BOULDER, Colo.—The Colorado Buffaloes haven’t had a season to remember, but the seniors made sure their last home game was a memorable one.
Marcus Hall had a career-high 31 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Richard Roby added 17 points as Colorado celebrated senior day with a 67-55 win over Iowa State on Saturday.
Marcus King-Stockton, the other Colorado senior, had four points and tied a career high with four blocks.
“It feels good,” Hall said. “I envisioned a win. That’s what we wanted to do, and we got it.”
The three seniors spoke to the crowd after the game. Roby, who is third on Colorado’s career scoring list with 1,922 points, said he doesn’t regret passing up a chance to enter the NBA draft to play four years in Boulder.
“I’ve grown a lot as a player this year, especially in decision making and shot selection,” he said. “At the next level, the plays aren’t going to be ran for me. You have to learn to play within a system, and I learned how to do that this year.”
The Buffaloes (11-17, 3-11 Big 12) have struggled adjusting to first-year head coach Jeff Bzdelik, but things seemed to flow against the Cyclones. They shot 72 percent from the field in the second half and 55 percent for the game while holding Iowa State to 32 percent shooting overall.
“Defensively, to hold a team to 55 points and 32 percent shooting, that’s a heck of a defensive effort,” Bzdelik said. “And it created opportunities for us to get out and run and attack quickly.”
Colorado benefited from the absence of Iowa State senior forward Rahshon Clark, who missed the first game of his career with a sore left knee. Clark, who played in 120 straight games, starting the last 60, was probable until tip-off.
“I assumed he would be able to go today, but he came to me before the game and said it was just too sore,” Iowa State head coach Greg McDermott said. “Any time you lose your best defender and one of your best rebounders it impacts your game.”
Iowa State (14-15, 4-10) led once, 3-2, and trailed 26-24 at halftime. But Roby and Hall hit consecutive 3-pointers and Jermyl Jackson-Wilson and Cory Higgins each had a bucket during a 10-0 Buffaloes run to start the second half.
The lead was 13 points when Wesley Johnson, who led Iowa State with 13 points, hit three straight 3-pointers to pull the Cyclones to within 50-46 with 6:38 left. He had a chance to make it 50-48 but missed a jumper in the lane with 5:58 left.
Hall and Roby hit lay-ups to make it 54-46, and Iowa State didn’t get closer than five points the rest of the way. Hall gave Colorado some breathing room with a 3-pointer to make it 59-51, and then he punctuated the win with a breakaway dunk with 1:21 left to give Colorado a 64-51 lead.
“They just took over,” Iowa State junior Sean Haluska said of Hall and Roby. “They are the main guys, we scouted for them, we have to stop them and we didn’t.”
The Buffaloes were happy they held off the Cyclones, who have lost seven of their last eight and are winless on the road in the Big 12.
“This is definitely far from the first time we’ve been in that situation,” Hall said. “We’ve been in leads almost every game in the second half. We kept our composure, everyone stayed together and that’s what it’s about.”
