AUBURN, Ala. — George King nearly doubled his previous career high with 27 points and Josh Scott scored 24 to lead Colorado to a come-from-behind 91-84 victory over Auburn on Tuesday.
King made 4 of 6 3-pointers for the Buffaloes (1-1), who rallied from a 15-point deficit after losing by six points to No. 7 Iowa State in their opener.
King had a career-high 14 points in that game and only got hotter in his second game back from a redshirt season.
Scott made 8 of 10 shots and grabbed nine rebounds. Josh Fortune added 11 points for Colorado. The Buffaloes made 31 of 54 shots (57.4 percent).
The Tigers (1-1) rode a fast start from Kareem Canty to a big first-half lead. Canty hit his first five 3-pointers — including four on consecutive first-half possessions — before cooling off. He finished with 24 points but made just one of his final seven 3s.
Tyler Harris had 23 points and 12 rebounds for Auburn. The graduate transfer spent two seasons as a teammate of Fortune at Providence, and both had good games in their head to head meeting.
T.J. Dunans added 14 points for the Tigers.
Auburn big man Cinmeon Bowers was mostly a nonfactor in the game, producing five points and one rebound in 15 minutes.
Colorado pushed its lead to 81-68 on Tory Miller’s tip-in with 6:34 left.
The Buffaloes scored seven points in a 46-second span to help grab control of the game, and the Tigers didn’t really threaten after that.
Colorado started to take over late in the first half. They closed on a 13-2 run to head into the locker room trailing just 46-42 after withstanding Canty’s barrage.
TIP-INS
Colorado: Made 8 of 15 3-pointers (53.3 percent) and 21 of 26 free throws (80.8 percent). … King has hit four 3-pointers in each of the first two games. He only made four in 27 games as a freshman in 2013-14.
Auburn: Made just 12 of 22 free throws (54.5 percent) and hit just two 3s in 10 second-half attempts. It was the first time a Pac-12 team had played in Auburn.
HOT START: Canty and Scott both came out on fire. Canty made 3-pointers on four consecutive possessions at one point during the first half. Scott went into the locker room perfect on six shots.
UP NEXT
Colorado hosts Portland on Friday.
Auburn hosts Georgia Southern on Friday.
