It wasn’t the beer that had the Nebraska men’s basketball team foaming at the mouth in the Coors Events Center on Wednesday night.

You can blame the Huskers’ bleary-eyed look following their 81-59 loss in Boulder, Colo., on Colorado guard Richard Roby.

The sophomore nearly reached his per-game average by scoring 17 first-half points, then sparked a decisive 13-0 run after the break by hitting a pair of fadeaway threes en route to a 30-point performance that gave CU its fourth straight win and saddled the Huskers with a third straight defeat.

“The guy hits shots and when it’s like that there’s not a lot you can do,” Nebraska senior guard Jason Dourisseau said of Roby. “You try to lower his percentages with a hand in his face, and for the most part we were decent at that. But he was just on tonight.”

Nebraska — down 27-19 at the half after shooting 36 percent and committing 11 turnovers — trailed just 31-26 when sophomore point guard Charles Richardson sank two free throws with 16:17 to play. But the Huskers hit a five-minute scoreless stretch, during which Colorado seized the opportunity to put them away.

Marcus Hall started the 13-0 run by hitting a runner in the lane, and after Joe McCray and B.J. Walker missed for NU, Roby sank a three to make it 36-26.

Dominique Coleman then put back a miss while drawing a foul on Marcus Perry. He missed the free throw, but CU rebounded and eventually got a bucket from Chris Copeland, who was fouled by Perry and hit the charity shot to make it 41-26.

After Walker missed another close-range shot, Roby hit his second off-balance three of the run to push the Buffs’ advantage to 44-26 and force NU coach Barry Collier to call time out with 11:46 remaining.

Colorado eventually built a 22-point lead before the Huskers scored 10 straight points to make the Buffs play to the finish.

Of course, when they needed a basket to keep NU from cutting the deficit to single digits in the final two minutes, Roby, who finished 11-for-16 from the field, was there to swish another three.

“I really felt like we were in striking distance at halftime,” Collier said on his postgame radio show, but we needed a good start and … they built a big lead based on us not being able to score and get to Roby enough.”

Colorado improved to 14-3 overall and maintained a share of second place in the Big 12 at 4-2.

Nebraska (12-6, 2-3) will try to stop its slide Saturday, when it plays host to Missouri in the Bob Devaney Sports Center at 3 p.m.

Senior forward Wes Wilkinson led the Huskers in scoring with 16 points, while Dourisseau produced his second double-double with a 14-point, 10-rebound effort.

“I thought our defense was pretty good in the first half — we’ve got to be able to play with energy for the entire game,” Collier said. “We just have to keep working at it. I know our guys will do that. I know our staff is intent on doing that.”

Briefly

NU played the final 15:54 without sophomore center Aleks Maric, who was helped to the locker room after suffering effects of an oncoming cold and possibly altitude sickness. Neither is expected to affect his status for Saturday’s game. … Sophomore guard Joe McCray was held scoreless for the first time in his career. McCray, whose career low of 2 points came earlier this season against Alabama-Birmingham, was 0-for-4 from the field in 20 minutes of action. He entered the game averaging 10.4 points.