BOULDER, Colo. — It counts as a road victory.

In the record book, Kansas’ 73-56 victory against Colorado Saturday is its first victory away from home this season. Sherron Collins does not care about the record book.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Basketball vs. Colorado

A photo gallery of the men's basketball game against Colorado.

“It really doesn’t feel like a road win,” Collins, a junior guard, said. “We know we’re on the road, but our fans here were great.”

Kansas coach Bill Self estimated that 6,000 people out of the announced attendance of 10,212 were Kansas fans. A number of them held up signs proclaiming Colorado’s home court as “Allen Fieldhouse West.” Other than the Buffalo logo at the center of the court and the picture of former Colorado great Chauncey Billups on the south side of the gym, there was no indication that the Coors Events Center belonged to Colorado.

Nonetheless, the Jayhawks started to follow the script they’ve written in their two previous road games in the first half. In its 17-point defeat at Arizona and 13-point loss at Michigan State, Kansas allowed massive runs that it couldn’t recover from.

Self, who knew how desperate his team was to win away from Allen Fieldhouse, remembered those disastrous stretches when he took a timeout with seven minutes remaining in the first half. Colorado had taken a 22-17 lead after a 10-0 run.

Self wanted this to end. Collins made sure of it. He scored 10 points in the next three minutes to send the Jayhawks to the locker room with a 34-27 lead.

“If anybody won the game, Sherron won it for us in the first half,” Self said, “because we’re behind at halftime if he didn’t play.”

Self stressed not letting up on the Buffaloes in the locker room. He expected the Jayhawks to take care of the ball and play defense.

On the contrary, Kansas committed five turnovers in the opening three minutes of the second half and let Colorado convert on two shots late in the shot clock. The Buffaloes cut the score to 34-32.

“That was bad,” Self said. “My halftime talks aren’t that good, obviously, because we come out and go the other way.”

But Kansas never surrendered the lead again. Collins, who finished with 18 points and seven assists, started to be more of a distributor in the second half.

Sophomore guard Tyrel Reed benefited. Reed scored all of his 11 points, which included three timely three-pointers, in the second half. Sophomore center Cole Aldrich contributed 15 points and freshman guard Tyshawn Taylor added 14, but 11 of their combined 29 points came at the end of the game when it didn’t matter.

“Second half, my teammates started hitting shots they weren’t making in the first half,” Collins said. “So I didn’t have as much to do. It was good they got in a groove.”

Colorado still forced Kansas to play at its preferred groggy pace for much of the second half. It made the Jayhawks pull away methodically with drawn-out offensive possessions instead of in a blur of excitement with fastbreak layups and dunks.

In fact, the most thrilling moment for the Jayhawks didn’t come until moments after the game had ended. Collins’ eyes lit up, he began to smile and he sprinted off the court to give former Jayhawk Darnell Jackson a hug.

Aldrich was the only player who knew Jackson, who currently plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, attended the game. Jackson, the starting power forward on last year’s national championship team, surprised everyone else during his off-day and briefly spoke to the team after the game.

“I’m just missing being around those guys and joking around and playing,” Jackson said. “Hopefully, one day I’ll get back to Lawrence and see the Fieldhouse and get to feel that experience again.”

It wasn’t quite Allen Fieldhouse, but Collins called the game “a home-road win.” Aldrich disagreed.

“A road win is a road win,” Aldrich said. “If we’re at the Fieldhouse, it’s a home game. If we’re not, it’s a good road win for us.”