Colorado holds off Houston despite 33 turnovers in Big 12 opener

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lior Garzon scored 21 points, Jade Masogayo added 14 and ninth-seeded Colorado topped sixteenth-seed Houston 66-58 in the opening round of the Big 12 Conference Tournament on Wednesday.

The Buffaloes (19-11), who beat the Cougars by 23 in their regular-season matchup, face eight-seed Arizona in the second round on Thursday. Colorado beat the Wildcats 56-47 at home a month ago.

Laila Blair scored 15 points and Gia Cooke added 13 points to lead the Cougars (5-25), who have lost 13 straight. Eylia Love had 11 and Leilani Augmon 10 as Houston scored 26 points in the fourth quarter after scoring 32 through three quarters.

Colorado had a season-high 33 turnovers, 14 in the fourth quarter that the Cougars turned into 16 points. But the Buffaloes, who led 57-43 on a Masogayo layup with 3:40 to play, made 9 of 10 free throws after that to hold on.

Colorado closed the first quarter with 3-pointers by Garzon and Johanna Teder for a 19-12 lead and then scored the first eight points of the second quarter to go up 27-12.

The Cougars cut the deficit to 29-20 at the half and got within six three minutes into the second half. Garzon had a layup and 3-pointer in a 9-0 run and Ayianna Johnson made four free throws in the last 16 seconds for a 49-32 lead.

Augmon and Blair combined for eight points to get the Cougars within 10 midway through the fourth quarter and Blair converted a four-point play to cut the deficit to 53-58 with 25 seconds left.

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