The Colorado men’s basketball team started their game against rival Colorado State (6—1) on a 9—0 run. From there they never looked back winning the Rocky Mountain Showdown by a final of 70—61.
The Buffs (7—1) were led by Spencer Dinwiddie who scored a career high 29 points on 8 of 10 shooting. Junior Andre Roberson added his fourth straight double—double and the 29th of his career with 15 points and 14 rebounds.
“The guys did a great job of coming out aggressive” Roberson said.
The Buffs were up by 20 at halftime 42—22. The 42 points is the most CU has scored in the first half this season. CSU didn’t have a free throw attempt in the first half.
The intense rivalry between these two schools hasn’t always been as big in basketball as it has in football. That is all changing now as both teams started this season with six straight wins.
“It felt like an NCAA tournament game tonight,” head coach Tad Boyle said.
This was clear as the Coors Event Center was standing room only with an announced attendance of 11,708. A record for CU. Chants of “It sucks to be a CSU Ram” and “Little Brother” could be heard coming from the C—Unit Student section.
The Rams tried to make a late comeback with an 8—1 run to start the second half. They pulled within 3 with six minutes to go in the game, but it was too little too late as the Buffs quickly regained a double digit lead.
“We did kind of slack off in the second half,” Roberson said. “They made a little run.”
Colton Iverson was the leading scorer for the Rams with 19 to go along with his 14 rebounds. Many expected the 6’10” 260 pound Senior to be too much size and experience for CU to handle. They held him to only four points in the first half though.
“It was going to be a phenomenal test against him,” Roberson said.
“Josh [Scott] made him work for everything,” Boyle added.
After calling CSU the “little brother” Dinwiddie had a lot to play for.
“Backing up the comment was great because they were on my twitter a lot,” Dinwiddie said.
Dinwiddie has now scored 10 points or more in all 8 games this season, beating his 7 game streak of last season.
“He played tonight like an all Pac—12 player on both sides of the ball.” Boyle said.
He will need to again if the Buffs expect to have any chance against No. 9 Kansas on Saturday in Allen Field House.
“Allan Field house is a pretty special place,” Boyle, a Kansas Alum, said. “It’s going to make Wyoming look like a cake walk.”
The Buffs have already beaten one ranked team this year when they knocked off then No. 16 Baylor. They have another chance at noon Saturday. The game will be shown live on ESPN2.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Scott Annis at Robert.annis@colorado.edu.
