Raleek Brown rushed 22 times for a career-high 255 yards, including an 88-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, to lead No. 25 Arizona State to a 42-17 victory over Colorado on Saturday night at Boulder, Colo.
The Sun Devils (8-3, 6-2 Big 12) have an opportunity to advance to their second straight Big 12 championship game based on various tiebreakers if they beat visiting Arizona on Friday at Tempe, Ariz.
Arizona State rushed for 355 yards against Colorado with Kanye Udoh contributing nine rushes for 62 yards and a touchdown.
Brown’s 88-yard touchdown run, which put Arizona State ahead 28-17 with 13:31 left in regulation, came one play after Colorado’s Ronald Coleman fumbled and Keith Abney II recovered the ball for the Sun Devils.
Colorado (3-8, 1-7) suffered that lone turnover that led to seven points for Arizona State. The Buffaloes scored only three points following the Sun Devils’ four turnovers.
Arizona State led 13-7 at halftime after having difficulty on third-down conversions, succeeding on 2-of-10 tries in the first half.
Third-down conversions were not an issue in the second half because the Sun Devils rushed for 236 yards after halftime.
Colorado took a 14-13 lead after true freshman quarterback Julian Lewis engineered a scoring drive on the first possession of the second half.
The drive ended on Lewis’ 22-yard pass to Omarion Miller with 12:02 left in the third quarter.
Lewis completed 19 of 38 pass attempts for 161 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.
Arizona State answered Colorado’s scoring drive with Jeff Sims connecting on a 68-yard touchdown pass with Derek Eusebio with 10:45 left in the third quarter.
Sims’ two-point conversion pass to Khamari Anderson was successful, giving Arizona State a 21-14 lead.
Sims finished with 206 passing yards while completing 11 of 24 passes with two touchdowns and one interception.
After Sims fumbled and Shaun Myers made the return to the Arizona State 9, Alejandro Mata made a 28-yard field goal and cut the lead to 21-17 with 5:25 left in the third quarter.
Brown’s 88-yard scoring run was the first of three straight possessions with a touchdown to end the game for Arizona State.
Udoh and Jason Brown Jr. each had 3-yard touchdown runs to help the Sun Devils pull away.
