BOULDER, Colo.—A stunning second-half turnaround by Colorado was rooted in defense and some timely shooting.
Spencer Dinwiddie scored 10 of his 17 points in the last 20 minutes, helping Colorado rally from 14 points down to beat previously undefeated Harvard 70-62 on Sunday.
Josh Scott and Askia Booker each had 12 points and Xavier Johnson added 11, including back-to-back 3-pointers in the second half for Colorado (6-1), which has won six straight since a season opening loss to Baylor.
After a hot start by Harvard, Colorado clamped down, outscoring the Crimson 40-20 in the second half.
“I think what changed was our defense,” Scott said. “We locked them down in the second half. I think that was the big change. They’re a good team and for us to do what we did to them in the second was pretty impressive.”
Johnson said he and his teammates heeded Coach Tad Boyle’s words, that they couldn’t make up the deficit with just one shot but had to focus on consistently hard play on both ends of the floor.
“We don’t want to get beat at home or anywhere to be exact,” Johnson said. “We just had to keep playing hard. We knew Harvard is a great team and each one of us personally just really wanted the ‘W.'”
The Buffaloes’ offense fed off the scrappy defensive play, running off 14 straight points over a five-minute stretch to go in front 60-52 with 3:27 remaining, their first lead since the game’s opening moments.
Johnson punctuated the run with consecutive 3-pointers and Dinwiddie kept it going with a 3-pointer and a tough running jumper from the baseline.
“I was just able to hit the open shot,” Johnson said. “We had great ball movement. We played inside out and I was able to be open for the jump shot.”
The first of Johnson’s 3-pointers put Colorado ahead to stay.
Kyle Casey had 13 points for Harvard (4-1) which lost for the first time this season. Siyani Chambers added 12 points and Steve Moundou-Missi had 11 for the Crimson.
“I thought they dug in and ratcheted up their defense and I thought their energy was outstanding and the kid Johnson made two back-to-back, kind of back-breaking 3’s against us,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “They outplayed us in the second half, we probably outplayed them in the first half, but the margin was the difference in the rebounding on the offensive end.”
Casey’s layup opening the second half pushed Harvard’s advantage to 14 points but Colorado put together a 9-0 run, pulling to 44-39 on Booker’s driving layup with 15:46 remaining.
Casey’s jumper with 8:41 left to play put Harvard up 52-46 before Colorado suddenly caught fire again.
That’s when Colorado went on its 14-0 run.
“They were playing great team defense,” Harvard’s Wesley Saunders said. “They came out with a lot of energy in the second half, they were really pressuring us.”
Laurent Rivard’s 3-pointer with 29 seconds remaining pulled the Crimson to within 66-62 but that proved to be Harvard’s final bucket as the Buffaloes hit four free throws in the game’s final seconds.
Jumpers by Saunders and Moundou-Missi on successive possessions helped Harvard stretch its lead to 42-30 at halftime.
Harvard put the pressure on Colorado from the outset, bolting to a 16-4 lead during which the Crimson drained four 3-pointers, including a pair by Chambers.
The Buffaloes managed to cut it to 29-25 on a driving layup by Booker before Harvard pulled away again on the strength of 3-pointers from Brandyn Curry and Rivard.
