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STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Andre Roberson scored a career-high 24 points and helped spark an 18-2 second-half run to help Colorado beat Stanford 65-63 on Wednesday night.
Roberson, the leading rebounder in the country going into the night, had eight boards and finished 9-13 from the floor while helping the Buffaloes (19-8, 9-6 Pac-12) complete a season sweep of the Cardinal after five straight losses in the series between the two schools.
Andy Brown matched his career high with 17 points while Dwight Powell added 12 for Stanford (16-13, 7-9).
Powell nearly pushed the game into overtime after driving around Roberson and dunking the ball on the game's final play, but officials reviewed television replays and ruled that time expired before Powell's bucket.
Colorado has won eight of 10 since opening conference play 1-4 but remains in a logjam in the middle of the conference standings.
The Buffaloes shot 42.9 percent compared to the Cardinal's clip of 39.0 percent. Colorado was 13-17 from the foul line while Stanford was 8-11.
Stanford took a 32-31 lead into halftime despite holding its largest lead of 15-5 at the 12:59 mark of the first half.
Colorado's biggest second-half lead was 61-55 with 3:22 remaining before Stanford chipped away at the deficit.
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NOTES: Colorado swept this year's season series after Stanford swept both meetings last year with victories of 20+ points ... Andy Brown matched his career high with 17 points, reaching that total for the third time this year ... In four career games against Colorado, Chasson Randle is averaging 17.3 points while shooting 24-53 (45.2 percent) from the field ... Entering tonight, Stanford had received a double-double from either Josh Huestis or Dwight Powell in eight straight contests. Huestis finished with four points and nine rebounds while Powell added 12 points and seven boards ... Over the last 12 games, Aaron Bright has totaled 49 assists and 23 turnovers for a 2.1 ratio ... Stanford shot 46.2 percent in the first half and 33.3 percent in the second half ... The Cardinal is 2-4 in games decided by two points or less ... Next up: Utah on Sunday at 2 p.m. Gabriel Harris will be honored in a pregame tribute.
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Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
"I thought Dwight's move was great. He caught the ball where we thought he'd catch the ball. I thought he'd have a chance to go ahead and get a strong finish, but the fact that he caught it a little bit further out, he got bumped on the catch, and by the time he turned around, time was being eaten up. He still did a great job of getting to the basket. He should have just laid the ball up."
"I thought Andy was terrific. I thought it was one of his best games in a Cardinal uniform. I thought he played great. All game long, he made great plays, big plays, offensive rebounds, put-backs, big shots for us from the field. He rebounded well. I was really proud of him, because he's been struggling a little bit with his legs and for him to come out and play the way he did was very exciting to see."
"We fought hard against a good basketball team and had a chance to win the game. We went up by 10 points, had a chance to go up 13, with a missed three. They came down and I thought, as fast as we were able to gain that margin, they were able to erase it. A lot of it was transition. They were able to get out in transition through passing it long, through pushing it, and getting into our paint early, and I think they were able to cut into our margin to make it a two-point game very quickly. At that point, it was a basketball game. They went up by five or so, and we kept fighting and we were able to cut the lead, and we had a chance to tie or win it at the end."
"Those are our best free-throw shooters (Aaron Bright, Chasson Randle), so you expect them to step up there to knock them down and unfortunately they didn't. I'll go with those guys at the line every time in those situations. We had Aaron with the technical and we had Chasson with the 1-and-1, and unfortunately they didn't go. But those guys have made big free throws all season long. They've made big free throws their entire career, so I'll go down with them at the line every time."
"We figured we would get a good look and we got a good look. Unfortunately we just didn't have enough time to complete it, but I think it was the right play for us, playing for overtime. If they had done anything differently defensively, we would've got the three, because it was designed that if they cut that off, he was going to make the kick to the open shooter. But they didn't, they played man-for-man, everybody stayed attached with their guy, and so that was the best play we had, the best shot opportunity we had."
Stanford Forward Andy Brown
"We still have to play. I think we had 2.4 left, and that was our play. We had to throw it in to him, and then we knew we had time. 2.4 seconds is enough to drive and take it to the rack, but he initially got pushed off a little bit too far for probably about a half second or a second. It was a good drive and he went strong."
"This one hurts bad. Anytime you lose at the buzzer, it's never a good thing, but all the plays leading up to that were the cause of it, so we can't look at it and say it was the last play's fault, because it's not. You know, we built some good leads on them and our defense just didn't hold up. I mean, we were up by 10 and then all of a sudden they cut it to two in about a minute, minute and a half. We can't let that happen. When we get a lead we have to keep on building on those, and we didn't do that tonight."
"Like I said, we'll go back and watch the film, but they were attacking us all night, driving. They weren't hitting their threes, but they putting everything at the basket. They had 36 points in the paint and you can't let that happen, especially against a team that doesn't have any big men. So it was just driving the entire time. Our rotations were slow at times, sometimes we over-rotated, sometimes we were there but they made some good moves, stepping around people that were trying to take charges. Overall, they also outrebounded us and we had a huge height advantage, so that's not a good thing either. We have to regroup with a game on Sunday. And we've got to win that one, because we've lost three straight home games and you can't lose home games in the Pac-12 and expect to compete in the higher portion of the conference."
"I'm a senior. This is only my second year actually playing because of my previous injuries in college. But I'm a team leader on our team. I'm not a captain but the coaches always like my leadership skills, and so that's what I just tried to do tonight. In no way am I a scorer in any sense; I think I average only six points on the year. But when I get open shots I'm going to shoot them, and if they go down, they went down tonight. I rebounded a lot better than we had been, but you need to have a vocal leader out there and I was just trying to say the right things at the right times. We ended up getting back in the game, but we never should've been down by that much."
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
"You know, Powell made a good play and we let him do so, but we pre-switched and guarded that play the way we wanted to guard it. Two seconds, 2.2 whatever it was, I'm just glad we didn't have 2.3, 2.4. But this team deserved that win. We deserved that break, because of all we've been through this year ... It's not easy on the road. This is a good basketball team that we beat tonight, a talented team. There's no margin for error in this league. It's going to be the same kind of game on Saturday."
"Andre was a man, a beast, whatever way you want to put it. He made every big shot that he needed to make in the second half: threes, twos, free throws down the stretch, two free throws on a one-and-one. That is what you've got to do when you're on the road. I'm so proud of him and the whole team, but André stepped it up tonight. He was our leader."
"Spencer was aggressive and he's a guy, again, with his size against their guards you can get it into the lane. As long as he doesn't overdo it, at one, he missed a couple back-to-back ones, but we're at our best when Spencer is aggressive. That doesn't mean he needs to be shooting all the time but just attacking the basket, attacking the rim and making plays for himself and for others. Again, he's got great size."
"Randle is a big-time player. He can shoot it. I thought Bright hurt us in the first half by getting by us and we did a better job I think containing him the second half. Both those guys are good players. But we battled. Andre did a great job on Powell, and I thought Johnson really battled Huestis. That was a good matchup and he took it on as a personal challenge. To win this game without Josh Scott, it's a testament to our team."