BOULDER, Colo.—Austin Dufault had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Andre Roberson added 13 points and tied a career high with 15 rebounds to lead Colorado past Fort Lewis 85-57 Friday in the season opener for both teams.
Carlon Brown scored 13 points and Sabatino Chen had 10 for the Buffaloes. It was Colorado’s 25th straight non-conference home win, dating back to the 2008-09 season.
“You win by this margin and still have a lot of room for improvement,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “Defensively we played well. We had a few lapses, the last four minutes of the first half, but overall I was pleased.”
Matt Billups—a distant cousin of former Colorado star and current New York Knicks guard Chauncey Billups—led the Skyhawks with career-high 23 points.
“I have to pick up the scoring load,” Billups said. “We lost six guys from last year.”
Matt Morris, a preseason all-conference player in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, was held scoreless.
“Matt struggled,” Fort Lewis coach Bob Hofman said. “Early in the game he got a foul called and I think he got frustrated, which is the killer of any player.”
An assistant coach at Colorado under Tom Apke in the 1980s, Hofman was denied his 400th career win as a coach.
Colorado took control with a 16-1 run to lead 18-6 early in the first half. The advantage grew to 16 before Fort Lewis rallied to within nine with 3:05 left before halftime.
Robinson’s 3-pointer pushed the lead to 32-20, and his three-point play gave Colorado a 39-24 lead. The Buffaloes led 41-29 at the break.
Colorado opened the second half on a 17-2 run to extend its lead to 58-33 with 14:30 left. Dufault chipped in with a fast-break dunk and a put-back to lead the rally.
“I don’t think Austin will get 18 and 10 every night but I’m not going to get mad at him if he does,” Boyle said.
The lead grew to 30 on Nate Tomlinson’s 3-pointer midway through the second half.
The Buffaloes held Fort Lewis to 37 percent shooting and held a 48-31 rebounding edge. Roberson led the charge with the sixth double-double of his career.
“Andre, he’s a beast,” Boyle said. “You just can’t teach the anticipation he has and the nose for the ball he has. That’s what makes him such a great rebounder.”
Colorado had a school-record 24 wins last season and reached the NIT semifinals in Boyle’s first season at the helm. The Buffaloes’ lost their top four leading scorers from that team, including Alec Burks, who was taken No. 12 overall by the Utah Jazz in the 2011 NBA draft in June.
Burks was in the stands watching his former teammates.
“It was definitely weird,” Roberson said. “I saw them in the stands watching us from the fans perspective.”
Fort Lewis advanced to the Division II Sweet 16.
The Skyhawks made two free throws before tip-off after the Buffaloes’ Ben Mills was assessed a technical for dunking during warm-ups before tip-off.
“It was a class B technical foul,” official Jim Giron said. “It’s been in the rule book, a team member dunking or attempting to dunk a dead ball before or during the game or during any intermission (is a technical).”
