Dallas – Suffering from a head cold, Colorado guard Richard Roby did more sniffling than shooting Thursday in the Buffaloes’ 65-61 victory over Baylor in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.
With Roby fighting through a fog and CU’s shooters doing likewise, missing their first 12 attempts of the second half, it was almost enough to make Buffs coach Ricardo Patton sick.
Roby, named this week by Big 12 coaches to the all-conference first team, attempted only seven shots, just two in the first half. He finished with 12 points, six below his season average, during a game in which CU desperately searched for offense.
“I appreciate Rich saying he wanted to be unselfish out there, but we don’t need him to be that unselfish,” Patton said, letting out a sign of relief after a furious rally enabled the Buffs to overcome a nine-point, second-half deficit.
“I just wasn’t getting the shots; I didn’t want to force anything,” said Roby, who did not use his cold symptoms as an excuse.
The victory advanced fifth-seeded Colorado (20-8) to a 1 p.m. quarterfinal game today against fourth-seeded Texas A&M (20-7). The winner, some national bracketologists predict, will be selected to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, with the loser headed to the NIT.
“We understand we need to win as many games as we can to control our own destiny,” CU junior guard Marcus Hall said.
Colorado led 33-31 at halftime and then apparently forgot there was another half to play.
Baylor held the Buffs to two free throws in the first 9:18 of the second half. Senior guard Jayson Obazuaye scored on a driving layup to break the 0-for-12 drought.
Baylor (4-13) took a 44-35 lead when hot-shot freshman guard Curtis Jerrells bagged a 3-pointer with 12:56 to go.
Baylor fans sprinkled throughout American Airlines Center could sense an upset. But a veteran Buffs team kept its poise.
“This is not the first time we’ve been through a 10-0 or 15-0 run,” Hall said.
Roby called it “grinding and clawing back.” From the dead? Almost.
Colorado hit only a third of its 27 field-goal attempts in the second half, but a sticky man-to-man defense limited Baylor to 37 percent shooting. Baylor screens for its best shooters as well as any team in the league, but Buffs defenders bullied through the picks. Jerrells finished with 20 points and guard Aaron Bruce added 15. Colorado retaliated with more balanced scoring.
CU had no choice. Roby didn’t score his first field goal until 8:24 remained. But he grabbed six rebounds and blocked three shots.
Leaping along the baseline, Roby got a piece of what appeared to be an easy layup by 6-8 Kevin Rogers with 3:25 left at a point when every stop was critical.
“Our shots weren’t falling, so we had to depend on our defense,” Roby said.
Ultimately, CU had to make some shots or head home. Roby had the biggest, swishing a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Buffs up for good, 59-57, with 1:47 left.
“At the end I had to find a way to put the ball in the basket,” he said. “I knew my team needed me to score.”
CU kept its late lead by hitting 6-of-8 free throws, including two by Hall with 7.9 seconds left for the final margin.
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-820-5456 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
