BOULDER, Colo.—Marcus Hall wouldn’t mind seeing a few more television timeouts put into a game.
After all, that’s the only time the Colorado senior guard gets a chance to catch his breath. Hall played all 40 minutes, scoring 19 points, as the Buffaloes snapped a six-game slide with a 72-58 win over Oklahoma on Saturday.
It was the sixth time this season Hall has gone an entire game without a sub giving him a spell. Not that he minds.
“I don’t want to come out. I’ve conditioned myself to play an entire game,” said Hall, who also had three assists and three steals. “I go four minutes at a time and suck it up until a media timeout. I look forward to those timeouts.”
The Buffaloes desperately needed this win for confidence sake. The team has led or been tied at halftime in four of their last six games, only to see a win slip away.
This time, Colorado managed to finally finish. The Buffaloes (10-13, 2-7 Big 12) led by as many as 14 points early in the second half and then withstood a late Oklahoma charge, sending the Sooners to their third straight loss.
“We completed one,” Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik said. “I’m very happy for the players. My players fought hard and worked hard.”
Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel couldn’t say the same thing about the Sooners. He was highly agitated with his team’s effort.
“We were just bad in every aspect—coaching, being ready to play, everything,” he said. “It was embarrassing. We weren’t ready to play. We weren’t focused.”
Capel hopes the Sooners learned something—anything—from the loss. He’s not so sure, though.
“It has to hurt when you lose. I’m not sure how much it hurts our guys when they lose and that bothers me,” said Capel, who was without center Longar Longar after he broke a bone in his right leg against Texas A&M on Feb 2. “It has to hurt. Hopefully, this hurts because it’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
The Sooners (15-8, 3-5) were led in scoring by freshman Blake Griffin with 25 points, two points shy of tying his career high set against Kansas State on Jan. 12. He also had five assists and five rebounds.
“We were a step slow,” said Griffin, who had two defenders on him at all times. “They were executing really well. There is no way that should’ve happened. Our whole team is in a slump right now.”
Richard Roby has been hard to contain lately as he finished with 19 points, the 15th straight game he’s scored in double figures. Roby also moved to within 28 points of passing Shaun Vandiver for third place on the Buffaloes’ all-time scoring list.
“We got good looks,” Roby said. “We finished most of our layups today, which is a first, and made open shots. We just finished out the game. We’ve been here before—a lot of times.”
But this time was different. The Buffaloes didn’t even talk about their halftime lead in the locker room. It was ignored.
“We just knew what we had to do,” said Roby, whose team has now beaten the Sooners three straight times at Coors Events Center. “We just had to survive their run, and we did that.”
Hall hopes the win proves to be a catalyst for the Buffaloes, who have a week off before traveling to Kansas.
“We think we can beat every team left on our schedule,” Hall said. “We’ve just got to keep learning how to keep fighting and play for 40 minutes.”
