Stanford falls to Colorado, 65-63 COLORADO 65, STANFORD 63

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A month ago Colorado belted Stanford by 21. Wednesday night's rematch went down to the buzzer, but it goes down as another loss for the Cardinal.

Another frustrating ending for a team that can't win the close one.

This time the Buffaloes won 65-63 at Maples Pavilion, giving Stanford a three-game home losing streak for the first time since 2010.

Despite missing some key foul shots in the final minutes, Stanford was in position to win it or at least send the game into overtime. It inbounded the ball from the side of its backcourt with 2.4 seconds left. Andy Brown passed the ball to Dwight Powell, who drove all the way for a dunk that was clearly too late.

"He had time; he should have laid the ball up," coach Johnny Dawkins said. "He got bumped on the catch. By the time he turned around, time was being eaten up. He did a great job of getting to the basket. He should have laid the ball up."

The Cardinal, reduced to scrambling for a higher seed in the Pac-12 tournament, fell to 16-13 overall and 7-9 in the conference, dropping into ninth place.

Like a lot of teams in the Pac-12, Stanford probably hopes Andre Roberson jumps to the NBA after this season. He fell far short of the 20 boards he piled up on the Cardinal in a 75-54 rout in Boulder, but he had 24 points and eight rebounds.

Spencer Dinwiddie added 19 points for the Buffaloes (19-8, 9-6), who have won eight of their past 10 games.

Spencer Dinwiddie, who had 19 points, shoots against Stanford's Josh Huestis in the first half. Spencer Dinwiddie, who had 19 points, shoots against Stanford's Josh Huestis in the first half. Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Stanford falls to Colorado, 65-63 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Brown equaled his career high with 17 points to lead the Cardinal, but he was not a happy camper afterward.

"This one hurts bad," he said. "Any time you lose at the buzzer it's never a good thing. But all the plays leading up to (Powell's drive) were the cause of that, so we can't say it's the last play's fault."

Stanford, the worst shooting team in the Pac-12, hit only 39 percent of its shots, but was 9-for-20 (45 percent) from three-point range. That's one reason it had an early 15-5 lead and, after starting the second half with an 11-2 run, didn't give up the lead for good until just under 10 minutes left.

"As fast as we were able to gain that margin, they were able to erase it," Dawkins said. "A lot of it was in transition. They were able to get out in transition through passing it long ... getting it into our paint early."

With nobody taller than the 6-foot-7 Roberson, the Buffs were able to score 36 points in the paint and hold a 34-33 rebounding edge.

"You can't let that happen, especially against a team that doesn't have any big men," Brown said.

In the final sequence, the plan was for Powell to kick the ball out to a teammate for a three-point shot if he was double-teamed. But the Buffs stayed on their men.

"That was the best opportunity we had," Dawkins said. But it wasn't good enough.