malone 1-2 0-0 2, Ifaola 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-61 14-18 83.
Rest: Colorado 42-34. 3-point field goals: Oklahoma State 5-23 (Miller 2-6, Clary 1-1, Crotty 1-2, C.Coleman 1-3, I.Coleman 0-1, Vukovic 0-1, Curry 0-2, Roy 0-7); Colorado 11-27 (Hargress 3-6, Michaeli 2-2, Johnson 2-6, Sanders 1-1, Dak 1-2, Inman 1-3, Rancik 1-6, Netherlands 0-1). Failed: Malone. Rebounds: Oklahoma State 39 (C.Coleman 9); Colorado 36 (Rancik 10). Assists: Oklahoma State 8 (Miller 3); Colorado 20 (Hargres 8). Turnovers: Oklahoma State 15 (Miller 4); Colorado 12 (Johnson 3). Total errors: State of Oklahoma 15, Colorado 17; A: 6,771.
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