BUFFS BREAK LOSING STREAK WITH WIN OVER SAVANNAH STATE

Thursday, January 8

Boulder, Colo.

7:00 p.m.

Colorado

Savannah State

Photo by: Associated Press

BUFFS BREAK LOSING STREAK WITH WIN OVER SAVANNAH STATE

January 09, 2004 | Men's Basketball

By: Associated Press

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Michel Morandais scored 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting, leading Colorado to an 89-57 romp over Savannah State on Thursday night.

Jayson Obazuaye added a career-high 17 points and Blair Wilson 16 for Colorado (7-4), which snapped a three-game losing streak. David Harrison had 12 points and eight rebounds.

“This was a good win,” said head coach Ricardo Patton. “I felt like the guys came out and it looked like early it was going to be a two-point ball game, but then we got rolling. I told the guys we hadn't had a lot to laugh about ? smile about ? and we just wanted to come out and have fun.”

Savannah State (1-15), which dropped its 11th straight game, got 14 points from Jamal Daniels and 11 each from Donald Carson and P.L. Henderson.

Colorado outshot the Tigers 56 percent to 35 percent and outrebounded them 44-32.

Morandais scored 13 points in the first half as Colorado took a 43-25 halftime lead, outshooting Savannah 52 percent to 36 percent.

The Buffaloes scored 12 straight points, including 3-pointers by Morandais and Obazuaye, to produce an early 16-2 lead.

Savannah State responded with a 16-3 surge, including five points each by Daniels and Carson, to cut the deficit to 19-18 with 7:40 left in the half.

But Colorado scored the next seven points during a 24-7 run to close out the half.

Wilson had a pair of 3-pointers, and Harrison had back-to-back layups as Colorado quickly padded its lead to 37-21. After baskets by Daniels and Mike Mitchell, Colorado scored the last six points of the half, capped by Morandais' 3-pointer.

Savannah cut the deficit to 13 points on Daniels' short jumper early in the second half but got no closer.

Morandais scored six straight points to start a 21-6 run, and the Buffaloes led 71-41 with 8:28 remaining. Morandais had two free throws, a 17-foot jumper and a fastbreak slam dunk and later added two more free throws during the flurry.

The Buffs close out the non-conference season with a 7 p.m. tip Saturday night against Northern Colorado at home.

“We've got to continue to get batter,” Patton said. “We had 16 turnovers still and we gave up 15 offensive boards to a smaller team. We need to get better. We shot the ball well tonight ? we shot 55 percent and if we do that against Kansas, it's a different outcome. We need to do that against better teams. " We need to play this well when there's a little more weight on our ball.”