The Colorado Buffaloes outscored the Maine Black Bears 72-29 over the final 27:41 of play on Monday night, rolling to a 90-46 non-conference men’s basketball victory at the CU Events Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Maine (1-2) hung around early with the Buffaloes out of the Pac-12 Conference, taking an 8-7 lead with a dunk by Chris Efretuei and 13-11 when Ja’Shonte Wright-McLeish knocked down a three-pointer 6:28 into action. Colorado would regain the lead and with the score 18-17 with 7:41 to go in the first half they would begin to pull away. The hosts ended the opening 20 minutes on a 28-12 run for a 17 point lead at the break, and then used a huge second half outscoring the Black Bears 44-17 for the final margin of victory leading by as many as 45 to improve to 3-0 on the season.
Vukasin Masic led Maine with 11 points and four rebounds in the loss. Efretuei had 10 points and six rebounds, while Kristians Feierbergs added nine points. The Bears only shot 32% from the floor. Keeshawn Barthelemy had a game high 22 points to lead Colorado. Jabari Walker added 15 points, and Nique Clifford had 10. The Buffaloes shot 54% and hit 7-14 from the three-point arc on the night. Maine returns home to the Pit in Orono to play host to the University of Maine Fort-Kent on Friday night.