BOULDER, Colo.—Colorado is trying to prove its critics wrong.
Carlon Brown scored a season-high 28 points and the Buffaloes stayed perfect in the Pac-12 with a 71-60 win over Washington State on Saturday.
“The media picked us 11th (in the preseason poll); that’s a slap in the face,” said senior Nate Tomlinson, who had 11 points. “We took it personal. We feel we belong in this league.”
Austin Dufault added 17 for Colorado (11-4, 3-0), which won its sixth straight and capped a monthlong, eight-game home stand. The Buffaloes are the only undefeated team in the conference after the first two weekends of the Pac-12 season.
Colorado also started 3-0 in its final season of the Big 12 Conference only to lose its next four and finish 8-8. The Buffaloes want to rewrite history in their first Pac-12 season.
“The schedule has favored us but we’ve done what we’ve had to do,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “Now the difference between being good and great is winning on the road.”
Colorado has won all three Pac-12 games by double digits and led Washington State by as much as 22 Saturday. The three seniors—Brown, Tomlinson and Dufault—combined for 56 points.
“Our seniors were terrific,” Boyle said.
Brown, who hit a career-high six 3-pointers, scored 18 points in the second half. He sank two 3-pointers and Tomlinson added four points to increase Colorado’s lead to 45-27 with 15:47 left.
“He stepped up for his team,” said Reggie Moore, who led Washington State with 14 points. Faisal Aden added 12 for the Cougars.
“We focused on (Spencer) Dinwiddie and (Andre) Roberson and he stepped up,” Moore added. “That’s what players are supposed to do.”
The Cougars (9-7, 1-3) didn’t get their first field goal of the second half until Aden’s layup with 14:30 remaining.
The Buffaloes continued to push the lead. Brown’s three-point play made it 50-31, Askia Booker followed with a layup and Roberson hit a 3-pointer to give Colorado a 55-33 edge with 11:21 left.
“We had numerous possessions in the second half where we played good defense for 25 to 30 seconds and then they buried a 3,” Cougars coach Ken Bone said. “That can be a little demoralizing.”
Washington State went on an 11-1 run to pull within 65-57 with 2:42 left and had chances to get closer, but the Buffaloes hit 6 of 8 free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
“We had two drives to the rim and we were not able to convert either basket—one by Faisal Aden and one by Reggie Moore,” Bone said. “It would have been nice to get it to six and see what could happen, but we were never able to do that.”
Colorado went more than five minutes without a point in the early going, allowing the Cougars to pull within 12-11. But Dufault scored eight points during an 11-0 run that put the Buffaloes on top 23-11 with 6:51 left in the first half.
The Cougars got to within seven before Brown scored five straight points to boost the lead to 11 late in the first half, and Colorado took a 32-24 lead into the locker room.
