Second-half collapse crushes Colorado's hope for win over No. 7 UCLA

Up 31-28 at the half, a bright light awaited Colorado as it looked to go 3-0 against ranked opponents this season, but the light quickly dimmed as the Buffs' offense was nonexistent in the second resulting in a deflating 68-54 defeat at the hands of No. 7 UCLA Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Only scoring 23 points against UCLA’s 40 in the second half, the CU offense was stalled by the Bruins' defense as they crashed the boards and contested the Buffs on every attempt.

CU didn’t make one field goal for one stretch that lasted nearly 10 minutes in the second half until KJ Simpson’s dunk with 45 seconds left in regulation. Simpson hit a free throw with 10:21 to play to put CU up 9 points.

The Bruins then went on a 17-0 run to completely flip the game, and CU could never recover even after Javon Ruffin brought the run to an end with three free throws at the 5:41 mark.

The first half wasn’t filled with as much doom and gloom as the second half for Colorado, but the Buffs still stampeded through treacherous offensive terrain (32.1% from the field) only making 9 of their 28 shot attempts from the field, 3 of 8 from three while also committing 10 turnovers.

“We competed well enough, we competed, but we weren't tough enough,” head coach Tad Boyle said. “And there's a difference between competing and being tough. We competed our tails off. Our guys tried. The effort, you can't fault their effort, but we didn't play smart in the first half.”

UCLA tried to establish its usual high-octane offense in the first, but couldn’t capitalize on the perimeter shooting 0 of 7 from three forcing the Bruins to work inside the arc eventually leading to an 11-of-28 showing from the field.

Colorado claimed a 3-point edge (31-28) going into the second half solely because of its extra opportunities at the free-throw line, where the Buffs finished the first 20 minutes going 10 of 12.

Simpson was on pace for at least a 20-point game after accumulating 11 points in the first half, but UCLA held him to just 3 points over the last 10 minutes.

"We just got to pass and catch the ball cleanly," SImpson said. "I got to pass the ball on my part, you know, I gotta be better. I feel like we just got to pass and catch clean. I mean, there's no more to prevent that from happening."

Colorado, ranked 306th in free-throw percentage, shot 87% from the line producing 20 points to keep it in contention. A better night on the line for the Buffs, but an offensive trainwreck persisted into the second half.

Simpson (17), Tristan da Silva (10) and Javon Ruffin (11) made it to double-digits Saturday, but only due to their free throws.

UCLA senior Jamie Jaquez Jr., who has been averaging 16.4 points per game, was difficult to minimize. He led the Bruins in several categories to finish with 23 points, 13 boards, five blocks and four steals.

The torrential turnover downpour in LA continued Saturday as Colorado accumulated 23 turnovers to provide the Bruins a hefty 25 points off of their giveaways. The Buffs had 22 against USC.

"We have to be good decision makers," Boyle said. "Whether that's passing the ball whether that's coming to two feet, shot fake, and getting them off their feet. We're going in there trying to dunk on him and guess what? We weren't able to do it. We got to finish better."

The Buffs fall 11-8 and 3-5 in the Pac-12 after Saturday’s loss. Five days lie ahead for Boyle and his team to reassess before they take on Washington on Thursday.

Notable: UCLA is ninth in the Pac-12 averaging 3.82 blocked shots per game. Saturday they blocked 11.