Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
20-11
Utah (#11 seed)
6-25
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utah | 23 | 18 | 41 |
| Colorado | 25 | 28 | 53 |
Brooks: Buffs Overcome Utes, Set Date With Ducks
March 08, 2012 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
LOS ANGELES - March's marching orders in college basketball are survive and advance, and the Colorado Buffaloes just managed that Wednesday night in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference tournament.
Overcoming a pair of scoring droughts in each half, sixth-seeded CU finally pulled away from Utah 53-41 at the sparsely populated Staples Center to advance to Thursday night's second round and a date with third-seeded Oregon (9:30 p.m., MST).
"We didn't play our best basketball . . . we set the game back a bit tonight," CU coach Tad Boyle said. "But we grinded it out, we did what we had to do to win . . . we never got in a rhythm all night. It was an ugly night, but we'll take it and move on."
The win was the Buffs' third against the 11th-seeded Utes this season and gave CU 20 wins (20-11) in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.
"We have an opportunity to leave a legacy and this team has done that," Boyle said. "It's not something we talked about when the season started, but we got around 17-18-19 (wins) and we did . . . we hope we can set a standard for future teams."
Wednesday night's attendance generously was listed as 6,747. CU's "C-Unit" cheering section - an audience of 50 students flown in for the tournament - made itself heard early. Boyle credited athletic director Mike Bohn for the move to bring the "C-Unit," calling Bohn "a wonderful athletic director . . . to bring 50 students out on the flight says a lot about him and his leadership ability. We're playing for the entire Buffs nation up and down the West Coast and back in Colorado."
Surrendering a combined 173 points in a pair of road losses last week at Oregon and Oregon State, CU tightened up its defense and found just enough offense to overcome Utah (6-25).
"I don't know how to pinpoint it (the offensive struggles)," said senior Carlon Brown, one of three Buffs to reach double figures. "We just didn't have the flow . . . but we build our program on defense and rebounding and some days it's going to be ugly."
Sophomore Andre Roberson led all scorers with 20 points and collected 11 rebounds, pushing him past Burdette Haldorson as CU's career rebounding leader. Haldorson had 346 from 1954-55; Roberson has 347 in his two seasons.
Roberson said breaking the record "means a lot, but I'm not really into all the individual praise. I'm worried about the team first."
Brown, who broke out of his mini-slump with 20 and 14 points on the Oregon swing, added 15 points and freshman Spencer Dinwiddie had 10. But CU finished the game shooting 34.9 percent from the field (15-of-43) and made only one of 11 three-point attempts.
The Buffs led 25-23 at halftime, but getting those 25 points was a struggle. After scoring the first four of the night, CU didn't score again for nearly 10 minutes, allowing Utah an 11-0 run.
But the Utes could have had more. Four free throws were missed during that stretch, and Boyle substituted liberally to try and find an offensive spark. When the Buffs finally shook themselves awake, they went on a 10-3 run to tie the score at 14-14 with 6:24 left before intermission.
Just over a minute later, Roberson, who had 12 first-half points, hit a three from the right corner to put CU up 17-14 - its first advantage since 4-2. The Buffs didn't surrender the lead for the rest of the half, and had it not been for a three-pointer by Dijon Farr at the buzzer, CU would have been ahead by five at the break.
But the Buffs would gladly take their two-point lead, considering their nearly 10-minute first-half drought. They outscored the Utes 10-2 to open the second half, opening their largest lead (10) of the game at 35-25 to that point. Senior Austin Dufault's first basket of the game and a technical foul called on Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak resulted in a pair of free throws by Dinwiddie, then a Dinwiddie lob to Roberson closed out the run.
The Buffs were up 10, but the Utes - coming off the worst loss in program history (94-48 at Oregon) - weren't ready to roll. And CU wasn't ready to put them away; another Buffs drought - this one spanning nearly 7 minutes - was underway.
A three-pointer by Chris Hines and a dunk by Jason Washburn pulled Utah to within five (35-30) at the half's 12-minute mark. A minute and a half later, Washburn hit one of two free throws and the Utes were four back (35-31) - and CU's offense had gone stagnant again.
The score remained at 35-31 for nearly 4 minutes, until Anthony Odunsi sank two free throws and pulled the Utes to within two (35-33). Utah stayed within two until CU got four consecutive points from Carlon Brown, two foul shots from Roberson, and another pair by Dinwiddie to push ahead 43-35 with 3:46 remaining.
The Utes never got closer than eight points thereafter.
The Buffs and Ducks split their two regular-season games, each winning at home. "They've been great games . . . we're looking forward to the opportunity to play them again," Boyle said. "Our guys will be ready to go . . . hopefully we got all our bad shots and stuff out of our system tonight, because we'll have to be ready to go."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
