On New Year's Eve, the Buffaloes (7-2, 1-1 Pac-12) scored their fifth consecutive win over Southern California and the third straight at the Galen Center on the Trojans' home court.

Four CU players scored in the double digits, led by McKinley Wright IV's 19, while D'Shawn Schwartz notched his first career double-double, contributing 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds in CU's 72-62 victory.

The Buffs' 6-foot-7 senior from Colorado Springs had doubtless had a slow start to the 2020-2021 campaign, as heading into Thursday night's game in Los Angeles he'd been averaging just 7.9 points in 24.3 minutes per contest through seven games.

Since he was forced to miss Colorado's season-opening games within the Little Apple Classic at Thanksgiving due to a positive COVID test, Schwartz just had not been himself up to last night.

However, a new career-high in rebounds and his first collegiate double-double certainly seems like the kind of performance that would provide a big confidence boost for Schwartz.

His teammates in particular were pumped to see him get going against the Trojans.

"D’Shawn played huge minutes for us," Wright IV said after the win. "Obviously, he was in foul trouble in the first half, but he was still able to get the double-double...That’s who D’Shawn is and that’s what we’re trying to get him to continue to be. We know how good he can be."

"It’s all about his confidence and getting him looks. D’Shawn’s a really big piece to our team so it was great to see him play that way.”

Schwartz took Colorado's first shot of the game vs. USC and missed, but quickly grabbed an offensive rebound that led to a Jeriah Horne three and shortly thereafter snagged a board in the defensive zone.

On the Buffs' ensuing offensive possession, he assisted Maddox Daniels on a three-pointer that put CU up, 12-10.

Colorado's next basket would be a three-pointer, courtesy of Schwartz, who went 1-of-5 from beyond the arc on the night.

Tad Boyle frequently stresses the need for his players to make an impact in other ways on nights where their shots aren't falling and Schwartz, who was 3-of-9 from the floor, looked to do just that.

“I didn’t shoot the ball necessarily well," Schwartz said. "I made my first (three-pointer) but couldn’t really hit one after that. I just try to contribute on the glass, play defense as best as I could and try to make plays for others — the little things that help win games.”

Ultimately, Schwartz turned to his defense and rebounding in the second half as the primary manner in which he continued to make contributions to the cause.

He was 3-of-5 in total and a perfect 1-of-1 from long range heading into halftime, but missed all four of his attempts he took in the second half. That said, he did go 4-of-4 from the free throw line in the final 20 minutes.

Regarding his rebounding, he had six in the first half and four in the second.

Boyle, who recently challenged his players other than big men Evan Battey, Horne and Dallas Walton (the latter of whom did not play vs. the Trojans) to rebound the ball better, was doubtless pleased with Schwartz's efforts in that respect.

"I thought he really battled — he had 10 boards (vs. USC), two (of which) were offensive," Boyle said. "...D’Shawn is a big, strong, physical wing and he plays aggressive."

While Schwartz has proved throughout his career that he can sink threes, he's also shown an impressive ability to score the ball by driving to the rim through traffic.

Schwartz attempted a couple such shots on Thursday but was unable to get his layups to fall.

The way Boyle sees it, finishing on those attempts will be a big part of Schwartz completely returning to form and playing with 100% confidence.

"I thought he had a couple of and-1s that he — he made his free throws, which was good — but he could have had a couple and-1s there at the end that he didn’t quite finish," Boyle said. "He knows that but he played well and really competed.”

Up next for the Buffaloes is the final slate of their three-game road swing that opened up Pac-12 league play for them this season, a 6 p.m. MST draw at UCLA on Saturday.

The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.