Jabari Walker had 23 points and 11 rebounds, D’Shawn Schwartz added 18 points and hosts Colorado Buffaloes scored an 89-60 win over the California Golden Bears in Boulder on Thursday.
McKinley Wright IV had 13 points and 12 assists and Maddox Daniels scored 12 points for Colorado. The Buffaloes (10-3, 4-2 Pac-12) have won three times in a row and stayed in the top 5 of the conference ranking.
Andre Kelly scored 16 points, Makale Foreman 13 and Ryan Betley 12 for Cal (6-8, 1-6). The Bears played without leading scorer Matt Bradley, who missed his third straight game with an ankle injury.
Colorado led halfway at 11 and quickly expanded it to 14 after a three-point game from Schwartz.
Kelly responded with a three point play and a layup from Betley got Cal within nine, but the buffs began to pull back.
Jeriah Horne had a 3-pointer and a jumper and Daniels hit on a layup, added a pair of free throws, and hit a 3-pointer to put Colorado in the lead at 56-36, forcing the Bears to take a break at 12: 29 to demand
Cal responded with 3 pointers from Betley and Jarred Hyder to bring the deficit down to 16, but Schwartz scored the next eight points for the Buffaloes to bring them to 66-44 by less than 10 minutes.
A 7-0 run extended the lead from 6:56 to 77:49, and Colorado drove to victory.
The game was close at the start of the first half before the Bears took the lead after a 10-0 run with a 9:41 lead 18:11. Walker dropped a pair of 3-pointers to take eight straight points from Colorado and one point ahead, an advantage it stretched further.
Walker scored five more points on another big run of the Buffs. They defeated Cal 21-2 and took the lead with a 25-second lead at halftime with a 34-23 lead after Walker’s race to catch up.
