A slow shooting start has the Buffs basketball team down three early in Palo Alto, Calif. Against the Cardinal the Buffs are shooting only 25%. At the same time they are letting the Cardinal shoot 46 percent.
The Buffs leading scorer is Spencer Dinwiddie with six points. Chasson Randle has five points for Stanford. The Cardinal had built a 10 point lead at one point but the Buffs started coming back cutting the score to 17–14.
The Buffs are trying to win their eighth game of their last ten and their 19th overall. After losing to Arizona State and beating Utah last week the Buffs are on a Calif. road trip playing at Stanford and at Cal.
The Cardinal has turned the ball over five times but Colorado hasn’t made enough shots to take advantage of the mistakes. If the Buffs are going to have any shot at winning this game they need to start making shots, especially Askia Booker who is still without a point in the game.
UPDATED:
At halftime the Cardinal lead the Buffs by one point 32–31. The Buffs came back from a poor start in which they were down by as many as 10. The only time the Buffs led was at 2–0.
The Buffs shot only 37.9 percent from the field and Spencer Dinwiddie led all Buff scorers with 10 points. Andre Roberson had eight points and five rebounds, well on his way to his 37th career double double.
Jeremy Adams has proven valuable off the bench scoring seven points, which has been helpful as Askia Booker didn’t have a point in the first half, missing all five of the shots he took. Adams hit the Buffs only 3–pointer as they went 1–8 from behind the arc. This is CU’s 358th straight game with a 3–pointer.
In the first half the Buffs hit eight of their nine free throws which has been an issue at times this season for the Buffs. They will need to continue to shoot at a high percentage from the charity stripe if they want to pull ahead in the second half against the Cardinal.
Stanford’s Chasson Randle has 10 points to lead all Cardinal scorers. Josh Huestis has only two points in the game but is controlling the boards with seven rebounds. Huestis is out-rebounding the top rebounder in the nation in Roberson.
Cardinal guard Aaron Bright has four assists compared to the Buffs who as a team have only two. The Buffs need to spread the ball around and play more of a team game.
The game is back and forth, with both teams needing an in conference win. If this continues the game will come down to the wire and make for exciting basketball.
UPDATED:
The Buffs started slow in the second half just as they did in the first half. The Cardinal went on a 11–2 run to start the second half but the Buffs answered with an 8–0 run of their own starting with 14:45 left in the game.
The Cardinal lead 45–44 with 10 minutes left in the game.
Stanford led by as many as 10 in the second half but after a seven minute stretch with only three points, Xavier Johnson hit a floater in the lane. This ignited something in Dinwiddie as he quickly made five points on back to back buckets to bring the game within two points.
Dinwiddie leads all scorers with 15 points. The Buffs are still shooting only 21 percent from 3–point range as they are 3 of 13. The Cardinal have hit seven from behind the arc and are shooting 50% from downtown.
The Buffs haven’t led in the game since they were up 2–0 at the beginning of the game. They have started to put something together though, and look to be putting a scare in the Cardinal who looked to be putting the game away as they built their lead to ten.
FINAL UPDATE:
After being down most of the game the Buffs finally pulled away in the second half and after withstanding a comeback beat the Cardinal 65–63. The Buffs won both games against the cardinal this year.
The Cardinal (16–13, 7–9) led by as many as 10 early in the second half but the Buffs (19–8,9–6) didn’t give up. After coming back the Buffs led by as many as six but couldn’t let down their guard as the Cardinal came back and made a game of it.
With 26 seconds left in the game Spencer Dinwiddie made a dunk to put the Buffs up four but had a bad technical foul which could have brought the game to one possession but Aaron Bright missed one of the technical free throws. The Buffs were then up three and after two free throws by Andre Roberson the Buffs led by five.
A quick three pointer by the Cardinal had them within two, and after a missed free throw by Dinwiddie Stanford had one more chance with 2.4 seconds left in the game. The Cardinal got a good look as Dwight Powell had a dunk, but it came after the buzzer and the game was over.
Free throws have been a problem area for the Buffs all season and it almost cost them the game tonight. They will need to get better from the line if they expect to make any noise in the conference tournament or the NCAA tournament.
This is the first time since 2001 the Buffs have won three straight in–conference road games. Roberson led all scorers with 24 points and forward Andy Brown led all Stanford scorers with 17.
After starting slow in both halves the buffs ended the game with a better shooting percentage than the Cardinal 42.9 percent to 39. The Buffs still had a problem with the 3–point shot on both ends of the floor. CU shot only 22.2 percent while giving up 47.4 percent to the Cardinal.
The Buffs final road game is Saturday against Cal. In their first meeting the Buffs beat the Bears in boulder by 10. The Buffs return home to Boulder for their final two games against the two Oregon teams next week.
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Scott Annis at Robert.annis@colorado.edu.