King Leads Colorado Past Washington State, 75-70

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — George King scored 22 points to lead Colorado to a 75-70 victory at Washington State on Saturday night.

Josh Scott added 11 points and eight rebounds for the Buffaloes (15-5, 4-3 Pac-12).

Ike Iroegbu led Washington State (9-10, 1-6) with 27 points, one off his career high. Conor Clifford, a junior college transfer, matched his season bests of 18 points and five rebounds. The Cougars have lost five consecutive games.

Iroegbu, who led the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting percentage entering Saturday's game, scored most of his points on aggressive drives to the basket. The 6-foot-2 guard took just three shots from 3-point range, making one, before shooting an air ball from with the 6-10 Scott guarding him on another 3-point attempt that would have tied the game at 73-73 with approximately four seconds to play.

Colorado led 39-32 at halftime. The Cougars jumped out front 9-3, then were outscored 20-2, when the Buffaloes held WSU without a field goal for nearly seven minutes.

Washington State shot 50 percent from the field in the opening half and held Colorado to 41.9 percent. However, the Cougars sank only 5 of 12 free throws in the half, and Colorado went 10 for 13.

WSU coach Ernie Kent, critical of the Cougars' defense in recent games, made three changes to the starting lineup. Junior Longrus replaced Clifford at center, Brett Boese started for wing Que Johnson and Ny Redding took over for point guard Charles Callison. Clifford, Johnson and Callison outscored their replacements 28-3.

TIP-INS

Colorado: Senior post Josh Scott ranks in the top 10 in school history in points, rebounds, blocked shots and double-doubles. He ranks in the top 10 in the Pac-12 in all four statistics this season.

Washington State: Coach Ernie Kent turned 61 Friday, so various birthday greetings from WSU players aired on the Beasley Coliseum video screen prior to the game.

UP NEXT

Colorado hosts Stanford on Wednesday.

Washington State visits USC on Thursday.

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