Buffs beat up No. 19 USC, 80-62, secure sixth straight win over the Trojans

Suffice to say, CU’s back-to-back losses at Cal and Oregon last week still loom large in the minds of Buffs fans, ever nervous that a second straight end-of-season collapse will be the end result for this veteran-led Colorado unit.

That’s fair. Those two losses certainly were a bit concerning, although more at face value than in terms of being blemishes in permanent ink on the team’s NCAA Tournament resume.

Despite the Buffs playing down to their competition at times, a bad habit evident in the team’s losses to Washington, Utah and Cal this year, no loss Colorado has suffered has really tanked the team where it counts: at KenPom.com or within the NET Rankings.

Beating Oregon State on the road this past Saturday was a step in the right direction but undoubtedly, tonight’s convincing win over No. 19 USC — the Buffs’ sixth straight against the Trojans — must have fans, coaches and players alike feeling pretty good about where Colorado is at as the regular season draws to a close.

CU has swept the Trojans on the hardwood in three consecutive seasons, a feat surely inspiring jealousy within the Buffs’ football program, which remains winless against Southern Cal.

At any rate, the Buffs (18-7, 12-6 Pac-12), in part thanks to Oregon’s win over Stanford, have secured a top four finish in the Pac-12 Conference for the first time ever thanks to a solid, 80-62 win over the visiting Trojans Thursday night in Boulder.

Jeriah Horne was undoubtedly the offensive star of the game for the Buffs, lighting up USC for 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting, with the majority of his damage coming on six made three-pointers (out of nine tries). He secured himself a double-double, as well, by grabbing 11 boards.

McKinley Wright IV, honored by athletic director Rick George before the game with a commemorative basketball to honor his 1,600 points, 600 rebounds and 600 assists milestone recently achieved, had a career-high 14 assists to go along with 15 points.

D’Shawn Schwartz (12 points) and Eli Parquet (10 points) chipped in key supplementary performances.

All that said, for Tad Boyle, the team’s defense was what proved to be most consequential.

“When we play at a high level on the defensive end and rebound the ball, we can beat anybody and that’s why we beat USC,” Boyle said. “It just so happened that the shots were going in, we had 20 assists, we shared the ball and on those nights, it’s going to be a runaway.”

Namely, for the second time this year, Colorado kept USC standout forward Evan Mobley well below his season averages in points and rebounds (16.8/8.7).

Mobley took just five shots in the first half and while later in the game he penetrated down low for some baskets in the paint, he finished the game with 13 inconsequential points.

Boyle in particular credited Dallas Walton and Evan Battey for running a successful tag team on Mobley for the majority of the night, while Wright IV echoed those sentiments.

“It’s a collective effort,” he said. “Evan Mobley is going to be a top five NBA Draft pick this year. We know how skilled he is, so we just tried to make it as hard as possible and shoutout to Dallas and Evan for working their tails off.”

On a side note, the Buffs had a rare run in with some technical fouls against the Trojans; in total, CU was whistled for three; Wright IV and Horne were called for one due to apparent trash talking after made shots while Parquet earned his by hanging onto the rim following a dunk.

Wright IV was the first to receive a technical, which transpired in the first half when the game was very much still an undecided affair, as Colorado led by six, 28-22.

But in about as opposite a fashion as possible with respect to the technical generating some momentum for the Trojans, Wright IV quickly redeemed himself with back-to-back fastbreak layups.

A few minutes later, Colorado dealt USC a powerful body blow via a 10-0 run near the end of the half.

“That technical kind of fueled McKinley,” Boyle said. “He got a couple buckets in transition after that — the blood was throwing through the veins and when he gets like that and he’s aggressive, he’s a really good finisher.”

Before the Pac-12 Tournament gets underway in Las Vegas, Colorado has two remaining regular season contests against UCLA this Saturday and Arizona State next Thursday.

Already, celebration time is over and all hands are on deck as the Buffs will look to avenge three straight losses to the Bruins.

"We've got to turn around a play a good UCLA team who has had our number the last three times we've played them," Boyle said. "We've got to figure some things out for the Bruins. It's a short turnaround for us, a short turnaround for them, so, here we go."