KANSAS CITY -- Not much may have been expected from the Colorado basketball team this week as it came into the Big 12 tournament as the lowest-seeded team on the bracket, but the No. 16-seeded Buffs clearly didn't see it that way.

For the second day in a row, Colorado delivered the upset to advance in the tournament, this time with a 67-60 win over No. 8-seed West Virginia on Wednesday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.

After going just 3-17 in conference play during the regular season, the Buffs (14-19) have already won two games at the Big 12 tournament this week, setting up a quarterfinals matchup with top-seeded Houston on Thursday.

The Buffs trailed the majority of the game in this one, but that's been a familiar position for this team.. More often than not this season Colorado found itself clawing back from a tough start and battling for enough possessions to break through, so perhaps chalk it up to experience as the Buffs shook off a 46-37 deficit midway through the second half to take control over the final 10 minutes.

“Our depth showed tonight because we had a freshman [Felix Kossaras] coming off the bench who played 20 minutes and played his tail off, and he's used to not playing very much at all,” coach Tad Boyle said. “So you need that, we need that in a tournament like this. We needed it today, and we got it. These guys delivered.”

Elijah Malone, who had scored in double figures just twice since mid-December, led Colorado with 14 points off the bench in 27 minutes (the second-most on the team), while RJ Smith scored 13 off the bench and Andrej Jakimovski was the lone starter in double figures with 11 points. As Boyle noted, Kossaras made his impact as well with 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting off the bench.

Although they trailed most of the game, the Buffs at least stayed within striking distance.

Trailing by that aforementioned 9-point deficit midway through the half, the Buffs' depth that Boyle spotlighted came up big while scoring 12 of the next 15 points during a 15-0 Colorado run. Malone got it going with a basket, Kossaras made the first of two free throws, rebounded his own miss on the second and put in a layup, Malone added a layup, Smith turned a steal into a fastbreak layup and then followed soon thereafter with a 3-pointer off another Mountaineers turnover, Trevor Baskin then made West Virginia pay for a travel with a layup on the other end and promptly stole the ball back while getting to the line, hitting one of two free throws for a 52-46 lead with 5:15 remaining.

In a blink, the Buffs had seized all the momentum.

A pair of Amani Hansberry free throws for West Virginia cut that lead to 56-53 with 2:13 remaining, but Malone answered right back with a score for the Buffs, and after a WVU miss Smith delivered a dagger with a 3-pointer to push the lead back to 61-53 with 1:07 to play.

“I think the play of the game was, we got deep in the clock and [Julian Hammond III] found RJ out at the top of the key, and RJ was wide open, and he nailed the 3,” Boyle said. “That's what you have to have, that really kind of thing was the first nail in that coffin.”

Hammond finished with a team-high five assists.

Malone came off the bench for the Buffs as Bangot Dak got the starting nod, but he was key to the comeback while scoring 12 of his 14 points after halftime while Smith scored all 13 of his points in the second half. That was a big boost for the Buffs from as Malone came in averaging just 7.7 points per game and Smith 5.9 PPG.

While Colorado shot 60.9 percent from the field in the second half (and 13 of 16 from the foul line) against one of the best defenses in the Big 12, the Buffs switching their defense also played an important role in CU’s ability to come back and hold WVU to 41.2 percent from the field for the game.

“We were still in man-to-man, and then we felt like they made a sub and they've got certain guys who can really shoot the ball,” Boyle said. “They got other guys that maybe struggle to shoot the ball. So we knew zone was going to be a part of our game plan tonight. … It was pretty effective. They scored a few times on it. But then when we went to the zone and we went to the soft pressure in the backcourt on makes to try to make them use clock and have less time and run their zone offense, I thought it was really effective tonight.”

West Virginia's Javon Small, an All-Big 12 First Team selection, finished with 23 points and four 3-pointers. Toby Okani (11 points) was the only other Mountaineer who finished in double-digits.

Colorado has a huge test up next against No. 1-seed and No. 2-ranked Houston (27-4) on Thursday at 1 p.m. MT. The Cougars won the teams' lone regular-season meeting, 69=59, in Boulder last month.

“​​Really, really proud of this group, because we have had a rough year in terms of coming up short in some of these games, and these guys have stuck together,” Boyle said.