Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
12-13, 3-8
Oklahoma
13-12, 4-7
Buffs Regroup, Break Four-Game Losing Streak
February 17, 2010 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Searching for something to help them snap a four-game losing streak, the Colorado Buffaloes found it with their legs Wednesday night. Good hands, smart decisions and a shot of late resolve helped a bit, too.
Pushing the tempo whenever possible, CU ushered Oklahoma out of the Coors Events Center with a 77-67 Big 12 Conference win that could prove critical for the Buffs in their tenuous run to make a postseason tournament.
"It was huge for us," junior Cory Higgins said of the win. "We let a couple of (games) slip away these past couple of weeks. It helps us to feel good about ourselves and get another win under our belt."
His coach, Jeff Bzdelik, credited the victory to "just a really solid team performance . . . and our student body was a part of that," once again acknowledging a CU student corps that finally seems to be warming to men's hoops.
The Buffs (12-13 overall, 3-8 Big 12) entered the game having lost four straight and seven of their past eight games. But in the Sooners (13-12, 4-7), Bzdelik saw an opponent he believed his team could outrun - especially at altitude.
"They're a team with big, wide bodies . . . and we felt like we could beat them down the court and create some advantages and wear on them," he said.
"That's really an important part of how we can be successful at home. If we can rebound, we're pretty good in the open court."
OU coach Jeff Capel, now 3-2 against CU, said the Buffs' up-tempo strategy worked: "They got away in transition and got some easy baskets - and really put us on our heels."
Usually accustomed to losing the board battle, the Buffs broke even (33-33) against the physically imposing Sooners. And that helped CU score its 22 fast-break points.
Bzdelik also pointed to only seven turnovers and 19 assists on his team's 28 field goals - numbers that helped four Buffs reach double figures and another come within a point of it.
Higgins scored 18 points, Alec Burks 17 and Nate Tomlinson and Marcus Relphorde 13 each. Dwight Thorne II added nine.
Tomlinson, playing in front of his father who had flown in from Beijing for the game, produced a solid statistical line to go with his 13 points: eight rebounds, three assists, one steal, only two missed field goals (four-for-six) and one missed free throw (three-for-four).
It surely was sweet redemption for Tomlinson, who didn't score in the 68-51 loss at K-State.
Relphorde, returning from a bout with tendinitis (knee) that kept him out of Saturday's loss at Kansas State, had his second double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) of the season, and added six assists.
"Everybody contributed," Bzdelik said, and Burks, a freshman, is learning the importance of that. "We try to share the ball and get everybody involved in the game," he said. "When you do that, you win games - and you saw that tonight."
CU led for most of the first 20 minutes - and by as many as eight points before OU went on a 9-0 run and took a brief 28-27 lead. But the Buffs answered with a 6-2 run in the half's final 3:01 to go up 33-30 at intermission.
The Buffs opened the second half energetically, building their biggest lead to that point - 59-47 with 9:07 to play - with a 17-8 run that featured treys by Higgins and Relphorde, followed by Higgins' conventional three-point play and a back-door layup by Thorne.
Capel called a timeout to settle the Sooners, but the Buffs kept the accelerator down, running to a 15-point advantage (66-51) with just over 6 minutes remaining.
 The Sooners cut the deficit to 69-60 on a Warren free throw with 2:41 left, then got two quick baskets - the last on an inbounds turnover - to pull to within 69-64 with 2:18 to play.
It was Bzdelik's turn to call a timeout, and Higgins said this of his coach's message: "I can't repeat most of what he said . . . He just kept saying, 'What are we doing?' and that we were letting the game slip away after playing so hard for 37 minutes."
Out of the timeout, Tomlinson responded with a three-pointer from the left corner to make it 72-64. Capel called Tomlinson's trey "huge . . . (he) called for the ball and made a really big shot."
But Warren trumped that trey with his own, bringing OU back to 72-67 at the 1:40 mark. The Sooners never got any closer, as Burks hit a pair of free throws and Higgins converted a layup after a steal by Tomlinson, who added one of two free throws for CU's final point with 43.5 seconds left.
Capel said CU "was really good tonight. You have to give them all the credit; those guys came ready to play - the shared the ball and did a lot of good things."
Capel's team lost for the third consecutive time and for the fourth time in five outings. The Sooners haven't won a road game since Dec. 12 at Utah and are 0-8 on trips since. Also, OU now has lost on its last four visits to Boulder, and on five of the past six trips.
The Sooners were without leading scorer Willie Warren (16.2) and freshman center Tiny Gallon, the team's leading rebounder (8.0), for Saturday's loss at archrival Oklahoma State.
Warren was out indefinitely with mononucleosis, while Gallon was suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. However, both traveled to Boulder, and although neither started, they entered the game with 15:43 remaining in the first half.
Warren scored six first-half points, Gallon none. Warren finished with 19, matching freshman Tommy Mason-Griffin, while Gallon managed only four.
The Buffs play at No. 1 Kansas on Saturday (2 p.m., MST, Big 12 Network) and at Missouri on Wednesday (5:30 p.m., MST). Their next home game is Saturday, Feb. 27 against Iowa State (11:30 a.m., Big 12 Network).
Counting that contest, CU has two home games (Texas Tech is the other) remaining, and Relphorde remains optimistic about winning both.
"We have Iowa State at home (the Cyclones edged the Buffs 64-63 in Ames) so we can definitely get a win there," he said. "We all feel like we can win every game, if we just start clicking, get on the same page and play as hard as we can every night.
"I feel like we can definitely make a little run."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
