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Colorado defeats Yale 70-59

Dec 30, 2009 - 4:55 AM BOULDER, Colo.(AP) -- Cory Higgins scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half and Colorado overcame a sluggish start to beat Yale 70-59 Tuesday night.

Alec Burks added 19 points and Marcus Relphorde 15 for the Buffaloes (8-4), who improved to 7-0 at home in their best start at the Coors Events Center since winning their first seven in 2005-06. Burks also had six steals, part of 30 turnovers in the game by Yale (4-8).

Yale's Alex Zampier, who entered averaging 18.9 points per game as the Ivy League's leading scorer, didn't get his first basket until hitting a layup with 5:16 remained. He finished with a season-low seven points on 3-of-12 shooting.

Michael Sands and Porter Braswell scored 13 points apiece to lead Yale, which dominated the boards 41-27 but could not translate that into success against the more athletic Buffaloes, who led by one point at halftime.

Colorado started the second half strong, outscoring Yale 17-8 to open a 43-33 lead.

Relphorde had 10 of his points during the surge, including connecting on Colorado's first 3-pointer of the game two minutes into the second half and following it up with a three-point play on the Buffaloes' next possession.

Higgins also had a 3-pointer in the midst of the flurry and culminated it with a fast-break dunk to push Colorado's lead to 10 points with 13:33 remaining.

Yale closed to within 60-54 on a basket by Zampier with 3:13 remaining, but Higgins then led a 9-1 burst punctuated by a three-point play to quell Yale's comeback bid.

Despite converting only 8 of 21 shots from the field and going 0-for-6 from 3-point range, Colorado fashioned a 26-25 halftime lead.

Yale, hitting the boards hard on both ends of the floor, built an 18-8 lead after Braswell connected on a 3-pointer with 10:27 left in the first half.

But Colorado gradually narrowed the deficit, pulling to within one on a layup by Relphorde and moments later, answering a 3-pointer by Yale's Raffi Mantilla with a breakaway dunk by Burks to go up 24-23 with just over a minute remaining in the opening period.