The Colorado Buffaloes (13-10, 3-7 Pac-12) outshot and out-rebounded the Stanford Cardinal (11-11, 3-7) on their way to an 81-74 victory in a Pac-12 men’s basketball contest at Maples Pavilion Thursday night. The win marks Colorado’s seventh straight win over the Cardinal and third straight this season.
The Buffaloes went on a 14-2 run to go up 29-18 in the middle of the second half and never relinquished that lead despite turning the ball over a surprising 23 times, nearly twice their average per game.
Colorado’s leading scorers for the season, senior guards Derrick White and Xavier Johnson, led the Buffaloes in scoring, as they each contributed 19 points for Colorado. White even approached a triple-double stat-line, tallying eight rebounds and eight assists as well as four blocks in the game.
The Cardinal were led in scoring by sophomore guard Marcus Sheffield, who scored 19 points off the bench. Sheffield went 3-of-4 from outside the arc in the first half on his way to 15 points, but his hot hand cooled off in the second, as he went 0-of-5 and got his only four points off of free throws.
The two teams traded buckets to begin with, and a dunk from junior forward Michael Humphrey put Stanford up 16-15 with 11:31 left to play in the half. But this would be the last time the Cardinal led in the game, as Stanford went cold and the Buffaloes capitalized with a 14-2 run to go up 29-18. Colorado maintained this separation and went into the locker room with a 41-31 lead.
Stanford made a few runs in the second half, including a 7-0 run that cut the Colorado lead to just four with 11:46 left to play, but the Buffs quickly widened the gap again with back-to-back three-pointers.
“We had a few little runs where some positive things happened, but I didn’t really feel like there was a flow to our offense,” said head coach Jerod Haase. “We manufactured some points here and there … but there wasn’t anything I’d hang my hat on.”
Colorado then cruised to their third straight victory, extending the lead to 15 at one point in the second half and not allowing the Cardinal to come closer than the final margin of seven points.
Colorado finished the game with a 38-29 lead in the rebound tally and shot 53 percent from the field, while Stanford shot 45 percent from the field and went a disappointing 14-of-24 from the free-throw line.
“I think our defense failed us,” said Haase. “We had a lot of mistakes that led to that shooting percentage. There was some activity that caused those turnovers, but their field-goal percentage was a key to the game.”
Next up for Colorado is a trip across the Bay to face off against the California Golden Bears on Sunday. As for the Cardinal, they will look to get back on track against the Utah Utes at Maples Pavilion Saturday afternoon. That game will tip-off at 1:30 p.m. and will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
Contact Samuel Curry at currys ‘at’ stanford.edu.