Story by Neill Woelk, Contributing Editor, CUBuffs.com
BOULDER — Colorado's turnaround added another impressive chapter Saturday, as the Buffs wrapped up regular season play with a 78-67 win over Southern California at the CU Events Center to clinch a fifth seed in next week's Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas.
The Buffs will open tournament play Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena with a 3:30 p.m. (Mountain) game against Cal (8-22, 3-15). Colorado won at Cal earlier this season, 68-59, in their only meeting this season.
Saturday's win came in front of 9,379, CU's largest home crowd of the season. It was the Buffs' third in a row and eighth in their last 10 games, and improved their record to 19-11 overall and 10-8 in Pac-12 play — a far cry from the 2-6 conference record they held just six weeks ago after a home loss to Oregon State.
As has been the story through much of their late-season run, Saturday's performance featured a balanced team effort. The Buffs received a career-high 21 points from freshman Evan Battey, a fifth straight double-double from sophomore Tyler Bey (17 points, 11 rebounds) and 17 points from sophomore point guard McKinley Wright IV.
The Buffs also held a 40-31 rebounding edge and shot 28-for-57 from the field while matching their season low in turnovers (eight) to go along with 16 assists.
Defensively, the Buffs held USC to just 40.6 percent shooting from the field and forced 11 Trojan turnovers, which resulted in 14 Colorado points. Colorado held the Pac-12's third-leading scorer, Bennie Boatwright, to just nine points, half his season average. Nick Rakocevic led USC with 17 points.
The Buffs rallied from a 37-30 halftime deficit to command the game down the stretch. Bey and Wright both had 12 points in the second half and Battey scored nine. Colorado also outrebounded the Trojans 18-10 after intermission and dominated the game inside, outscoring the Trojans 46-28 in the paint.
"We were 2-6," CU head coach Tad Boyle said when asked about the Buffs' rough start to conference play. "But I knew if we could just keep getting better in practice every day, this team has what it takes. Now we've won eight of 10. The credit goes to our players for not giving up, not getting down, just coming to work every day and getting better. That's gratifying."
HOW IT HAPPENED: Colorado trailed by as much as 12 in the first half and still trailed by seven at intermission, 37-30, but quickly begin to chip away at the lead in the second half. Back-to-back baskets from Wright, including a 3-pointer, pulled Colorado to within two, 39-37, and a Battey bucket inside with 13:00 on the clock gave the Buffs their first lead since early in the first half, 44-43.
The Trojans momentarily regained the edge on a Rakocevic bucket but the Buffs took the lead for good on their next possession on a Battey basket inside off a nice feed from D'Shawn Schwartz, part of a 9-2 run that saw Colorado turn a 43-39 deficit into a 48-45 lead.
Colorado never trailed again. The Trojans tied the game with 9:08 remaining on two free throws, but the Buffs then took control down the stretch, exerting their will on the boards and taking advantage of foul trouble on USC's two big men.
"We wanted to go at Rakocevic and at Boatwright," Boyle said. "Putting foul trouble pressure on those guys, they become a different team. They don't have a lot of depth on their front line. Tyler Bey did a great job — he drew two offensive fouls on Boatwright at the end. He's a really, really good defender."
Rakocevic drew his fourth foul with 5:22 to go and Colorado clinging to a 60-58 lead. While he stayed in the game, his defensive presence was altered and the Buffs took advantage, delivering a 12-2 knockout punch over the next three minutes.
Lucas Siewert started the run with a pair of free throws, Bey added back-to-back dunks and a short jumper as Rakocevic looked on helplessly, Schwartz added a drive to the hoop and Wright hit two free throws to give Colorado a 72-60 lead with 1:26 remaining to put the game away.
Boatwright, meanwhile, drew his fifth foul in the run, sealing USC's fate.
"We defended," Battey said of the Buffs' second-half turnaround. "Defended with a sense of urgency."
USC coach Andy Enfield saw the game a little differently.
"There was some flopping going on," Enfield said. "They allow all that contact, their bigs got to our guys on the post. They had their bodies on our bigs all night and then they call some cheap flops. … A foul is a foul but it's hard when your two leading scorers have to go to the bench."
The Buffs were not in synch for much in the first half. After a quick start, CU went cold in a hurry, watching an 11-5 lead melt away. USC put together a 10-2 run to take a 15-13 lead and Colorado never led again in the half.
The Buffs also failed to take advantage of a golden opportunity when USC big men Nick Rakocevic and Bennie Boatwright both went to the bench with two fouls and the Trojans leading by six with 6:39 left in the half. Instead of cutting into the deficit, the Buffs allowed USC to push the margin to 12 before finally cutting the lead to seven by halftime, 37-30.
TURNING POINT: While Colorado led for much of the second half, it wasn't until Bey drew an offensive foul on Rakocevic with just more than five minutes to play that the Buffs took control for good. CU went on a 12-2 run over the next four minutes to put the game away.
WHAT IT MEANS: The Buffs clinched a winning conference record with the win and the fifth seed ties their highest placing in the Pac-12 tournament. Colorado is the only Pac-12 team to win four games in four days and claim a tournament title, achieving the feat in 2012.
KEY STATISTICS: Colorado dominated USC in every key statistical category. The Buffs outscored the Trojans 46-28 in the paint, held a 40-31 rebounding edge and shot 49 percent from the floor (28-for-57) while holding USC to 40.6 percent shooting (26-for-64). CU also won the turnover battle, committing just eight and forcing 11 USC miscues.
NOTEWORTHY: Colorado's 8-2 finish in conference play is the best by a CU team since Sox Walseth's 1961-62 team went 9-1 down the stretch. … Saturday's win was the 185th of Boyle's CU career, moving him past Ricardo Patton for sole possession of second place on Colorado's all-time list. Walseth is the all-time leader with 261. … Bey became the first Buff with five straight double-doubles since Shaun Vandiver in the 1990-91 season. He has 14 this season and 16 in his career, with six in his last seven games.
QUOTEWORTHY: "Thank goodness college basketball's a 40-minute game not 20 minutes. We didn't quite answer the bell in the first half. We got off to a quick start, they called that timeout and then they had to regroup and took it to us. We were a little sluggish, kind of out of synch in that first half. We let some of our frustrations on offense affect the defense. We didn't have the eye of the tiger that I thought we needed and challenged our guys at halftime, probably more than I have in quite some time. I thought they responded and we played with a little more energy in the second half." — CU head coach Tad Boyle
"We've got confidence. Obviously we're going in (to the Pac-12 tournament) with the mindset that we can beat anybody there. We don't care who it is, who we play. We're going to be excited, we'll come out there with high energy and defend and rebound."— CU sophomore McKinley Wright
"Boatwright's fifth foul was a momentum change. That was a flop in his drive and they scored four straight points and I think it went from six to 10 very quickly." — USC coach Andy Enfield
NEXT UP: The Buffs open play next week in the Pac-12 tournament with the day and opponent yet to be determined.
