BOULDER — Colorado’s Tristan da Silva celebrated Senior Night with a 27-point, 11-rebound double-double Sunday to lead the Buffaloes men’s basketball team to an 81-71 win over Stanford at the CU Events Center.
Tad Boyle‘s Buffs won their fourth straight game to improve to 20-9 overall and 11-7 in Pac-12 play. Stanford lost its sixth straight game to fall to 12-17, 7-12.
Colorado also improved to 16-1 at home this season as the Buffs cliched their 10th 20-win season in Boyle’s 14 years in Boulder.
Along with da Silva’s second double-double of the season, KJ Simpson added 22 points and seven assists for the Buffs, J’Vonne Hadley scored 15 and Eddie Lampkin Jr. chipped in 11.
Maxime Raynaud led Stanford with 26 points and 12 rebounds.
Colorado trailed at the midway point of the first half but used a 23-6 run to take control and the Buffs led by seven at the half, 44-37. Stanford briefly cut the lead to just three early in the second half but Colorado quickly responded to push the lead into double digits and led by as much as 20 down the stretch.
The victory moved the Buffs into a tie for third with Oregon in the Pac-12 standings, with the top four in the league earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament. The win also guaranteed the Buffs a winning conference record, Boyle’s ninth winning conference mark in 13 Pac-12 seasons.
The Buffs were once again without the services of starter Cody Williams and key reserve Julian Hammond III(injuries), but the Buffs had more than enough firepower to dispatch the Cardinal.
Colorado shot 53 percent from the floor (33-for-62), including 11-for-25 from long range. CU also had a 38-27 edge on the boards and tallied 13 second-chance points.
Stanford shot 25-for-57 (44 percent), but the Buffs limited the Cardinal to just 11-for-29 shooting in the second half, including a dismal 3-for-18 effort from long range.
Da Silva finished 11-for-18 from the floor (5-for-10 from beyond the arc) while Simpson shot 8-for-17, including a 5-for-9 night from long range.
“KJ and Tristan were phenomenal,” Boyle said. “Our guys believe in each other. They’ve overcome the injuries. It’s next man up … That’s what makes me most proud of this team, is all of the injuries that we have overcome. It hasn’t gotten us down. We haven’t made excuses, we just keep chugging along and we’ve won 20 games. That says a lot for all the adversity that we’ve had to fight you know as a group, players and coaches.”
HOW IT HAPPENED: Colorado led by as much as 12 in the first half before the Cardinal cut the deficit to seven, 44-37, at the break.
But the Buffs slowly took full control in the second half. A da Silva bucket gave the Buffs a 57-47 lead less than five minutes into the half and Colorado then pushed its lead to 15 when a da Silva 3-pointer capped a 7-0 CU run for a 64-49 lead.
Stanford’s Raynaud temporarily stopped the Buffs run with a pair of free throws but Colorado soon pushed its cushion to 20. Simpson hit a pair of 3-pointers before da Silva drained another to give Colorado a 76-56 lead with 7:42 to play.
Colorado then kept the Cardinal at bay down the stretch to collect the win and maintain a spot in the top four in the Pac-12 standings.
“We just wanted to come out and play for the seniors,” Simpson said. “We knew they were a good offensive team but in the second half we wanted to take away their threes and we did that.”
The Buffs trailed midway through the first half after the Cardinal hit nine of its first 12 field goal attempts, giving Stanford a 24-19 lead with 9:46 to play..
But the Buffs battled back on both ends of the floor to take command, putting up a 23-6 run over the next seven minutes. Hadley had nine points in the surge, Lampkin added six and da Silva chipped in four as Colorado took a 42-30 lead with 2:54 left in the half.
Defensively, the Buffs forced nine empty Stanford possessions in the surge.
The Cardinal, though, battled back to shave the deficit to seven at the half as the Buffs took a 44-37 lead into the break.
DECISIVE MOMENT: Stanford made a brief run early in the second half to cut Colorado’s lead to three. But the Buffs answered with a 9-2 run to regain control and the Cardinal never threatened again.
WHAT IT MEANS: The Buffs remain solidly in position for a first-round conference tournament bye while also improving their NCAA Tournament resumé.
KEY STATISTICS: Colorado shot 53 percent from the floor (33-for-62), including 11-for-25 from long range … CU had a 38-27 edge on the boards and tallied 13 second-chance points … The Buffs limited the Cardinal to just 11-for-29 shooting in the second half, including a dismal 3-for-18 effort from long range.
NEXT UP: The Buffs hit the road next week for a pair, beginning with a 7 p.m. game Thursday at Oregon (ESPN2), then a 3 p.m. game March 9 at Oregon State (Pac-12 Network). After that, it’s the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas running from March 13-16.
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Story by Neill Woelk, Contributing Editor for CUBuffs.com. Content courtesy of the University of Colorado at Boulder.