The CU men’s basketball team snapped a three-game losing streak on Wednesday night, beating the Iowa State Cyclones 74-65.
The victory marked the Buffs’ first win in the Big 12 Conference this season. CU avoided wins early in the conference, going 0-4 in their first four Big 12 games. The last time the team started out 0-4 in their first four Big 12 Conference games was during the 2004-2005 season.
Freshman guard Xavier Silas lit up the Cyclones’ defense in the second half, scoring all 19 of his points.
The Buffs made only 53.8 percent of their free throws for the entire game.
“If you had told me before the game that we could shoot 50 percent from the free throw line and still win, I don’t know if I would’ve believed it,” Head Coach Ricardo Patton said.
In the first half, the Buffs’ bench combined to score 16 of the team’s 31 points. Junior guard standout Richard Roby led all scorers in the first half with 10 points.
But Roby’s shooting was poor in the first half; he made only four of 13 buckets from the field.
“I felt in the first half I took some bad shots, so in the second half I just tried to calm down a little bit and try to get more of my teammates involved.” Roby said.
The Cyclones pulled in front of the Buffs at halftime 33-31 with a buzzer beater. But the Buffs felt that the halftime score didn’t matter.
“Coach always says that the most insignificant score is the score at halftime,” Roby said.
At the start of the second half, the Buffs were hot early. They went on an 8-2 run to open the second half, jumping ahead 39-35.
CU led 65-54 with three minutes left in the game, but the Cyclones pulled within seven points before the end of the game.
But CU managed to hold on to the lead to seal the victory. The Buffs shot 42.6 percent from the field for the game and managed to snag 41 rebounds.
The Buffs will travel to Nebraska this Saturday and come home to play Missouri on Jan. 24.
