Colorado
USC
Buffs Whip Trojans To Pick Up Los Angeles Sweep
February 09, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
LOS ANGELES — Colorado delivered in crunch time Saturday night, and as a result, the Buffaloes left Los Angeles with their first Pac-12 road sweep in six years.
McKinley Wright IV scored 20 points, including the go-ahead bucket with 1:36 to go, and D'Shawn Schwartz added a pair of clinching free throws with 14 seconds remaining to lift the Buffs past USC, 69-65, at the Galen Center.
The win, coupled with Wednesday's victory at UCLA, gave CU its first back-to-back conference road wins since 2013, when the Buffs swept the Oregon schools. It was CU's third victory in a row and improved the Buffs to 14-9 overall and 5-6 in Pac-12 play. USC dropped to 13-11, 6-5.
Wright gave CU a 65-63 lead with a drive to the hoop with 2:20 to go, then broke a 65-65 tie less than a minute later with another drive. The Buffs then forced back-to-back empty possessions from the Trojans, including a missed a 3-point try with 21 seconds on the clock.
Tyler Bey rebounded the missed trey and was fouled, giving CU the ball out of bounds. Colorado inbounded the ball to Schwartz, who was immediately fouled. Schwartz then hit both free throws with 14 seconds left on the clock to give CU a four-point lead, 69-65, and clinch the win.
Schwartz finished with 13 points, 11 in the second half. Evan Battey had 14 points and six rebounds for Colorado and Lucas Siewert added 12 points and six rebounds.
Benny Boatwright led USC with 24 points.
"We got stops tonight," CU head coach Tad Boyle said. "McKinley made plays, D'Shawn made free throws, Evan was a beast — it was just a great team victory. I can't be more proud of our guys. It was just a toughness win. You win with toughness on the road because you have to."
The win was especially sweet for the Buffs on USC's home floor, as it was just a year ago that USC called timeout with just a few seconds remaining and a 12-point lead to set a play for another basket.
That moment stuck with the Buffs for an entire year, and an emotional Boyle pumped his fist and yelled to CU's supporters after the game.
"This is a big game for us and our university, just like UCLA was a big win," Boyle said. "There was a little bit extra in my belly. But it's still just one win in the standings."
HOW IT HAPPENED: The game featured 16 ties and 16 lead changes, with neither team ever leading by more than five points. The Buffs also played most of the second half with their big men — Battey, Siewert and Bey — in foul trouble, with Siewert finally fouling out with 2:53 to play.
But Colorado's mental toughness made the difference down the stretch, with virtually every player on the floor coming up with key plays.
Schwartz hit a basket and free throw with four minutes to go to give Colorado a 61-60 lead, then added another basket 30 seconds later to put Colorado up by one again, 63-62. The Trojans then tied it with a free throw before Wright's drive to the bucket with 2:20 to go put Colorado up by two, 65-63. The Trojans answered to tie it up again one more time, before Wright then finally put CU in the lead for good with another drive down the lane with 1:36 to play.
That set the stage for the Buffs' back-to-back defensive stops, with Wright getting the first rebound and Bey the second.
"We had to grind it out," Boyle said. "We kept talking about it in our huddles and our timeouts. We didn't shoot the ball well, but we got defensive stops and we rebounded. The guys went out and did it."
Indeed, the Buffs did not have the shooting eye they displayed in their win over UCLA. While they did shoot a respectable 26-for-53 overall from the field, they were just 4-for-20 from 3-point range — a far cry from their 13-for-24 effort from long distance against the Bruins.
But while their shots weren't falling, they came up with big defensive stops. Colorado held USC to 23-for-57 shooting (40.4 percent) and also held a commanding 38-29 edge on the boards.
"Defense and rebounding is the key for us to win," Wright said. "We know we can score the ball. Those two areas are going to win us games."
After two straight double-double efforts, Bey was held to just two points Saturday, but he still had seven rebounds. Battey, however, picked up the scoring slack in the post, hitting five of his seven field goal tries and all four of his free throw attempts. He had back-to-back buckets with seven minutes to go that gave CU a 56-52 lead, then found Bey for a dunk a minute later.
"Evan played with great patience," Boyle said. "He is such a better offensive player than what he's shown and you saw glimpses of it tonight. He's a load down there. He's a really good passer and a good shooter. He's got a great career ahead of him."
Battey also played solid defense on USC big man Nick Rakocevic, helping hold him to just eight points — half his season average.
"I just played really within myself and let the game come to me," Battey said. "If I had shots, I took them."
Neither team was able to establish control in the first half, with the two teams entering intermission tied up at 29-29. USC's big lead of the half came early, 8-3, before Colorado came back to lead by three at several different junctures. Siewert led the Buffs in the first half with 10 points while Wright added eight points and also grabbed six rebounds.
TURNING POINT: This one wasn't settled until D'Shawn Schwartz hit two free throws with 14 seconds remaining.
WHAT IT MEANS: With a three-game win streak and now five of their last seven at home, the Buffs have a chance to make a nice run down the stretch, with a top-four finish in conference play still within their grasp.
KEY STATISTICS: Colorado held USC to just 40.4 percent shooting, while also holding a 38-29 rebounding edge. CU also outscored the Trojans 38-28 in the paint.
THREE IN A ROW: The win marked CU's 11th three-game win streak in Pac-12 play since joining the conference in 2011. CU has never won four straight Pac-12 games in the regular season (but did win four in a row in the 2012 conference tournament). The last time CU won at least four regular season conference games in a row came in 2006, when the Buffs won five straight Big 12 games.
FREE THROW CONFIDENCE: Schwartz, who was 3-for-3 from the line, said assistant coach Kim English helped him adjust his free-throw technique. Since then, he has been solid at the line.
"I feel like I knew they were going down," Schwartz said of his game-clinching charity tosses. "Coach English kind of tweaked my free throw a little bit and ever since then, I've been super confident when I get to the line."
QUOTEWORTHY: "Huge step in the right direction. Huge step. We have a lot of weapons on this team. When we're firing on all cylinders, we're tough to beat. When we're not — we didn't shoot the ball tonight like we did against UCLA — we still found a way to grind out a win on the road." — CU head coach Tad Boyle
NEXT UP: The Buffs return home next week for a pair of games, beginning with an 8:30 p.m. game Wednesday against Arizona State, followed by a 6 p.m. Sunday matchup with Arizona.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
