BOULDER — Nothing like a blowout to spike a team’s confidence.
The Colorado men’s basketball team took care of business on Saturday, routing winless Grambling State 93-47 at the Coors Events Center and in doing so earned win No. 7, matching last season’s total.
“I don’t think you need to throw a parade out there every time you win,” said a cautious Richard Roby. “Don’t let this fool you, we have a long way to go, but winning is always nice.”
The Buffaloes (7-5), playing their first home game in 17 days, have two more non-conference home games against Southern Methodist (Jan. 4) and Tulsa (Jan. 7) before starting Big 12 play at Texas A&M on Jan. 12.
After a painful first half that included a combined 24 fouls and 22 turnovers, the Buffs’ offense made the necessary adjustments to the Tigers’ sagging man-to-man defense and pulled away in the second half.
“We looked like a deer in the headlights at times,” first-year CU coach Jeff Bzdelik said. “Maybe I ought to start the game with a halftime speech.”
Up 38-21 at the half, Colorado opened the second half with a 15-5 run to slap away whatever upset hopes the youthful Tigers might have had. Defensive pressure at one end led to easy work on the offensive end for Roby and freshman Cory Higgins, who combined for 13 points during the surge.
“It’s fun to know that when we run our stuff, we are going to get a layup,” said Higgins, who finished with 15 points and a game-high six assists. “I don’t know how many layups we got today, but you can see when we run our stuff right, we get open shots almost every time.”
Said Grambling coach Larry Wright, whose 0-7 Tigers have six freshmen and four sophomores in the rotation: “This is not the first time that’s happened, where we’ve just gone away in the second half. We just didn’t compete.”
Roby led five Buffs in double figures with 25. Marcus Hall had 12 and Xavier Silas and Dwight Thorne each had 10. Thorne departed in the second half with an apparent right knee injury and will be evaluated again today.
The CU defense forced 25 turnovers and had a season-high eight blocks.
GRAMBLING ST. (0-7)
Williams 6-13 5-6 18, Prestley 1-4 0-0 2, Riley 1-3 0-0 2, Akpele 1-2 0-0 2, Ratliff 1-4 0-0 3, Lemons 1-3 0-1 2, Qualls 0-4 3-4 3, Southern 0-0 1-2 1, Calloway 3-8 1-2 9, Yates 0-3 0-0 0, Coleman 0-2 0-0 0, Diaz 0-1 0-0 0, Breaux 2-3 1-2 5. Totals 16-50 11-17 47.
COLORADO (7-5)
Jackson-Wilson 4-5 0-1 8, Hall 6-10 0-2 12, Higgins 7-11 0-0 15, Silas 3-9 3-4 10, Roby 9-17 5-5 25, Thorne II 3-5 3-3 10, Coney 1-2 0-0 2, Patterson 0-6 1-2 1, Knutson 2-3 0-0 4, Zehnder 2-2 0-0 5, King-Stockton 0-1 1-2 1, Beckley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 37-71 13-19 93.
Halftime — Colorado 38-21. 3-point goals — Grambling St. 4-15 (Calloway 2-6, Williams 1-2, Ratliff 1-3, Prestley 0-1, Qualls 0-3), Colorado 6-17 (Roby 2-4, Higgins 1-1, Thorne II 1-1, Zehnder 1-1, Silas 1-4, Coney 0-1, Patterson 0-1, Knutson 0-1, Hall 0-3). Fouled out — Lemons. Rebounds — Grambling St. 29 (Breaux 9), Colorado 44 (King-Stockton 7). Assists — Grambling St. 9 (Qualls, Ratliff 3), Colorado 20 (Higgins 6). Total fouls — Grambling St. 19, Colorado 19. A — 2,634.
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
