No. 2 Houston overcomes J'Wan Roberts' ankle injury to beat Colorado 77-69 in Big 12 quarterfinal

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Emanuel Sharpe scored 19 points before fouling out, and No. 2 Houston overcame an injury to veteran forward J'Wan Roberts in the second half to beat Colorado 77-68 on Thursday and advance to the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament.

LJ Cryer and Milos Uzan added 14 points apiece for the top-seeded Cougars (28-4), who will play No. 17 BYU — the No. 4 seed in the tournament — on Friday night for a spot in their second consecutive championship game.

Houston's postseason run a year ago was derailed by injuries, so it made sense that the bench tensed up when Roberts went down right in front of it with about 18 minutes to go. The Cougars' leading rebounder was helped to the locker room, where he was diagnosed with a right ankle sprain, and Roberts spent the rest of the game watching from the bench.

Andrej Jakimovski had 25 points for the Buffaloes (14-20), who won twice in the Big 12 tourney as its first No. 16 seed to finish a trying season on a high note. Leading scorer Julian Hammond III managed just nine points on 2-for-13 shooting.

The Cougars, who lost in the Big 12 title game to Iowa State last year, have won 11 consecutive games since losing in overtime to Texas Tech on Feb. 1. That streak includes another win over the Buffaloes in early February.

Takeaways

Colorado lost forward Sebastian Rancik to an injury in the first half. And without another body off the bench, the grind of playing three games in three days was evident as Houston wore the Buffaloes down in the second half.

Houston advanced to its seventh straight conference tournament semifinal. It won the American title in 2021 and '22.

Key moment

Colorado closed within 66-58 with 5 1/3 minutes left when Uzan hit a pair of 3-pointers to give the Cougars a cushion.

Key stats

Houston trailed for only 29 seconds in the game.

Up next

The Cougars play BYU in the semifinals. They won their regular-season matchup 86-55 in early January.

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