Fast break
Why the Buffs won: CU matched 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 Hargress. Directed 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 along with seven rebounds.
3. Sebastian Rancik. Didn’t have his best shooting performance, finishing 3-for-9, but he grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to post his third double-digit rebounding total in the past four games.
Up next: The Buffs host Kansas State in the next-to-last regular season home game Wednesday (7 p.m., Fox Sports 1).
Colorado has been less than its best several times in the past few weeks. In most of those cases, the Buffaloes were trounced accordingly.
Yet the CU men’s basketball team may have turned a corner Saturday. The Buffs certainly weren’t at their best, but they were more than good enough to keep the good vibes rolling at home.
The Buffaloes wasted a big first-half lead but didn’t ruin their recent home momentum, topping Oklahoma State 83-69 in a Big 12 Conference battle at the CU Events Center. It was the third consecutive win at home for the Buffs.
“When you don’t play your best and you can come out of a Big 12 game with a double-digit win, you feel pretty good. You take it and move on,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “We’ve got the ability to play so much better than we played (Saturday). You take it. You move on. We’ve got to keep learning and growing with this young team.”
The Buffs matched a season-high with 11 made 3-pointers and used 10 offensive rebounds to post a 12-8 edge on second-chance points.
Yet it certainly wasn’t a flawless performance for the Buffs. Oklahoma State outrebounded 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 that netted four points for the Cowboys. CU twice fouled Oklahoma State on 3-point attempts, leading to five extra points for OSU.
The Buffs countered those miscues with one of their top defensive performances of Big 12 play. Oklahoma State shot .303 after halftime and finished with a .377 mark, 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 really took pride in getting Anthony Roy off the 3-point line,” CU guard Barrington Hargress said. “That was a big thing of ours, and just making it a tough, physical game, understanding that they were going to try to get 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 with a 14-5 run to take a one-point lead, and the game was tied 53-53 before the Buffs recaptured the lead for good with eight consecutive points, with Ian Inman scoring the first five before fellow freshman Isaiah Johnson added a 3-pointer.
Oklahoma State remained within four points with about 10 minutes to play, but five straight points from CU’s Bangot Dak followed by a Hargress-to-Alon Michaeli layup capped 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 attest it to, other than stringing some stops together. We did a better job in the second half of understanding who were shooters and who were drivers. To hold Roy, who’s a hell of a shooter, to 0-for-7 from three was key.”
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.
Halftime: 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, Holland 0-1). Fouled out: Malone. Rebounds: Oklahoma State 39 (C.Coleman 9); Colorado 36 (Rancik 10). Assists: Oklahoma State 8 (Miller 3); Colorado 20 (Hargress 8). Turnovers: Oklahoma State 15 (Miller 4); Colorado 12 (Johnson 3). Total fouls: Oklahoma State 15, Colorado 17; A: 6,771.
