BOULDER, Colo.—Colorado showed another sign of breaking out its struggles in Big 12 play by extending Nebraska’s slide in the conference.
Alec Burks scored 21 points, hitting 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch, and the Buffaloes beat the Cornhuskers 72-60 Wednesday night to keep Nebraska winless in the Big 12.
Colorado (11-9, 2-4) doubled its Big 12 win total from last season when it finished 1-15 in conference.
“It better not stop here,” Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik quipped. “We’re taking some baby steps forward and that’s a good thing. Tonight, everything was a little bit better and that’s important, and what’s most important is that we won.”
Christian Standhardinger had 14 points off the bench to lead Nebraska (12-8, 0-5). None of the Cornhuskers’ starters scored in double figures.
“I never expected all of this to happen,” said Sek Henry, one of Nebraska’s senior players. “Something’s going to have to change. I’m calling everybody out, including myself. We have to be more aggressive defensively and offensively and stop playing like boys and play like men.”
Cory Higgins had 11 points and Nate Tomlinson 10 for Colorado, which won at home for the 10th time in 11 games.
Higgins said the victory was a lift for Colorado heading into Saturday’s game at Iowa State, where the Buffaloes will be trying to snap their 32-game losing streak on the road against Big 12 opponents.
“We got a big win here and hopefully we can carry that momentum to Iowa State, which is a very winnable game for us,” Higgins said.
He added that Colorado was tired of hearing about its road woes and was long overdue for a conference win away from home.
“I can’t get any more sick of hearing about it,” Higgins said. “We are knocking on the door. I guess we need to just stop knocking and just bust the door open.”
Up by 10 at the half, the Buffaloes extended their lead to 49-33 with 12:19 remaining when Levi Knutson drained a 3-pointer and Casey Crawford drove in for a layup on successive possessions.
The cold-shooting Cornhuskers struggled to narrow the deficit. They managed to pull to within 65-54 on Eshaunte Jones’ layup with 3:42 remaining, but Higgins answered with a 15-foot jumper, and Burks made three free throws in the final 1:04.
“Colorado was the aggressive basketball team, and they won the game,” Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said.
He said he thought his squad came back strong in the second half, “but it was too late. We’ve either got to step forward or step back, and tonight we stepped back. It was the first time all year we did that.”
