Julian Hammond III had 23 points, Elijah Malone finished with 15 points and nine rebounds and Colorado beat South Dakota State 81-70 on Friday in Boulder, Colo.

RJ Smith contributed 11 points for the Buffaloes (8-2), who won their third game in a row.

Joe Sayler had 16 points and Kalen Garry scored 12 for the Jackrabbits (8-5), who have dropped their past two games. Oscar Cluff, South Dakota State’s leading scorer (17.3 points per game entering play), was held to nine points but did pull down a team-high nine rebounds.

Colorado scored the first four points of the second half to go up by nine, but South Dakota State came storming back. Owen Larson and Garry hit 3-pointers in an 11-2 run that tied the game at 46.

The Buffaloes went back up by five, but the Jackrabbits put together another run to go ahead 56-55 on a layup by Matthew Mors with 10:05 left. It was the visitors’ only lead of the game.

Colorado responded with 3-pointers by Malone and Hammond to retake the lead and started to pull away.

After Jackson’s jumper got the Jackrabbit within 61-58, Assane Diop hit two free throws, Andrej Jakimovski made a running layup and Trevor Baskin sank a pair of foul shots to increase the lead to nine with 5:45 left.

Sayler briefly stopped the momentum with a 3-pointer, but Hammond scored in the paint to make it 69-61 with 5:09 to go.

Sayler and Hammond both hit a pair of free throws to keep it an eight-point margin, and after Hammond sank a layup, Garry scored from deep to make it 73-66 with 2:11 remaining.

South Dakota State got within 75-70 before Hammond was fouled on a made 3-pointer and hit the free throw to complete the four-point play and seal the game with 49 seconds to go.

Colorado raced out to an early seven-point lead but the Jackrabbits closed the gap with their 3-point shooting. Mors hit a trey and Jackson drained back-to-back from deep to cut the deficit to 22-19.

The Buffaloes soon went up by eight, but South Dakota State got within 40-35 entering halftime.

–Field Level Media