Colorado
11-5, 2-3Pac-12
USC
12-4, 2-3Pac-12
Buffs Fall to Trojans 86-51
January 12, 2018 | Women's Basketball
BOULDER -- The Colorado women's basketball team could not capitalize on the momentum earned coming off of a 66-61 road win against Washington, as the Buffs (11-5, 2-3) dropped Friday's contest 86-51 to the Southern California Trojans at Coors Event Center.
The Trojans (12-4, 2-3) dominated from beyond the arc early and often, shooting 11-for-23 (47.8 percent) as a team from deep. Junior guard Aliyah Mazyck specifically contributed a career-high 29 points on 6-for-9 from three-point land, establishing the team deep-ball presence early.
The Buffs were never able to establish a consistent offensive threat as USC held CU's three leading scorers to a combined six combined points on 1-for-21 shooting.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Buffs got out to a slow start, shooting just 3-for-15 (.200) from the field in the first quarter of Friday's contest while committing four turnovers. Combined with a 4-for-6 and 12-point first-quarter performance from behind the arc from Mazyck, the Trojans catapulted into an early 19-13 lead at the end of the first quarter of play.
Freshman Mya Hollingshed contributed an eight-point first quarter in four minutes off the bench for CU--including going 2-for-2 from deep--to slice into the early Trojans lead and keep the game competitive after one quarter of play.
The Buffs mildly rebounded on the offensive side of the ball in the second quarter, shooting 41.7 percent from the floor while limiting Mazyck and the sharpshooting Trojans to just 29 percent from the floor on the defensive end.
Senior Brecca Thomas tallied seven first-half points, including five in the second quarter. CU's leading scorer on the season Kennedy Leonard added just two points on 1-for-6 shooting, remaining scoreless until a mid-range jumper at the 4:20 mark in the second quarter.
Leonard never fully found her usual rhythm on Friday, finishing with those two points, one rebound, and three assists--well below her season averages of all three categories.
Despite an improved effort on both ends of the court from the Buffs, the Trojans still managed to use the free throw line (7-for-12 first half) to stretch the lead to seven by the end of the half with a 36-29 lead.
After CU cut the lead to four with an early third-quarter run, the Trojans proceeded to march on a 16-4 scoring run of their own behind the versatility of redshirt senior Jordan Adams (13 points) and Mazyck to stretch the Trojan lead to 52-35 at the 4:49 mark in the quarter.
From there, the floodgates were open, and the Trojans capitalized on a turnover-riddled Buffs squad en route to a 50-23 second-half onslaught, not letting up until the final whistle cemented a Trojan victory in a game that never featured a CU lead.
STAT LEADERS
Thomas (12 points) and Mya Hollingshed (10 points) were the only two Buffs to record double digits in points on Friday, as their combined 22 points contributed to a 31-11 differential in bench points between the two squads on Friday.
KEY STATISTICS
Leonard's two points were a season low for the versatile junior, while Jank (3 points) finished in single-digit points for the fourth time in the last five games after just one instance of such in the team's first ten games.
A 21 percent difference between USC (50.8 percent) and CU's (29.6 percent) shooting percentages established the dominant Trojans offense as the common trend from Friday's contest.
Colorado committed 21 turnovers to USC's 11, consistently allowing the Trojans to dominate the paint in transition en route to outscoring the Buffs 32-6 down low.
NOTES
It was CU's worst loss since joining the Pac-12 (previous was 79-46, -33, at Washington last season) ... CU drops to 6-10 all-time vs. USC ... USC's Mazyck's 29 points were a career high (previous was 26) ... CU's .296 field goal percentage was a season low.
UP NEXT
CU hosts No. 14 UCLA at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
POSTGAME QUOTES
JR Payne, head coach
Opening Statement
"I've always been one to try to look for positives. I don't pull a lot yet from this game. In spurts, we executed our game plan. We wanted to be aggressive offensively and defensively. I think we started off aggressively. We weren't able to capitalize off of turnovers like we had hoped. We have to find a way to be more aggressive offensively. We have a team with a lot of jump shooters and that's great, but we need to find a way to collapse the defense. That's need to be a priority for us. We can put our players in a position to be able to do that. As players, we need to see that, hear that and learn that. I think that together we can get a better offensive effort."
On the moment that allowed USC to go on a run
"At halftime what we talked about was being aggressive and attacking from the backboard. The first two shots we took were jumpers and that wasn't what we were looking for. In the second half at Washington, we did a great job of attacking and we were able to get a lot out of that. It really sparked our defense. That was a real positive for us but it just wasn't there tonight."
On what needs to be done for the upcoming matchup against UCLA
"In some senses, you want to flush this game and not think about it. But, I there are some things that Brecca Thomas is talking about that we can do better. We've just got to play basketball. If they're talking, we can't talk. We need to win with a great box-out and win with great execution in transition. There are things we need to learn from this but we do need to move on very quickly and pour all of our energy and focus into playing more aggressively against UCLA. We can do that."
Brecca Thomas, senior
On when the momentum shifted
"It's kind of hard to remember but like Coach J said it started at the beginning of the third by the choices we made. USC is an aggressive team physically and they let you it with their mouths as well so I think as a team we need to be tough mentally and realize that field them and got them going. They got into players heads on our team. We just have to do better and come out at the half and punch back just like they did to us."
On the intimidation factor
"It's the mentally that you have to have. If you get punched, you have to punch back. Generally, in any sport, you cannot just give up or roll over and I think that is the biggest thing. If you make a couple of mistakes, you have to have a short memory. You have to make sure to get back on the defensive end, get an O-board or D-board and fix the little things. Those little things turn into big things, lines, scoring and defensive opportunities for us. It's the little things that we have to fix."
On the result of loss
"When you look at the scoreboard and see you are down it is going to mess with you a little bit but again that is the tough mentality that you have to have. You have to be able to bounce back and keep pushing and going. It was us at the end of the day, they came and did what they had to do, they did it real aggressive, and we did not in the second half. In the first half, we had a decent first half. If we would have kept that mindset and momentum going, I think it would have been a different ball game."
Thoughts on practice this weekend
"I think tomorrow we have to come hungry, ready to fix the little things that we didn't do tonight and talk about the little things that we didn't do. We need to make sure everyone is on the same page and a game like tonight can't happen again. It's not good and it is tough to lose like that. We have to realize that tomorrow you have to come ready because UCLA is going to be tough as well but that doesn't mean we don't have a chance or mean we can't win the game. It just means we have to do those little things and we have to be ready to have a solid practice tomorrow and a solid shoot-around on Sunday."
Mark Trakh, USC head coach
On if there was a favorable matchup against Kristen Simon down low
"Regardless of who we play, we are always going to go in to her. She is one of our best players. She shoots fifty-five percent from the field so we are going to go in to Kristen [Simon] no matter who we are playing."
On if getting into the passing lanes was a point of emphasis coming in to tonight's game
"I think they just took opportunities. Usually we are a team that wants to keep everything in front of us and not get back doored. So I think it just happened in the game but that's not something that we try to do."
On pushing the tempo offensively
"We have to be careful too because we don't have a lot of depth and we were missing Sadie Edwards today. So we figured a lot of times we had to walk it up, run the clock, do those things. Minyon [Moore] is a really good point guard as far as pushing the tempo."
