The Cardinal didn’t have the shooting night they expected. Neither did Colorado. Unfortunately for Stanford, it only worked in favor of the Buffs.

Stanford (11-8, 4-4 Pac-12) fell to Colorado (16-5, 5-3) by a 91-75 margin, as the Buffs shot 49 percent from the field and made an astounding 13 of their 19 three-point attempts.

Senior Rosco Allen was a lone bright spot for the Cardinal, posting a line of 25 points, tying a career high, and 9 rebounds. However, despite Allen’s prolific numbers, he and his four starting teammates shot an anemic 17-of-56 from the field, a mark far below the team’s season average of 42.1 percent.

Although Allen led the game with 25 points, a number of Colorado players were not far behind. Perhaps the most surprising was sophomore guard George King, who came off the bench to score 23 points and make all five of his 3-point shots. Junior guard Josh Fortune added 21 points, making 5-of-7 from three.

A big story in the game was Colorado’s ability to space the floor and move the ball well. In addition to the 13 threes, the Buffs had 21 assists in comparison to Stanford’s 7. And although the Cardinal managed to get 11 steals, Colorado’s strategy of favoring ball movement to iso clearly worked to its favor, as the shots were falling for the Buffs.

For Stanford, it was the opposite story. The Cardinal struggled to gain rhythm on offense, reflected by their poor numbers from the field as well the fact that they did not have a lead at any point in the game.

With the loss, the Cardinal have now dropped four games in conference play, putting them towards the bottom of the Pac-12. Stanford will next travel to Utah on Saturday as it tries to avoid falling below .500 in conference play.

 

Contact Sandip Srinivas at sandips ‘at’ stanford.edu.