Colorado
Kansas State (Second Round)
Higgins' Strong Second Half Sends Buffs Into Big 12 Semis
March 10, 2011 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A little dancing music, please. Colorado closed strong Thursday to eliminate Kansas State 87-75 from the Big 12 Conference postseason tournament and likely assure itself a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003.
Official word won't come until Sunday when the 68-team NCAA is announced, but the Buffaloes' win against the No. 19/23 Wildcats appears to be the resume-builder CU lacked when it arrived here Monday.
In their last season in the Big 12, the Buffs move into the conference semifinals for the first time. CU meets top-seed Kansas, a 63-62 winner Thursday against Oklahoma State, on Friday at 5 p.m. (MST). KU (30-2) defeated CU twice in regular-season play. The Big 12 tournament winner receives an automatic NCAA bid.
Just as Alec Burks did the day before in the second half against Iowa State, Cory Higgins asserted himself Thursday in the final 20 minutes, scoring 19 of his game-best 28 points. Burks had 29 on Wednesday, 25 in the last half.
Burks scored 24 Thursday and got help from freshman Andre Roberson, who had a double-double (11 points, 14 rebounds), and senior Marcus Relphorde, who added 10 points.
No. 5 seed CU is 21-12, having won 21 games for only the third time in the program's history. No. 4 seed K-State lost for only the second time in nine games - both to CU - and is now 22-10. The Wildcats' late surge had returned them to the national rankings.
The Buffs' 58-56 win last month in Boulder allowed them a sweep of the regular-season series for the first time since the 2003-04 season. CU won in Manhattan 74-66 in January.
In those second of those two games, the Buffs defended Wildcats guard Jacob Pullen as well as any other team in the league. After scoring 22 points against CU in Manhattan, he was held to 12 in Boulder. Mostly shadowed by Higgins, Pullen scored nine in Thursday's first half and finished with 18.
CU led early by a point (3-2) on a trey by Higgins, then fell behind by as many as seven points (21-14) with 12:35 left before the break. But the Buffs found the energy - a large dose of it provided by the 6-foot-7 Roberson - to go on a 21-8 run and take their largest lead of the half at 35-31.
But over the final 1:30 of the half, the Buffs got ragged after an 8-2 surge pushed the Wildcats up 39-37. CU's only points during that span was a drive to the basket by reserve Javon Coney, who had scored 11 points all season.
On CU's final three possessions before intermission, traveling calls on Nate Tomlinson and Burks, followed by a charge whistled on Higgins, negated any chance of CU pulling even or going ahead at halftime.
Instead, the Buffs trailed 39-37 and went to the locker room hoping their best basketball of the afternoon was ahead of them. It was.
Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, K-State checking in at 53.3 (16-of-30) and CU at 52.0 (13-of-25). The Buffs outrebounded the Wildcats in the first half 15-13, with Roberson - coming off a career-best 15 boards against Iowa State - grabbing seven of his total. Burks led all first-half scorers, with his 16 points surpassing his totals in both of CU's previous games (12, 8) against K-State.
The Buffs shot 58 percent for the game (29-of-50), while the Wildcats were at 42.4 percent from the field (28-of-66). CU hit six of its nine three-point attempts (66.7 percent) and outrebounded K-State 35-29. Each team scored 36 points in the paint.
Over the first 6 minutes of the second half, there were seven lead changes and two ties. K-State broke the last tie (48-48) with a three-pointer from the right corner by Will Spradling and a free throw by Curtis Kelly to take a 52-48 lead with 14:12 to play.
Kelly's foul was the third called against Burks, who immediately went to the bench. But he was there for fewer than 3 minutes.
Higgins countered that KSU mini-run with a pair of free throws, but Pullen trumped those with a three-pointer from the left wing to give K-State a 55-50 advantage - the Wildcats' largest since 25-20.
But Higgins wasn't willing to let the afternoon slip away so easily. Getting to the rim and scoring on the next two possessions, he brought the Buffs to 55-54.
CU never trailed by more than three points over the next 3 minutes and regained the lead (58-57) on a pair of free throws by Levi Knutson with 9:12 to play. He followed his first two points of the game with a trey after a ball fake, sending CU up 61-57 with 8:19 remaining.
The lead didn't last. Pullen tied the score at 62-62 at the 7:01 mark, but another two jumpers by Higgins restored the Buffs' four-point lead (66-62).
CU missed a chance to possibly deflate K-State when Knutson misfired on a three-point attempt just inside the 5-minute mark. That gave the Wildcats an opportunity to pull to within two - and they got it on a Rodney McGruder follow, closing to 66-64.
After Coach Tad Boyle called a timeout with 4:28 remaining, the Buffs took a 68-64 lead when Burks successfully followed his miss at the rim. The Wildcats lost possession at their end on a player control foul and Higgins made them pay, sticking a jumper from the free throw line to make it 70-64 with 3:29 left.
CU appeared to have caught a break when Jamar Samuels missed the front end of a one-and-one with 3:07 left. But Kelly snared the rebound and put it back in. The Buffs' lead was 70-66, and after a held ball at the other end, Spradling hit a three to cut the deficit to 70-69
Relphorde responded with a monster trey from in front of his bench, giving CU a 73-69, but Spradling accounted for four straight points - the last two on a layup following a steal that Higgins believed should have been a foul at midcourt. Once again, K-State was a point back at 73-72.
Burks' two free throws gave CU a 75-72 lead with 1:26 left, and Relphorde followed with a pair at :59.9 to push the advantage to 77-72. After he rebounded a Spradling miss, Roberson was fouled and added one more foul shot (78-72) six seconds later.
K-State lost the ball on the inbounds play, and the Wildcats went straight to full foul mode. Higgins made another pair of free throws, Roberson followed with a layup and Burks' two foul shots sealed it.
For good measure, Relphorde converted a three-point play with 13.7 left, completing a 14-3 run over the final 86 seconds. CU had its stunning 12-point win and its rare trifecta against K-State. The (Big) Dancing undoubtedly was underway in Boulder.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
