Tristan da Silva scored 22 points and made all 10 of his foul shots, Cody Williams had 21 points and Colorado bounced back from a loss at Colorado State to defeat Pepperdine 91-66 on Sunday at Boulder, Colo.
KJ Simpson had 15 points, Julian Hammond III added 10 points and Eddie Lampkin pulled down 10 rebounds for Colorado (6-2), which has won all five of its home games.
Houston Mallette scored 15 points, Michael Ajayi contributed 13 and Nils Cooper had 10 for Pepperdine (4-6).
The Waves were close in the first six minutes of the game, trailing by just five before Colorado began to build a big lead.
Hammond hit a 3-pointer and a layup off a turnover to quickly put the Buffaloes ahead 22-12 and prompt a Pepperdine timeout, but it didn’t stop the surge.
Another turnover led to a layup by Williams, Hammond fed Williams for an alley-oop and Hammond made another layup before Cooper’s jumper broke the 11-0 Colorado run as the Buffaloes led 28-14.
Malik Moore hit two free throws to make it 30-16 midway through the first half, but Williams had another layup, J’Vonne Hadley converted a three-point play and da Silva sank a pair of foul shots to give the Buffaloes a 40-18 lead.
Moore stopped the run with a jumper, but da Silva scored four straight points and Luke O’Brien made a layup before a 3-pointer from da Silva increased the lead to 49-20 with 2:14 left in the first half.
The Waves cut into the lead with an 8-3 run to get within 52-28 at intermission.
Colorado put it away early in the second half. Williams hit a 3-pointer just six seconds out of halftime, Simpson hit another shot from deep, Williams made another layup and da Silva drained a pair of free throws. That gave the Buffaloes a 64-30 advantage, their biggest lead of the game.
The Waves outscored Colorado 13-5 to cut the deficit to 26 but never threatened to make it close the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media