5, 435 feet is a long way above sea level. Midway through the first half against Colorado on Sunday afternoon, the USC Trojans learned that the hard way before finally falling 86-65. And the Buffs did that without one of their best players, junior forward Josh Scott, who was sidelined with back spasms for the second straight game.
“I thought it was a workman-like effort from the guys tonight,” head coach Tad Boyle said. “We did what we had to do. I thought offensively, we hit our numbers, our assist-to-turnover ratio was great (22 to 10). It’s amazing how that happens, when the percentages move with your favor.”
Senior guard Askia Booker led the way with 18 points and four rebounds, but sophomore forward Dustin Thomas wasn’t far behind with a career-high 17 points, nine of which he hit from the three-point range. On top of all that, the Buffs hit a season-high of 22 assists on Sunday.
“It was a good day I think for both my team and for myself,” Thomas said. “I’ve been in a little slump with shooting threes lately, and I think tonight got me out of that slump.”
The Buffs played exceptionally well on offense and defense. They shot 32-58 from the field (55.2 percent) and hit 7 of their 15 three-point attempts (46.7 percent). On the other side of the ball, they held the Trojans to 28-64 from the field (43.8 percent) and 4-20 from behind the arc (20 percent).
“It’s going to give us more weapons, when we play top-10 teams,” sophomore forward Jaron Hopkins said. “When teams scout us, they’re just going to have to look at everyone as a complete player. If everyone’s scoring and everyone’s contributing, I think it’s going to help our offense and it’s going to contribute to our defense as well.”
At the beginning of the matchup, the Buffs gained a 6-0 lead before the Trojans were able to get on the board. That’s not to say USC didn’t compete to give the Colorado a run for its money at first.
From the start, the Buffs never trailed. The Trojans saw a glimmer of hope early in the first half when they pulled to within two points on several separate occasions, but that hope was quickly squandered when Colorado’s offense lit up and their defense became impenetrable.
Covering a five-minute span, the Buffs ignited a 14-0 scoring tangent and went up 43-24 late in the first half before the Trojans were able to respond. They couldn’t do much to cut back at the deficit, though, as the Buffaloes led 43-27 at the half.
Overall, Colorado hit its offensive and defensive numbers in the first half as they shot 16-27 from the field (59.3 percent) and 1-4 from the three-point range (25 percent). They fared even better on defense as they held USC to 11-30 from the field (36.7 percent) and 1-10 from the three (10 percent).
Coming out of the gate in the second half, the Buffs were nearly unrecognizable as they hit four consecutive three-point shots to increase their lead to 22 four minutes in, 55-33.
In the second half, the Trojans fared even worse than they had in the first half. After going down by as much as 24 points with 13 minutes left on the clock, USC would have needed a miracle to get out of this mess. Unfortunately for the Trojans, there were no angels in the back court to help them out.
But the Trojans weren’t ready to turn over just yet. They cut Colorado’s lead to 14 with just under 6 minutes remaining, 67-53, but it wasn’t enough to shake the red-hot Buffaloes.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Buffs secured their second win of 2015 and remain undefeated in Pac-12 play. They’ll go on the road for their next three games, starting with a 7:00 p.m. matchup at No. 10 Utah on Wednesday, Jan. 7.
“I think this is a confidence booster for us, two good wins without Josh Scott,” Hopkins said. “When we get him back we’re just going to be that much better. Playing against Utah, I think we’ll be ready for them.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Alissa Noe at alissa.noe@colorado.edu.
