BOULDER, Colo.—The youth movement at Colorado continues. And according to sophomore guard Cory Higgins, the period of getting acquainted is over.
“I think the adjustment period is gone away and pretty much past,” Higgins said of his team, which has five freshmen and five sophomores. “We should know what to expect of everybody and have everybody show up for every game.”
That was certainly the case as Higgins scored 24 points and Dwight Thorne added 14 to lead Colorado to a 73-59 victory over Lafayette on Tuesday night.
“We are extremely young and very inexperienced,” Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik said. “When you look at where we want to be in the future, you can visualize the vision that we have.”
Bzdelik couldn’t hold back his enthusiasm of Higgins and the game he had. Higgins was 7-for-11 shooting, made 8-of-10 free throws and came up with three steals.
“Cory played a very good all-around game,” Bzdelik said. “You are looking at a young player who has played four games into his second year.”
There was more to what the coach liked about the young Buffaloes. He pointed to the scoring balance of four players reaching double-digit scoring as Austin Dufault scored 11 points and Nate Tomlinson had 10 for Colorado (3-1).
“There was a lot of good to be found,” Bzdelik said.
Andrew Brown led Lafayette (2-3) with 13 points. Jared Mintz had 10 for the Leopards, losers of three straight.
“We did a lot of good things, too, but we made too many mistakes, and we couldn’t get our 3-pointers to fall,” Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon said.
Lafayette nearly eliminated an 11-point deficit in the first half after Higgins put the Buffaloes ahead 20-9 with a 3-pointer. Two free throws by Jeff Kari got the Leopards to 22-21.
Colorado outscored the Leopards 12-6 over the last 6:32 to lead 34-27 at the half.
The Buffaloes extended their lead to 43-33 on Dufault’s 3-pointer at 14:14 of the second half. Lafayette used a 3-pointer by Jeff Kari at 12:10 of the second half to pull within 43-39.
Colorado regrouped and with Thorne’s 3-pointer and jump shot, the Buffaloes widened their lead to 57-43 with 8:21 remaining. Tomlinson’s trey with 6:00 to go provided Colorado with a 19-point bulge and its largest lead of the game.
“They wore us out,” O’Hanlon said. “That’s a bigger, stronger team than we are used to playing.”
The Buffaloes finished shooting 51 percent from the field. They were 23-for-30 from the free-throw line and held Lafayette to 35 percent shooting.
“It was just a good night for us,” Bzdelik said. “Now, ready or not, we’re going on the road.”
Colorado plays its first road game Saturday at Stanford.
