Boulder, Colo. ? With a win Saturday over Nebraska, Colorado finished in no worse than a tie for fourth place in the Big 12 Conference heading into the conference tournament.

And that, according to coach Ricardo Patton, ought to be enough to get the Buffaloes into the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.

“I just believe there is no doubt about it, that when you finish fourth in the Big 12, unless they’re going to take only three teams, we ought to be in,” Patton said.

David Harrison scored 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting and Michel Morandais added 23, leading Colorado to a 78-75 victory in a regular-season finale.

“We didn’t have an answer for (Harrison) inside,” Nebraska coach Barry Collier said.

Colorado (18-9, 10-6 Big 12) prevailed despite making only 3-of-8 free throws in the final minute.

John Turek had 19 points and 11 rebounds for Nebraska (16-11, 6-10), and Nate Johnson scored 13.