Huskers Fall to Hot-Shooting Buffs in Home Finale

Lincoln - Senior Ryan Anderson turned in his second double-double of the season and scored in double figures for the fourth time in the past five games, but his effort was not enough to carry Nebraska past a hot-shooting Colorado squad as the Huskers dropped their home finale to the Buffs, 81-68, Tuesday night at the Devaney Center.

Nebraska falls to 14-16 (2-13 Big 12) on the season, while Colorado improves to 14-15 (5-10) and sweeps the season series against the Huskers for the first time since 2003-04.

Anderson finished the game with 10 points, 13 rebounds and added two steals in his final home game. Trailing by seven at halftime, 35-28, the senior from Seattle attempted to spark a Husker rally in the second half when his 3-pointer with 16:52 left made it 38-32. Freshman Jorge Brian Diaz followed with six straight points of his own, but Colorado's Casey Crawford was finding his groove behind the arc with an answer to seemingly every Nebraska bucket. The Buff forward connected on 6-of-7 3-pointers, including four in the second half, en route to a career-best 20-point performance.

Crawford's fifth 3-pointer with 12:25 left made it a 51-40 Colorado advantage after Nebraska had cut the deficit to six, 46-40, for the second time. His sixth and final trey with 7:48 remaining gave the Buffs their biggest advantage of 20 points, 65-45.

Nebraska used a 12-4 run to end the first half to overcome a 16-point deficit, 32-16, and trailed just 35-28 at the break. The Buffaloes shot 57 percent (13-of-23) from the field in the opening frame, but the Husker defense cooled the CU offense over the last six minutes and held its opponent to just one field goal.

Colorado hit its first six 3-point attempts to build its double-digit lead, but back-to-back misses from beyond the arc gave room to NU's comeback that began with eight straight points.

As a team, the Buffs hit 12-of-16 shots from the field in the first 12 1/2 minutes, while the Huskers struggled from the field on 36 percent shooting (9-of-25).

Nebraska fell behind 11-2 through the first three minutes, but used an 8-0 run over the next 2:35 to cut the lead to one point on a Ryan Anderson 3-pointer from the left wing. Colorado hit its first three field goals of the game to take an 8-2 lead, while the Huskers only got on the board with a Henry jumper.

On the night, the Huskers shot 38 percent from the field (22-of-58), while the Buffs hit 62 percent of its field goals (26-of-42).

Prior to the game, the Nebraska basketball program honored its 2010 senior class consisting of Anderson, Henry, Ben Nelson and Chris Balham. Nelson made his first career start tonight.

Nebraska wraps up the regular season this Saturday in Stillwater when the Huskers meet Oklahoma State in a Big 12 Network-televised match-up. Tip-off from Gallagher-Iba Arena is set for 12:30 p.m.