3 takeaways from Colorado's 70-53 win over Stanford

BOULDER — The streak continues!

The Colorado Buffaloes beat the Stanford Cardinal 70-53 on Saturday at Maples Pavilion. CU trailed at halftime but outscored Stanford by 19 points the rest of the way. The win grows Colorado’s streak to five games and solidifies a sweep of this week’s three-game road trip.

The Buffs now sit in sixth place in the Pac-12 and 1.5 games out of fourth with three games to play. They are 9-7 in the conference and 18-9 overall. Stanford is now in eighth-place with an 8-9 conference record.

Here’s what we learned:

Colorado accelerates to the finish

The Buffs played their best ball in the game’s final minutes.

Colorado held a five-point lead with nine minutes left in Saturday’s game. Given the physical nature of the game to that point, it was a safe bet to say it was going to be a grind to the final buzzer.

But the Buffs manhandled the Cardinal in the final minutes.

Evan Battey scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half. Jabari Walker scored seven of his 10 in the second half. Colorado posted 10-point and 7-point runs in the final 20 minutes, while Stanford never scored more than two consecutive buckets.

The strong finish is part of a growing trend for Colorado. During the three-game road trip, Colorado has outscored opponents by three total points in first halves. They’ve outscored opponents by 48 points in second halves.

With very little room for error the rest of the way, recent strong finishes should give Colorado confidence going into the season’s final stretch.

The Buffs start slowly

While the strong finishes are a great sign, the rough starts have to stop.

On Saturday, Colorado forced a missed shot on the first possession of the game but couldn’t handle the rebound. Jaiden DeLaire scored on a second-chance dunk. The Cardinal went on to score the first six points of the game.

Colorado lost the rebounding battle early in the game and looked out of synch on the offensive end. The Buffs turned the ball over five times before they scored their second basket. The Stanford lead peaked at 12-3.

Colorado fought back and even held a lead about 10 minutes in. But the job would have been much simpler if the Buffs hadn’t set themselves up with a significant early deficit.

These slow starts have become the expectation this season. Energy and precision have been lacking in the early going time and time again. Sometimes the Buffs have pulled out of their funk and sometimes they’ve dug themselves too deep of a hole.

Every time the Buffs start slowly, the odds of them ditching this bad habit before the end of the season get slimmer.

Colorado’s hopes are still alive

CU’s winning streak comes at just the right time.

While Colorado’s resume still isn’t good enough to get them close to the NCAA Tournament bubble, they’re now in position to close that gap.

Prior to Saturday’s games, Colorado was sitting in 85th place in the NET Rankings, which are a key piece of information in the committee’s decisions about who gets to play in March Madness and who doesn’t. Teams in the top 50 can feel good about their chances of qualifying for the 68-team tournament.

Colorado’s win should bump it up into the top 80 with three games left on the schedule. A home win over Arizona State and a road win over Utah are must-haves, but the home contest against No. 3 Arizona is the x-factor. If the Buffs can even keep that one close, a strong Pac-12 tournament run could be all that’s needed to sneak the Buffs into the tournament.

But the best opportunity to earn a spot in the field is still to win the Pac-12 Tournament in early March. The Buffs would have to string together four wins in Las Vegas, unless they can pick up a top-four seed and a bye into the second round. Either way, fighting through Arizona, UCLA and others will be no easy task.

The Buffs are still a dark horse to play in March Madness, but they’ve given themselves a chance.