Boulder, Colo. ? Wayne Simien’s mood brightened considerably before tipoff Saturday afternoon as his eyes scanned the stands of sold-out Coors Events Center.

“You look up at the top, and you see crimson and blue, not just spots, but whole sections full of our fans,” Simien, Kansas University’s senior All-America candidate, said after scoring 23 points and tying a career high with 17 rebounds in the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks’ 76-61 victory over the stingy, unranked Buffaloes.

The game was played before 11,057 fans, at least half of the spectators wearing KU’s colors.

“This is one of my favorite places to play, with all the fans from Western Kansas coming out to support us,” Simien added.

The 6-foot-9, 255-pounder — who controlled the boards (he also had 17 last season against Texas Tech) on a day coach Bill Self lit into his team at halftime for giving up way too many offensive rebounds — was despondent during warmups.

It took several tries for him to get the soft cast covering his injured left thumb approved by the refs.

“They said it was too hard. They didn’t want to let me out there,” Simien said. “It took a lot of extra padding.”

Self understood the scrutiny.

“We’ve got to get the cast cleared by each referee, each game,”’ said Self, who definitely was relieved when Simien was given the OK to play. “Twenty-three and 17 is pretty good with one hand.

Kansas University's J.R. Giddens gets hacked from behind by Andy Osborn in the first half of the Jayhawks' 76-61 victory over Colorado. Giddens had 11 points in the victory Saturday in Boulder, Colo.

“I didn’t think guys other than Wayne were battling for balls.”

So he screamed at his team at halftime — “He was irate, real upset. He jumped on everybody,” senior guard Michael Lee said — with the Jayhawks ahead, 38-25, despite allowing 13 offensive rebounds to KU’s four.

“We weren’t rebounding,” Lee added, “doing the little things we needed to do to win.”

Oddly, it went downhill after the halftime chat, as KU’s comfortable game-high lead of 18 points — at 32-14 with 5:35 left in first half — dipped to just one point, 45-44, with 11:34 to play.

Suddenly, a blowout resembled KU’s past four games, all won by six points or fewer.

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“I don’t like coaching close games. They probably do it just to mess with me,” Self deadpanned. “I think partly it’s the law of averages. They made some shots they’d been missing.”

Yet the Jayhawks (13-0 overall, 3-0 Big 12 Conference) responded as they have in all their close games, overcoming the Buffs (8-6, 0-3).

Keith Langford, who had three points the first half, hit a slashing bucket and ensuing foul shot at 10:47, immediately extending the lead to four points. He had six points in a 9-2 run that opened a 54-46 lead at 9:35.

“My gosh, it was awesome,” junior Christian Moody said of Langford hitting an inside shot, drawing the foul and cashing a free throw right when the Buffs crept to one. “I was trying to seal my man. I look up, and Keith is driving as usual. It was a great play when we needed it.”

Langford’s play impressed Self.

“They cut it to one. He took the game over,” Self said of the senior left-handed shooter who also opened a back-breaking 9-0 run by hitting a pair of free throws, extending a 60-56 lead to 62-56 at 5:03.

Langford finished with 14 points and five assists. He was not available to the media, his punishment for commenting on officials stretching into a third straight game.

“He labored the whole day. He wasn’t getting rebounds. The altitude affected us a bit,” Self said. “We took him off Roby (Richard, 14 points). He didn’t have anything going until they cut it to one when he took over the game.”

Langford has seemed to thrive in the clutch his senior year.

“Keith this year is a second-half guy,” Simien said. “He’s had to shake some cobwebs off the first half. He gets to the line better than any guy in the country. He’s clutch, a key go-to guy.”

Russell Robinson hit two free throws, Simien a pair and Moody a pair in the 9-0 run that finally put CU away, 69-56, with two minutes left.

It all played out to the delight of the KU fans, who cheered loudly and performed the “Rock Chalk Chant” in the closing moments.

“It had to be close to 50-50,” Self said of the crowd’s allegiance. “It’s remarkable to me. This place holds 13,000 people, and there must have been 6,000 Kansas fans. It’s unbelievable to me. It is just terrific to see that kind of commitment and dedication from our fans. Most of them had to travel a good distance just to see us play.”

The Jayhawks, who have won 31 of their last 32 outings versus CU, appreciated the gesture.

“In warmups it was all our fans until their students got there,” Moody noted.

“It sounded like a home game,” said Lee, who had three boards in 14 minutes. “We were just talking about it. We were saying it sounded like our own gym in there.”

The Jayhawks next will meet Nebraska at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.