DES MOINES - Sterling Gibbs made all six of his free throws in the final 45 seconds and Connecticut rallied to take down Colorado 74-67 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.

UConn survived a tense final minute to advance to Saturday's second round, where the winner of No. 1 Kansas and 16th-seeded Austin Peay awaits.

The Huskies stretched their largest lead of the game to 65-53 with seven straight points in just over one minute, but it was far from over.

The Buffaloes led the Pac-12 in free throw shooting but that team didn't show up until it was too late Thursday afternoon. Colorado was 19-for-30 from the line and made their final six attempts but only after digging a deep hole.

All-Pac-12 forward John Scott had a game-high 23 points and 11 rebounds for Colorado and was 13 of 18 from the foul line.

With five guards on the court coming out of a timeout and 59.6 seconds left, Gibbs was trapped on the inbounds at Colorado's end of the court and threw the ball away to Josh Fortune, but he quickly stole it right back and was fouled. Gibbs made both to finally answer Colorado's 6-0 run and buy the Huskies breathing room at 68-65.

Rodney Purvis paced UConn with 19 points and Daniel Hamilton added 17 and 10 rebounds. Gibbs finished with 12.

UConn's lead whittled to six on a pair of Scott free throws, and head coach Kevin Ollie went with four guards but Jalen Adams missed a five-footer in the middle of the lane off a designed clear out play and Scott put down two more foul shots with 1:05 left.

Colorado's Dominique Collier swiped the inbounds pass and shoveled to point guard Xavier Talton, who was sent to the line with one minute on the clock. Talton made both, trimming the deficit to 66-63.

The Huskies quickly built a 57-48 lead when Purvis made a pair of 3-pointers and Hamilton two free throws in another 8-0 UConn run to break open a one-point game. Purvis' second 3 was steps in front of the UConn bench with 8:06 to play.

Colorado never trailed in the first half, pushing their lead to 11 on Scott's left-handed hook in the lane with 3:01 remaining. The Buffaloes held UConn to 10 of 30 shooting - the Huskies missed eight of 11 3-point attempts - and led 36-27 at halftime. Scott led all scorers with 13, including 7 of 11 from the free throw line.

NOTES: This was the first ever meeting between Colorado and UConn. ... UConn guards Sterling Gibbs and Daniel Hamilton combined to shoot 3 of 12 from the field in the first half. ... UConn entered Thursday's first-round game with a 17-2 record in first-round games since 1990. ... The Huskies are a No. 9 seed for the third time since 1979, when the seeding process began. ... The Buffaloes made their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the past five years and 14th in program history. ... Colorado led the Pac-12 in free-throw percentage (73.8), 3-point percentage (39.2) and rebounding (42.4 per game).