Colorado Basketball: Buffs defeat Stanford, win third straight

The Colorado Buffaloes are turning their season around, even if it might be a few games too late.

The Buffs ran out to a 10-point halftime lead before holding on in the second half despite going cold from the floor late. Derrick White played his best game of the season, scoring 19 points and adding eight rebounds, eight assists and four blocks. Xavier Johnson also scored 19 points.

Colorado led by as many as 12 points in the first half but Stanford clawed their way back into it in the second half, trimming the lead down to four points with just under 12 minutes to play. Moments later, Bryce Peters hit a three-point shot for the Buffs before White hit another one the very next possession.

	1	2	T
Cardinal	31	43	74
Buffaloes	41	40	81

Colorado got the lead all the way up to 15 points late in the second half before holding on in the end for an 81-74 victory. The win comes on the heels of the team’s huge upset over No. 10 Oregon earlier in the week.

Colorado got off to an 0-7 start in conference play and the team’s outlook was quite bleak after back-to-back overtime losses to Washington and Washington State. Now, the team has won three games in a row to improve its record to 13-10, but more wins will need to be stacked if the team is going to be considered come NCAA tournament time.

Colorado committed 23 turnovers, but benefited from a poor shooting night from the Cardinal. Stanford shot just 45 percent from the field and was 6-19 from three-point range.

Up next, Colorado faces a much stiffer test when they face the 16-6 Cal Bears on the road. In team history, the Buffs have never won a game in Berkeley.