J’Wan Roberts scored 20 points, Terrance Arceneaux added 13 of his 15 points in the second half and No. 5 Houston held off Colorado 69-59 on Saturday to hand the Buffaloes their 12th straight loss.

L.J. Cryer finished with 15 points for the Cougars (19-4, 11-1 Big 12). He appeared to be shaken up late in the game.

Houston raced out to a 9-0 lead and looked on the brink of making quick work of the Buffaloes (9-14, 0-12). But Colorado took its time on offense, played tight defense and steadily chipped away.

A key moment was around the 3-minute mark when Milos Uzan was called for a travel after the horn sounded for a shot-clock violation on Colorado. It was overturned on review. Roberts proceeded to hit two short-range shots to give Cougars some breathing room.

Julian Hammond III had 22 points, including five 3-pointers, to lead Colorado. The Buffaloes have dropped 12 in a row for the first time since 2008-09.

Takeaways

Houston: Kelvin Sampson picked up his first win over Colorado as the coach of Houston. He was 14-3 against the Buffaloes while at Oklahoma.

Colorado: Colorado dropped to 1-3 against teams ranked in the top-five this season. It’s the fourth time in the AP rankings era (1948-49) the Buffaloes have faced four top-five teams in the same season.

Key moment

Colorado was hanging close when Houston's Mylik Wilson had a pivotal steal and dunk with just over 5 minutes remaining.

Key stat

Houston held an edge in rebounds (38-26), points in the paint (42-20) and second-chance points (18-7).

Up next

Houston hosts Baylor on Monday, while Colorado travels to No. 16 Kansas on Tuesday.