Fast break
Why the Buffs lost: CU was outrebounded for the first time this season and committed a season-high 18 turnovers.
Three stars
1. Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie. The freshman sensation returned from a two-game injury absence to go 18-for-21 on free throws with 32 points and 11 rebounds.
2. CU’s Barrington Hargress. One of the few bright spots for the Buffs, Hargress went 7-for-10 with a team-high 16 points. Hargress also had six assists.
3. Stanford’s Benny Gealer. Went 3-for-5 on 3-pointers and 4-for-4 at the free throw line, finishing with 13 points, four rebounds and three steals.
Up next: CU will take the bulk of the upcoming week off before reconvening in Boulder ahead of the nonconference finale against Northern Colorado on Dec. 28.
PHOENIX — With the semester break in full swing, the Colorado men’s basketball team traveled to Phoenix one day earlier than it normally would for a road trip to escape the brutal winds that have been pummeling the Front Range.
The extra day in the desert heat didn’t prevent the Buffaloes from going ice cold. Or from getting pummeled by Stanford.
CU suffered through its worst turnover game of the season, was outrebounded for the first time this season, and endured a cold-shooting second half. It all proved far too much to overcome, as the Buffs suffered a 77-68 defeat against Stanford on Saturday night in the Naismith Hall of Fame Series.
The Buffs had won the final seven matchups against the Cardinal before the programs left the Pac-12 Conference, but it was Stanford that prevailed in the teams’ first neutral-floor matchup in 74 years.
CU had outrebounded nine of its first 11 foes and were even on the glass in the other two, but Stanford posted a 35-28 rebounding advantage despite the Buffs owning a plus-four rebounding edge at halftime.
“We got punked tonight. I don’t think there’s any other way you can say it,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “You don’t have to look at anything more than just the rebounding column to see why Stanford won and Colorado lost. Really disappointing. I’ve been saying this for while, we’ve been just trying to outscore people all year long. And we’ve done a good job of that for the most part. Until we have the mindset and the toughness to grind out a game like this…we’re not there yet, because we can’t guard and we can’t rebound.”
Stanford had only three offensive rebounds at halftime but added nine more in the second half, which was two more than CU recorded for the entire game. Stanford became the fifth team in the past seven games to record at least 10 offensive rebounds against the Buffs, and that led to a 12-9 advantage on second-chance points.
CU also committed a season-high 18 turnovers, getting whistled for three traveling calls in the first half to dampen what otherwise was a strong opening frame for the Buffs, who shot .519 before halftime while taking a 35-33 lead at the break. The Cardinal finished with a lopsided 23-6 advantage on points off turnovers.
“We stopped getting stops and we let their shooters get active,” CU point guard Barrington Hargress said. “And then just turning the ball over. It created a disaster and we didn’t respond. It was a snowball effect of things that we let avalanche.”
Stanford put together separate runs of 9-0 and 10-0 after halftime to gradually pull away from CU, which shot .429 in the second half while going 2-for-11 on 3-pointers. The Buffs finished with a season-low 3-point percentage of .235 (4-for-17).
Despite comments this week from Stanford coach Kyle Smith indicating star freshman Ebuka Okorie wouldn’t return from an injury absence until after Christmas, Okorie was in the starting lineup for the Cardinal after missing the previous two games. Okorie made the Buffs pay, hitting a pair of early 3-pointers and finishing 18-for-21 on free throws while recording with a game-high 32 points. That total was the most by a CU foe this season.
Hargress was one of the few bright spots offensively for the Buffs, as he went 7-for-10 with 16 points and six assists, although he matched a season-high with four turnovers.
“We planned for him playing. We planned for him not playing,” Boyle said. “We were prepared either way. He’s a good player, obviously.”
Stanford 77, Colorado 68
STANFORD (10-2)
Okpara 3-12 4-10 11, Rohosy 2-3 0-2 4, Agarwal 1-6 0-0 3, Gealer 3-7 4-4 13, Okorie 6-13 18-21 32, Cammann 1-2 2-4 4, Giltay 4-4 0-0 8, Dent-Smith 1-5 0-0 2, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-52 28-41 77.
COLORADO (10-2)
Dak 2-6 4-4 8, Rancik 4-11 4-4 14, Malone 2-4 0-0 4, Hargress 7-10 1-1 16, Kossaras 1-2 0-0 2, Johnson 4-6 2-3 11, Michaeli 3-9 0-0 6, Holland 3-5 1-1 7, Sanders 0-2 0-0 0, Ifaola 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-55 12-13 68.
Halftime: Colorado 35-33. 3-point field goals: Stanford 7-21 (Gealer 3-5, Okorie 2-5, Agarwal 1-3, Okpara 1-5, Dent-Smith 0-3); Colorado 4-17 (Rancik 2-4, Hargress 1-2, Johnson 1-2, Kossaras 0-1, Malone 0-1, Sanders 0-1, Dak 0-2, Holland 0-2, Michaeli 0-2). Rebounds: Stanford 32 (Okpara, Rohosy, Agarwal, Giltay 5); Colorado 28 (Rancik 8). Assists: Stanford 11 (Dent-Smith 3); Colorado 15 (Hargress 6). Turnovers: Stanford 9 (Cammann 3); Colorado 18 (Dak 5). Total fouls: Stanford 19, Colorado 24.
