McKinley Wright IV had 19 points and seven assists, Evan Battey added 14 points and eight rebounds, and the Colorado Buffaloes cruised past Northern Colorado 81-45 in a nonconference game at Boulder on Monday night.
Dallas Walton added 12 points for Colorado (3-1,) which bounced back from a loss at No. 12 Tennessee last week when it scored just 47 points after averaging 80 points in its first two games.
Bodie Hume, who averaged 22.5 points in Northern Colorado's first two games, led his team with 11 points. Northern Colorado (2-1) shot 28.8 percent from the field.
The game was tight early after Hume's 3-pointer pulled the Bears to within 12-8 with 14:25 left in the first half but Colorado started pulling away.
A dunk by Jabari Walker and layups from Jeriah Horne and Keeshawn Barthelemy and helped the Buffaloes stretch the lead to 18-8. After two free throws by Northern Colorado's Matt Johnson, Wright hit a 3-pointer and Battey scored five points during a stretch when Colorado reeled off 16 straight points to go in front 34-12.
Marque English drained a 3-pointer with 5:32 left in the first half, the Bears' first field goal in 8:53. Northern Colorado missed four shots in the drought and had 10 turnovers.
Matt Johnson hit a 3-pointer and Kur Jockuch had a layup and a free throw to try to keep the Bears within striking distance but behind Battey's 12 points and Wright's 11 the Buffaloes led 45-21 at halftime.
Wright's layup early in the second half gave Colorado a 54-28 lead and Northern Colorado struggled to keep it any closer. Sam Masten scored on two layups around a jumper by Walton to make it 61-38 but Barthelemy and Eli Parquet scored buckets to increase Colorado's lead to 65-38 with 7:23 left.
Northern Colorado's Rodrick McCobb scored out of the media timeout but Wright hit a pair of 3-pointers, D'Shawn Schwartz added another, Maddox Daniels scored on a layup and a 3-pointer and another layup as part of another 16 straight points that put the Buffaloes ahead 81-40.
--Field Level Media
Northern Colorado | Colorado | |
Bodie Hume 11 | Scoring | McKinley Wright IV 19 |
Greg Bowie II 1 | Assists | McKinley Wright IV 7 |
Kur Jockuch 8 | Rebounds | Evan Battey 8 |
Kur Jockuch 2 | Free Throws Made | Evan Battey 4 |
Bodie Hume 2 | Steals | Keeshawn Barthelemy 2 |
Daylen Kountz 1 | Blocks | Dallas Walton 3 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Northern Colorado | 45 | 28.8 | 6-18 | 9-12 | 6 | 26 | 2 | 3 | 21 |
Colorado | 81 | 53.3 | 6-13 | 11-15 | 16 | 35 | 8 | 10 | 14 |