BOULDER — The Colorado Buffaloes head into their Christmas break with a win and a sour taste in their mouths.
Spencer Dinwiddie scored a career-high 18 points, Andre Roberson had 11 points and 16 rebounds and Colorado held off Texas Southern 56-51 Thursday night.
Carlon Brown had 11 points for the Buffaloes (7-4).
“We started playing the scoreboard,” Brown said. “We took our opponent for granted. We didn’t respect them or fear them, and they came back into the game and made it close.”
Omar Strong scored 23 points and Fred Sturdivant had 11 for the Tigers, who have lost eight straight.
The Tigers (1-9) gave Colorado a challenge after trailing by 23 in the first half. They forced 20 turnovers and pulled to within three with 21.8 seconds left, but Roberson’s two free throws clinched the game.
“It hurts because this was a very winnable game and we just let it slip out of our hands,” Strong said.
Trailing 38-17 early in the second half, Strong scored 11 points to spark a 19-4 run that made it 41-36 with 9:54 left.
It’s the second time in as many games Colorado has let a team back in the game after having a big lead.
“If I can ask Santa Claus for one thing, it would be for a consistent basketball team,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “I don’t care if we’re consistently good or consistently bad, I just want to be consistent so we know what we have to work on.
“The only thing I have that these players want is playing time. Right now, it’s hard to know who to play from night to night, from half to half.”
The game was a rematch of the first round of the 2011 NIT won by Colorado, 88-74.
Texas Southern is in the midst of a 10-game road trip that began at Michigan State on Nov. 18. The Tigers play at Saint Louis on Tuesday before finishing up at Arkansas on Dec. 30. Texas Southern has played just one home game, a 66-49 win over Eastern Michigan on Nov. 15.
Colorado held the Tigers to 22.7 percent shooting in the first half while building a big lead. Dinwiddie hit four 3-pointers to help the Buffaloes build a 32-9 lead with 2:36 left before halftime.
“I didn’t like our energy level at all,” Texas Southern coach Tony B. Harvey said. “We knew what their game plan was and we gave guys wide-open looks.”
A long Texas Southern scoring drought contributed to Colorado’s advantage. Madarious Gibb hit a jumper to make it 15-6 and the Tigers didn’t score again until Sturdivant’s three-point play nearly eight minutes later.
Dinwiddie hit two 3-pointers and Jeremy Adams had one in that span to give Colorado a 26-6 lead.
The Tigers finished the first half strong, scoring the last seven points to trail 32-16 at the break.
“I would love to credit them, but we don’t come out and play 40 minutes,” Dinwiddie said. “We seem to want to play with this off and on switch, and you can’t play basketball that way.”
