BOULDER, Colo.—Cory Higgins was Colorado’s lone scoring threat last year. Buffaloes coach Jeff Bzdelik wanted more balance, hoping to avoid repeating a season where Higgins led the team in scoring 18 times.
“I think we expect so much out of him,” Bzdelik said. “We need everybody at their best every night.”
The Colorado players delivered on the coach’s request.
Alec Burks scored 17 points as Colorado kept Miami (Ohio) winless on the road, beating the RedHawks 67-65 Tuesday night.
Marcus Relphorde and Dwight Thorne added 14 points each for Colorado (9-5). Higgins was held to 11, eight points below his average. He didn’t get his first points until 6:52 left in the game.
“Four players in double digits and shooting 51 percent for the game,” Bzdelik said. “That’s the kind of balance we need and when we play well, we usually have that kind of balance.”
Higgins, who it 4 of 11, didn’t mind the point distribution.
“Last year we probably would have lost this game if I played the way I did today,” Higgins said. “We’re a real balanced team this year with a lot of weapons on the team. It’s not just one or two people it’s a group effort.”
The win improved Colorado to 8-0 at home. The last time the Buffaloes opened 8-0 at home was in the 1982-83 season.
It was a tuneup for Colorado’s Big 12 opener Saturday at Texas.
The RedHawks are 0-7 on the road. They have lost 12 consecutive road games over two years, last winning Feb. 7 last season at Toledo.
Kenny Hayes led Miami (3-10) with 21 points. Allen Roberts had 14, but missed a chance to win the game at the buzzer.
“That’s twice in two games where we had a chance to come back at the end of games,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said. “We missed a shot to tie our last game against Xavier and miss one to win tonight.”
The RedHawks have lost three in a row.
Relphorde had the first six points of the second half for the Buffaloes, but Hayes rallied Miami with a 3-pointer and then a layup off a steal that got the RedHawks to within 39-36. Roberts’ jumper narrowed Colorado’s lead to 41-40 with 9:27 remaining.
The Buffalos responded, getting two lay-ups from Higgins in a 10-0 run to make it 51-40 with 6:34 left. The RedHawks got as close as 53-52 on Nick Winbush’s 3-pointer, but Thorne and Higgins answered with 3s of their own to build the lead to 59-52.
Miami was within 66-65 on Hayes’s layup with two free throws with 19 seconds left. Thorne made one free throw for Colorado, but Roberts missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“I pump faked, and I slid over to the left when the defender jumper up,” Roberts said of his shot. “I thought I shot with a perfect arc, but I didn’t get enough legs underneath it and it was a little bit short.”
“I wish he would have taken it to the basket,” Coles said.
Colorado shot 50 percent in the first half and took a 32-25 lead into intermission.
The RedHawks started slowly, missing eight of their first nine shots to fall behind 12-2, but regrouped and pulled ahead 18-17 after a 3-pointer by Hayes and a short hook from Julian Mavunga. Three-pointers by Thorne and Nate Tomlinson gave Colorado a 23-18 lead. The Buffalos maintained the advantage by converting 9 of 10 free throws over the final 5:22 of the half.
The Buffaloes finished the game making 18 of 26 free throws. Miami hit 10 of 14 from the line.
“You can’t win games when you attempt 10 free throws and the other team has 26,” Coles said. “You have to get to the line more than that.”
