Jabari Walker contributed his third straight double double (22 points, 13 rebounds) for Colorado, his 12th of the season, all five of CU’s starters scored at least 10 points and the Buffaloes rallied late in the second half to top Utah, 81-76, Thursday night in Boulder.

Colorado only took its first lead of the game with less than five minutes to play in the game, following a pair of free throws by Walker.

By that point, momentum had shifted in favor of CU (15-9, 7-7 Pac-12), which did not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game.

Behind Walker, the Buffs benefitted from a plethora of offensive contributions from their starters.

Evan Battey scored 16 points (6-of-14), Keeshawn Barthelemy had 14 (4-of-10) and Nique Clifford dropped 10 (4-of-4).

Tristan da Silva, who had just one shot and two points in the first half, got himself far more involved as the game went on, finishing with 14 points, which included a perfect 7-of-7 clip from the charity stripe.

The Buffaloes found themselves in multiple holes of 11 points early into the first half, as they simply had no answer for Utah big man Branden Carlson, who was unstoppable near the rim and also drilled a pair of three-pointers.

By halftime, he had scored 21 points.

However, the Buffs did adjust nicely in the second half to neutralize him; he managed just four points in the final 20 minutes of play.

“In the first half, we let him get going from the get-go,” Tad Boyle said following the win. “...We gave him too many easy looks.”

With Carlson wreaking havoc early on, the Buffs faced a 25-14 deficit with 8:17 left before halftime.

The Utes went up by 11 again a few minutes thereafter, but Colorado closed out the first half on a pretty strong note, with a three-pointer via Battey and a dunk by Clifford getting CU within three of Utah, which led, 36-33, at halftime.

Utah came out of the locker room swinging to begin the second half, however, and by the first media timeout, with 15:43 to play, Colorado was once again trailing by 11.

After K.J. Simpson scored a layup, the Buffs got a stop in the defensive zone and moved upcourt.

In a turning point of the game, Simpson then missed a layup, but Clifford hustled along the baseline, snagging an offensive rebound and keeping the ball inbounds with a slick behind-the-back pass.

The ball eventually found Battey and by that time, Clifford had relocated to the right corner and set his feet.

Battey fed him the ball and Clifford drained a three, getting Colorado within five points of the Utes with 9:42 to go.

“It was a good play,” Battey said. “It was kind of a scramble and kind of just making a play for one of your teammates. I just saw him, made the pass and thankfully he knocked the shot down. That’s what good players do — (Clifford’s) a good player.”

A few minutes later, Barthelemy and Walker hit baskets that trimmed Utah’s lead to one, and with 4:29 left in the game, a pair of free throws by Walker gave the Buffaloes their first lead of the night.

From there, Walker scored nine more points for CU in the final four minutes — hitting three layups and three foul shots.Walker was a perfect 9-of-9 from the charity stripe Saturday, with da Silva going 7-of-7, making four of them in the last 24 seconds of the game.

“We dodged a bullet with Utah — they’re the No. 1 free throw shooting team in our league, almost 80%, and they shot 52% tonight or whatever it was,” Boyle said. “If they shoot free throws at their normal rate, we’re not down three at half, we’re down like 10. We got lucky there.”

“...Free throws were a big part of tonight’s game.”

With two straight wins under their belts, the Buffaloes now prepare for a three-game road swing, starting Tuesday night in Corvallis vs. Oregon State.

Beginning with the Beavers, CU will play three games in five days, with matchups at Cal (Feb. 17) and Stanford (Feb. 19) also looming.

"That's something I'm going to be preaching to our team this coming week — going on the road, stuff's not always going to be easy," Battey said. "We're going to have adversity, so it's important that we come together and face it together."

The Buffs and Beavs tipoff Tuesday night at 7 p.m. MST, with the Pac-12 Network televising the game.