BOULDER, Colo.—The Colorado Buffaloes are surging as they head into the Big 12 Tournament.
The catch? They’ll need to find a way to beat the same team twice in five days to be postseason eligible.
Cory Higgins scored 30 points, Alec Burks added 24 and nine rebounds and Colorado beat Texas Tech 101-90 on Saturday in the Big 12 regular season final for both teams.
The win was Colorado’s third straight and clinched the No. 8 seed in the Big 12 Tournament where it will face the ninth seed on Wednesday—Texas Tech.
The Buffaloes (15-15, 6-10) need to win at least one game in the tournament to be considered for the NIT, so coach Jeff Bzdelik is leaning on his professional experience to get ready for the Red Raiders.
“It reminds me of the NBA playoffs,” said Bzdelik, a longtime NBA assistant and the former head coach of the Denver Nuggets. “Immediately after the game I’ll watch this Texas Tech game and you make adjustments. You just evaluate the film and see what you can do better.”
Offensively, the Buffaloes shouldn’t need to adjust anything. They shot 58.8 percent and scored 100 points for the first time in four years.
“We just came out not focused,” said Nick Okorie, who led Texas Tech with a career-high 34 points. “They were back cutting us the whole game. “We were picking up petty fouls, not staying down. It just killed us in the end.”
The Red Raiders (16-14, 4-12) were ranked 16th on Dec. 14 but have now lost seven straight.
“We are in a bad way,” Texas Tech coach Pat Knight said. “It’s been a bad three weeks.”
The Buffaloes used a 17-2 run early in the first half to blow open a close game. Marcus Relphorde scored 15 of his 18 points as Colorado shot 59 percent in the first 20 minutes and led 53-35 at the break.
The Red Raiders trailed by double digits until Okorie’s 3-pointer made it 88-79. Texas Tech got within eight in the final minutes but didn’t get any closer.
“It was too far of a climb. We couldn’t pickup enough points to catch back up,” Okorie said.
The teams will have three days to prepare for the rematch, with the winner facing Big 12 champion Kansas in the tournament quarterfinals. Both teams said they’ll have to play better defense in Wednesday’s game.
“We have to stop somebody,” Higgins said. “They were getting too many easy buckets. We can’t let them score 90 points again and expect we’re going to score 100.”
The Red Raiders aren’t as concerned with the postseason—they just need a win to stop their free fall.
“I’ve got to figure out some way to turn it,” Knight said. “I have to figure out something these next three days so we could at least get one more win.”
