BOULDER — Colorado came out firing Saturday in a 101-90 romp over Texas Tech at the Coors Events Center, making sure that the goal of playing in a postseason tournament remains very much alive. Now the Buffaloes must turn around and beat the same team, which is never easy.
Getting 30 points from junior Cory Higgins and 24 from freshman sensation Alec Burks, Colorado (15-15, 6-10 Big 12) secured the No. 8 seed for this week’s Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City and drew a rematch with No. 9 seed Texas Tech (16-14, 4-12) at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Both teams are sure to do some tweaking during the next four days.
“It reminds me of the NBA playoffs,” said CU coach Jeff Bzdelik, who coached the NBA’s Nuggets for two-plus seasons. “You make adjustments, and sometimes you make adjustments for the better, and sometimes you’re sitting there and thinking, ‘Boy, am I an idiot.’ “
A crowd of 8,826 watched Colorado end the regular season with its third straight Big 12 victory and fourth in the last six games. Still, the Buffs need to win at least one game in Kansas City to finish with a .500 record or better and become eligible for the National Invitation Tournament.
Bzdelik cautioned that he is not looking past Wednesday, and his team shouldn’t either. “All we can do is take care of what we can control,” the coach said.
“We have to win that game on Wednesday,” Higgins added. “(But) we have to stop somebody. We can’t let them score 90 points again and expect we are going to score 100.”
Beating Texas Tech down the court and burning the Red Raiders with pull-up jumpers, CU reached a season-best 53 points in the first half — about what it could muster for a full game at times last season. The Buffs led by as many as 20 points early in the second half, but, as human nature would have it, players appeared to let up a bit on defense and allowed the visitors to pull within 92-84 with 2:10 to go.
But Burks (who became the school’s all-time freshman scorer with 488 points) and junior Marcus Relphorde made late free throws, and a pretty feed from Higgins to Levi Knutson resulted in a dagger layup with 1:35 to go. Relphorde contributed 18 points. Texas Tech guard Nick Okorie had a game-high 34 points.
CU reached 100 points in a Big 12 game for the first time since 2000 against Iowa State.
“We gave up 101 points. . . . We are in a bad way,” Pat Knight said. “(At least) I think it’s easier to play someone again if you lose (the first time) because you are ticked off.”
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
