Kansas guard Elijah Johnson defends a pass by Colorado guard Cory Higgins during the first half Friday, March 11, 2011 at the Sprint Center.

Kansas City, Mo. ? After combining for 52 points Thursday against Kansas State, Colorado guards Cory Higgins and Alec Burks mustered just 29 points on 10-for-29 shooting in Friday’s 90-83 loss to Kansas.

At least part of the reason, Burks said, was KU guard Brady Morningstar’s defense.

“He was hounding me the whole game,” Burks said. “He wouldn’t let me go anywhere. He’s a great defender, one of the best I’ve faced.”

Though Burks was able to get 23 points on 9-for-18 shooting, that still ranked as his lowest scoring output in his three Big 12 tournament games.

He said his shots didn’t come easily against Morningstar.

“He’s always around. When you think he’s not there, he’s there,” Burks said. “You’ve got to give him credit for that.”

Higgins, meanwhile, finished with just six points on 1-for-11 shooting. It was his lowest point total in a game this season.

“I don’t think it was them. I think it was me,” Higgins said. “I just wasn’t making my shots. I think that was the main thing. I just wasn’t making shots that I usually make.”

Though CU coach Tad Boyle said KU did a great job defensively on Higgins, he also thought fatigue hurt the Buffaloes in the second half.

Boyle called a full timeout with 4:09 left for the sole purpose of giving his players a breather, hoping they could make a final push with two long breaks before the four-minute media timeout.

“You could just see it,” Boyle said. “They were slow to loose balls, long rebounds.”

CU guard Levi Knutson said the Buffs’ issues were more on defense than offense. The Buffs allowed 90 points for just the second time all season.

KU averaged 87 points in three games against CU this season.

“There’s some teams you match up with well, there’s some you don’t,” Boyle said. “KU’s not a good matchup for us, personnel-wise, when you go down the lineup.”

The Buffaloes (22-13) will wait until Sunday to see if they are selected for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

“We won a lot of games, you know?” Burks said. “I feel like it’s looking good for us.”