By Jeremy Harness

AP photo Michael Humphrey (10) blocks Colorado’s George King Sun 1-3-16

STANFORD – Usually, when you take better care of the basketball than the other team, that translates into a victory. That was not the case, however, for the Stanford basketball team on Sunday night.

Two nights after upsetting No. 25 Utah, the Cardinal fell behind early to Colorado and could not make up the ground quite fast enough, as time ran out on Stanford in a 56-55 loss to the Buffaloes at Maples Pavilion.

After being down by as many as 16 points at one point, Stanford took advantage of Colorado misfires and turnovers to make a big second-half charge and eventually cut the lead to a single point in the final two minutes of the game.

It appeared that Stanford, which did not hold the lead at any point of the contest, was going to have a chance to win when they forced a missed 3-pointer with six seconds remaining. However, in attempting to corral the loose ball, Rosco Allen stepped out of bounds, which gave the ball right back to the Buffaloes.

The Cardinal wrestled the ball away from Colorado on the ensuing possession, but Marcus Allen only had time for a half-court heave, which did not even draw iron, and Stanford dropped to an 8-5 overall record, 1-1 in the Pac-12.

Sophomore forward Michael Humphrey led all scorers with 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting and had a big hand in Stanford’s comeback in the second half. He also pulled down eight rebounds to go along with a pair of steals.

The turnover numbers are a bit perplexing, however. While the Cardinal turned the ball over only six times, Colorado committed 18 turnovers.

At the same time, it’s tough to win games if you can’t shoot the ball at all, and that was the issue that Stanford ran into, particularly in a first half that saw the Cardinal make only one of their 11 3-point attempts. Stanford made only 28 percent of their shots in the opening 20 minutes, and Colorado used that to race out to its big lead.

Forward Josh Scott paced Colorado with 14 points along with 14 rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.

Another reason Colorado was able to build its lead was the ball movement. The Buffaloes finished the game with 14 assists to Stanford’s seven, and they simply moved the ball quicker and more smoothly than the Cardinal did in the first half, resulting in more open looks at the basket.

The Buffaloes made five of their 11 shots from behind the 3-point arc in the first half and made 50 percent of their field goals in that timeframe overall.

Stanford, however, applied more pressure in the second half, which slowed down Colorado’s ball movement and caused more turnovers on the part of the Buffaloes, allowing the Cardinal to march back into the game.