BOULDER, Colo.—Glenn Andrews couldn’t hit anything in warmups.
Come game time, the Tulsa freshman guard couldn’t miss. Andrews scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, helping Tulsa to an 81-68 win over Colorado on Monday night.
“I guess I was kind of feeling it,” Andrews said with a grin.
That’s an understatement. Andrews took over the game at one point in the second half, scoring 14 points during Tulsa’s pivotal 16-2 run.
With the Golden Hurricane trailing 52-49 early in the second half, Andrews proceeded to hit four 3-pointers and knock down a mid-range jumper.
Andrews’ offensive explosiveness didn’t shock to Tulsa coach Doug Wojcik. He’s become used to it.
“Glenn has a knack for putting the ball in the basket,” Wojcik said. “He played very well.”
The Golden Hurricane (8-4) have now won six straight. Even more, they picked up a much-needed road win, their first of the season.
“We kind of got into a funk,” said Wojcik, whose team had dropped three in a row away from the Donald W. Reynolds Center. “We needed this. I was real pleased with our performance.”
Tulsa built up the lead to as many as 15 points after trailing by seven in the first half. The team hit 9 of 10 free throws over the final 5:11 to secure the win.
Ben Uzoh, Tulsa’s leading scorer, was held to just a basket in the first half before finding his shot in the second half and finishing with 15 points. Uzoh hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second half to ignite the Golden Hurricane.
“We talked to him at halftime,” Andrews said. “We told him we needed him to step up and he stepped up.”
Andrews filled in until Uzoh found his shooting touch.
Not that Andrews was all that confident in his. He thought he was in for a long evening while warming up.
“I was missing everything,” Andrews said. “But I figured out I was just falling out of my shot a little bit. So, I just stayed in it. I felt the team needed me to knock down a couple of shots. I’m just glad I could help.”
Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik thought his team wore down in the second half. Playing only seven players will do that.
“I believe we lost our legs and that affected our ability to score because we got good shots,” Bzdelik said. “We’re really a step slow defensively. Give Tulsa credit—they came in here and whipped our butt. They shot the ball extremely well.”
Part of the reason for Colorado’s lack of depth has to do with an injury to sophomore guard Dwight Thorne, who missed his second straight game with a bruised right knee.
“Getting Dwight back will help. He will give us a much-needed player,” Bzdelik said. “We have to play with great emotion and energy at all times to be competitive.”
The Buffaloes (8-6) certainly got a boost of energy from Richard Roby, who led the team with 27 points. He was all over the court.
“They just wore us down,” said Roby, who move into fifth place on the school’s all-time scoring list Monday night, surpassing Emmett Lewis (1976-79). “They just beat us. They were relentless on their break … guys just ran out of gas.”
Marcus Hall had 10 rebounds, nine assists and eight steals, but only four points. Xavier Silas finished with 13 points and Levi Knutson had 10.
The Buffaloes simply had no answer for Andrews. They tried everything to slow him down, but nothing worked.
“We needed to buckle down on him and help out more, and we didn’t do that,” Hall said. “Give them credit, they hit some big shots and kept up the pressure all game.”
