George King scored 25 points to lead Colorado to a 79-70 victory over Mercer in the Paradise Jam title game on Sunday night in Lynchburg, Va.

King, a fifth-year senior, made 9 of 13 shots from the field and had eight rebounds.

King completed a four-point play to give the Buffaloes (5-0) their biggest lead of the game at 64-51 with 9:24 to go.

Mercer (4-2) got no closer than seven the rest of the way.

King scored 77 seconds into the second half to break an 0-of-10 Colorado shooting skid.

A 10-3 run that saw the Bears make four straight shots pushed the Colorado lead to 52-43 with 15:24 remaining.

Demetre Rivers led Mercer with 14 points and Stephon Jelks grabbed 12 rebounds.

Namon Wright and and Deleon Brown each scored 13 points and McKinley Wright IV added 11 for the Buffaloes, who shot 48.0 percent from the field.

Mercer outscored Colorado 38-22 on the inside.

Both teams cooled off after hot-shooting starts

Colorado didn't make a field goal in the final 6:32 of the first half and missed nine of its final 11 shots.

The Buffaloes made 11 of 18 field goals to start the game.

The Bears, who started 10 of 15 from the floor, were 3 of 11 in the first 7 1/2 minutes of the first half.

Mercer had early leads of 5-0 and 13-6, but Colorado slowly chipped away at the deficit, taking its first lead at 21-20 with 9:42 to go in the half.

Both teams have a week off before home games on Nov. 26. The Bears will host Hiwassee College, and Colorado takes on Air Force.