Boulder, Colo. ? No offense to Kansas University’s basketball freshmen.

They’ve had some great games this season.

Wednesday, however, it was a steely-eyed senior – Christian Moody – whose career-high 18 points and seven rebounds during the game, and leadership qualities the day before, propelled the Jayhawks to a resounding 75-63 victory over Colorado at Coors Events Center.

“It’s the best Christian has played since we’ve been here,” gushed KU coach Bill Self, who has coached Moody three of the 6-foot-8 forward’s four seasons at KU. “Since he didn’t play much his freshman year, it’s obviously his best game. He was terrific. He has a look about him right now that’s real positive, aggressive, confident.”

Moody hit a three-pointer and layup off a feed from Russell Robinson to key a 7-0 run that turned a 39-37 lead into a 46-37 advantage with 12:23 to play.

He spoke to the team Tuesday about the importance of getting off to a good start in Big 12 Conference play.

It marked KU’s first league game, while CU, which lost at Texas on Saturday, dropped to 0-2 in the Big 12.

“He talked about how tight our huddle has to be, everybody pulling in the same direction,” Self said.

Moody, who lost at Colorado his freshman year – KU’s only loss to the Buffs in the last 34 games in the all-time series – knew the freshmen needed to respond.

“I was kind of wondering what the freshmen were thinking, what was going through their mind-set,” said Moody, who hit eight of his 10 field-goal attempts. “We’ve been talking the last couple days that this is the biggest game of our second season. We’ve talked all along (that) the Big 12 is one of our biggest goals.”

His three, by the way, was KU’s first of the game after nine clanks and was taken because, “They were playing off me.”

His words of wisdom about the importance of conference play sunk in.

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“Moody was great. He led us tonight, hit some big shots,” freshman Brandon Rush said after scoring 17 points the second half after getting blanked the first half; he said it took awhile for him to get used to playing in altitude.

“He’s like our glue man,” rookie Mario Chalmers said after collecting 11 points and six assists in 17 minutes.

And the other two freshmen?

Julian Wright had five rebounds and a basket in seven minutes. Self said the only reason Wright didn’t play more was, “Christian was on a roll.”

And Micah Downs, who entered in the first half with the team bricking a batch of threes, played seven minutes, suffering four turnovers, with an assist and rebound.

“I thought they responded well, and Darnell was great,” he said of Darnell Jackson, who had 10 points and seven boards in 17 minutes.

His rebounding propelled the Jayhawks to a whopping 50-28 advantage.

Moody took his usual humble attitude about his performance.

“I’m just happy we won,” he said. “I do like playing here. I told Stephen (Vinson) yesterday I like playing here. It’s a fun atmosphere. It feels like it’s at least one half KU and one half Colorado fans.”

Some reporters estimated the crowd of 10,586 was split evenly, some believing CU fans outnumbered the Jayhawks 60 percent to 40.

“If it’s 50-50, it’s unbelievable. Our fans are great,” Self said.

Colorado cut KU’s late 13-point lead (64-51 at 4:21) to seven points – at 64-57, following a three by Martane Freeman and a two by Freeman, who picked Jeff Hawkins’ pocket in the backcourt at 2:39.

But Rush hit two free throws at 2:13 and, after two bricks at the line by Freeman, Moody converted off a pass from Robinson (nine points, five assists, 28 minutes) at 1:21, upping the lead to 68-57.

Robinson hit two free throws at :45 and Rush one at :36, following a three by Chris Copeland, allowing the Jayhawks (10-4, 1-0) to hang on against CU (10-3, 0-2).

“In the second half, we turned up the volume defensively,” Self said. “Winning in someone else’s building is always gratifying. I think this will give us a lot of confidence. I think we can make more of a statement if we can win on Saturday and play well on Monday.”

KU will meet Kansas State at 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse and follow that with a 6 p.m. game Monday at Missouri.