Colorado
18-11
UCLA
16-14
Buffs Rout Bruins To Keep Top-Four Finish Hopes Alive
March 07, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Tyler Bey notched his fourth straight double-double with 27 points and 13 rebounds and Colorado's recent dominance of UCLA continued Thursday night as the Buffs routed the Bruins, 93-68, at the CU Events Center.
The win was Colorado's fourth in a row over the Bruins, completing back-to-back regular season sweeps. CU improved to 18-11 overall and 9-8 in Pac-12 play while the Bruins, who saw a three-game win streak come to an end, fell to 16-14, 9-8.
The win also kept the Buffs in contention for a top-four Pac-12 finish while UCLA's hopes of the same dimmed with the loss. Following Utah's win over USC on Thursday, Colorado was in a four-way tie for fourth place with one game left to play.
Bey's 27 points — 17 in the second half — tied a career high, and the Buffs added two other players in double figures, with Shane Gatling scoring 26 and D'Shawn Schwartz adding 15 points and six rebounds. McKinley Wright IV, meanwhile, had nine points, nine rebounds and five assists while also playing excellent defense all night on UCLA's Jaylen Hands.
Colorado held the Bruins — the Pac-12's highest scoring team — to under 36 percent shooting for the night and 10 points under their season scoring average. Colorado, meanwhile, shot nearly 50 percent from the floor (34-for-69) while also holding a commanding 47-35 edge on the boards.
"I think we took these matchups personally," Wright said of CU's defensive effort. "We got tired of hearing certain guys' names over and over. Before the tip I told my gus to take their matchup personally and everybody did. When we come together and take our matchups personally, we're a really good defensive team."
Kris Wilkes led UCLA with 19 points, but shot just 6-for-16 from the field while Jaylen Hands had 18 points on 5-for-12 shooting.
Colorado coach Tad Boyle, who moved into a tie for second on CU's all-time victory list with his 184th win, called it a complete team effort.
"We've got some guys that are taking (defense) personally and taking it upon themselves," Boyle said. "That's how you're going to win games, especially this time of year, because some nights the shots are going to go and sometimes they aren't. Tonight I thought it was a pretty good effort on both sides of the ball. Anytime you have 18 assists and nine turnovers, you're doing something right. Especially the second half, we got things going offensively."
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Buffs led by 10 at intermission, 37-27, then steadily built their lead throughout the second half, outscoring the Bruins 56-41 over the final 20 minutes. CU pushed the cushion to 14 in the first two minutes of the half on dunks from Schwartz and Bey and the margin never fell below 11 again as the Buffs pounded the ball inside, owning a 46-32 edge in points in the paint by game's end.
Bey finished with seven dunks, including six in the second half.
"In the second half I thought we penetrated the zone, we got to the free throw line, we attacked the basket and we got some plays at the rim," Boyle said. "Tyler had 27 and a lot of those were on dunks and plays at the rim. That's what you have to do. You have to play inside out against the zone. You can't settle for threes."
The Bruins did manage to stay within 12 to 15 points of the Buffs for much of the second half before Colorado delivered the knockout punch over the last 10 minutes. Back-to-back baskets from Schwartz gave CU a 67-50 lead with 7:18 to go and the cushion hit the 20s with two minutes to play.
Gatling was particularly effective from the free-throw line, hitting all 10 of his attempts, while also shooting 7-for-13 from the floor. Of his three 20-point games this year, two have come against the Bruins.
Defensively, the Buffs also limited UCLA big man Moses Brown to just three points and three rebounds.
"I thought Evan Battey was terrific on our interior defense," Boyle said. "I thought Evan was good, I thought Tyler was good, I thought Lucas (Siewert) was good. We made them take tough shots —and when Moses got it down there, we wanted to really dig hard on him and make him spit it back out. Our interior guys were taking it personal."
UCLA interim head coach Murry Bartow said his team was outplayed in every facet.
"I give Colorado a lot of credit," Bartow said. "They defended better than we did, they rebounded better than we did and offensively they scored the ball better than we did. So really in all phases of the game they just outplayed us."
ALL KNOTTED UP: With one game left to play, the Buffs can still finish as high as third in final conference standings, but they need some help. Along with a win over USC on Saturday, Colorado also needs an Oregon State loss at Washington State or a Utah loss against UCLA to finish in the top four. If one of the two happens, CU will finish fourth; if both happen, the Buffs finish third. No matter what happens elsewhere in the conference, if the Buffs win Saturday, the worst they can finish is fifth.
A top-four finish would give the Buffs a first-round bye in next week's Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas.
Boyle, though, isn't concerned about matters beyond the Buffs' control.
"It's time to focus on USC and not worry about seeding in the Pac-12 tournament, not worry about next week," he said. "Let's get better tomorrow, let's have a great effort on Saturday and then we'll see who and when we play in Vegas."
TURNING POINT: The Buffs were in control for virtually the entire game. UCLA managed to cut a 10-point CU lead in half late in the first period, but Colorado outscored the Bruins 7-2 over the final two minutes, then opened the second half with a 6-2 burst and the Bruins never came closer than 11 again.
WHAT IT MEANS: Saturday's regular season finale against USC now has all kinds of implications. A win guarantees the Buffs of no worse than a fifth-place finish, with third still a possibility.
KEY STATISTICS: The Buffs dominated in virtually every key statistical category. CU shot nearly 50 percent from the field (34-for-69) while holding the Bruins to under 36 percent (23-for-64). Colorado also held a commanding 47-35 rebounding edge, leading to a 46-32 edge in points in the paint.
NOTEWORTHY: The 25-point final margin was the largest ever by CU over the Bruins. … Colorado had just nine turnovers for the second straight game, one off their season low of eight against CSU. … Boyle is now tied with Ricardo Patton for second on CU's all-time win list with 184. … CU's 93 points are the most by the Buffs in a regulation, regular-season Pac-12 game since scoring 100 in a win over Oregon in 2014. … After a 2-6 Pac-12 start, the Buffs have won 7 of their last 9. … Boyle used the last couple of minutes to get some playing time for his walkons, with AJ Martinka, Aidan McQuade and Benan Ersek all getting time on the floor. … The Buffs had 18 assists and nine turnovers, with four different players getting at least three assists.
QUOTEWORTHY: "I couldn't be more proud of our guys. We beat a UCLA team that's been playing well, they'd won four out of five coming in here. That's a better than we saw in LA about a month ago. We guarded, held them to 35 percent, we rebounded — plus 12 on the boards. That was a big key to the game for us going into it. UCLA is a great rebounding team. I thought our defense was great for the most part all night. Great win for Colorado." — CU head coach Tad Boyle
"We tried different lineups, we tried different rotations, we tried to play different defenses. … This has happened to us several times this year when we have a 10-point deficit, then before you can blink it goes to 20. It isn't the first time that has happened to us." — UCLA interim head coach Murry Bartow
"Early in the year we struggled against a zone defense, but coach has been working with us in practice. He stressed moving without the ball. … We've been doing a very good job of carving them up." — CU point guard McKinley Wright
NEXT UP: Colorado wraps up the regular season with a 3 p.m. game Saturday against USC at the CU Events Center.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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