About two weeks ago, the Colorado Buffaloes returned home to Boulder after a deflating road trip to the state of Washington. The Buffs had just lost their sixth and seventh straight games to Washington and Washington State, respectively. Both losses coming in overtime by a combined four points.
The team came back for a home stand against Oregon State and the then-No. 10 Oregon Ducks. Like the flip of a switch, Colorado won both contests, earning its first Pac-12 Conference wins of the season. It felt like a different team, for many people spectating. With two solid wins not out of sight but in the rearview mirror, the Buffaloes hit the road for Palo Alto, California, for a showdown with the Stanford Cardinal on Thursday night.
Despite being outscored 43-40 by Stanford in the final 20 minutes, the Buffs displayed a spread out offensive attack and hung on to beat the Cardinal, 81-74. Senior guards Xavier Johnson and Derrick White tied for the team lead with 19 points apiece.
The win is CU’s third straight, matching the team’s season high, which it accomplished last with wins over Fort Hays State, Air Force and Eastern Washington in mid-December.
“This win is good for these guys’ confidence,” head coach Tad Boyle said after the win. “We know we can win; I thought our bench played great. It was a good team victory.”
Heading into the matchup, the Buffaloes knew about the threat that Stanford big man Reid Travis posed. Before the contest, the 6-foot-8, 245-pound force from Minneapolis was averaging 16.6 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. The Buffs kept him in check on Thursday, allowing him just nine points and five rebounds in his 36 minutes on the court.
“Our post guys did a good job on Reid Travis [and] made him work for everything,” Boyle said.
The term “post guys” is a bit foggy, considering how well Colorado did as a team near the boards. White snagged eight rebounds, leading the team, while Johnson added six. An important factor in the game was junior forward Tory Miller. He grabbed seven rebounds and added 10 critical points to the Buffaloes’ effort. In total, the Buffs outmuscled the Cardinal in the rebounding department, 38-29.
“They have a lot of great weapons,” Stanford’s Dorian Pickens said of CU. “I don’t think their record in conference does them justice. They out-rebounded us by almost ten; that was something that really killed us. They crashed the offensive boards.”
Four Buffaloes scored in double digits in the win.
“Experience is now taking over,” Miller said. “I think Derrick [White,] Bryce [Peters], Dom [Collier] and all those guys are figuring out how to find me down [by the rim and] put me in a position where I can score the ball.”
As has been the case in recent games, Colorado got off to another hot start. White drew first blood in the game. A nice jumper by Miller in the paint, on an assist by White, put the Buffs up 6-3 at the 16:14 mark in the first half.
Neither team allowed much separation in the first 10 minutes of play. A layup by freshman forward Lucas Siewert with 12:20 left in the half gave the Buffaloes a 15-11 lead. The Cardinal answered quickly with a three-pointer from Marcus Sheffield, bringing them within one. Sheffield was to be the main bane of the Buffs’ existence on Thursday night. He dropped 19 points in the loss.
As the first half midway point passed, the Buffaloes began to take control of the game. A long ball by White had the team up 22-18 with 8:19 left in the half. Just over two minutes later, Colorado had taken a 29-18 lead thanks to another three-pointer, made this time by Collier.
At halftime, the Buffaloes enjoyed a comfortable 41-31 lead. White led the team with 11 points in the first half while Johnson was second with eight.
The Buffaloes hung onto their lead in the opening minutes of the final half. A good three-pointer by Johnson near the 16-minute mark put the Buffs up by nine, 49-40. White stole the ball from Stanford’s Christian Sanders and fed it to Johnson, who took his time and slammed the ball home for two points. The dunk gave Colorado an 11-point lead.
But in the ensuing minutes, the Cardinal clawed back into the game. At the 11:46 mark, the Buffs’ lead had dwindled to just four points. However, in the next 61 seconds of play, three-pointers by Peters and White put the Buffaloes back up by 10, 59-49.
Peters was solid in the second half. He scored 10 points, made all four of his free throw attempts and went 2-of-3 from behind the arc. He finished with an efficient 13 points scored in his 14 minutes on the court.
“Bryce was huge today,” White said after the game. “He plays great defense every day and today he was shooting well. We love what Bryce brings to the table. He comes off the bench and plays hard.”
Colorado took multiple 15-point leads in the final eight minutes of play. Stanford attempted to hang around, resulting in a teeter totter in which the Cardinal would trim the Buffs’ lead to under 10 points, only for CU to regain a lead greater than 10 shortly thereafter.
Two free throws from White with 1:15 left gave the Buffs a 12-point lead. The deficit would prove to be too much for Stanford and the Buffs hung on for the win.
Turnovers were a point of concern for the Buffaloes in the win. Colorado gave up an eyebrow-raising 23 turnovers during the game, compared to Stanford’s 12.
“We could have put this thing away if we could have taken care of the ball,” Boyle said. “We played a good game, but we turned the ball over 23 times on the road and it’s hard to put anybody away when you do that.”
But a win’s a win, as the saying goes. Colorado will get a chance to extend its win streak to four games on Sunday when it takes on the California Golden Bears on the road in Berkeley. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. (MST)
Contact CU Independent Head Sports Editor Justin Guerriero at justin.guerriero@coloradoedu and follow him on Twitter @TheHungry_Hippo.
