Fast break
Why the Buffs lost: UCLA took advantage of nine first-half turnovers by CU to post a 15-2 edge in points off turnovers in the opening frame. The Bruins finished with a 19-4 advantage in points off turnovers off of CU’s 14 giveaways.
Three stars
UCLA’s Sebastian Mack: Went 7-for-11 from the field and 5-for-7 at the free throw line before finishing with 19 points and four rebounds.
UCLA’s Adem Bona: One of the top post players in the Pac-12 posted 14 points, seven rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.
CU’s Cody Williams: The talented freshman shook off a recent slide by going 8-for-9 with 18 points.
Up next: The Buffs will try to salvage a split of their final Pac-12 trip through Los Angeles on Saturday night at USC (8 p.m. MT, ESPN).
LOS ANGELES — The frustrations continued for the Colorado men’s basketball team. And the hole the Buffaloes have dug for themselves in terms of a potential NCAA Tournament bid continues to get deeper.
A second-half comeback went for naught on Thursday for the Buffs, as UCLA held on down the stretch to hand CU a 64-60 defeat in the final Pac-12 Conference visit to Pauley Pavilion.
It was CU’s fourth loss in the past five games and was UCLA’s sixth consecutive victory against the Buffs, who have lost nine of their past 10 games against the Bruins.
The Buffs shot a robust .571 in the first half (12-for-21) but couldn’t get out of their own way, committing nine first-half turnovers. UCLA took advantage of the generosity to post a 15-2 advantage in points off turnovers in the first half alone while building a 38-29 lead at the break.
It was the sixth consecutive win for the surging Bruins and their eighth in the past nine games.
“First half turnovers cost us this game,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “I don’t say this after losses very often, but I’m very proud of this team for how the way they fought and scratched and clawed. Because I thought our competitiveness and our defense, even our offense, was really good in the second half. You shoot 52% from the floor, but they have 19 points off our turnovers and it’s a one-possession game. That’s all you need to know right there.”
Two more turnovers by CU in the first two minutes of the second half helped the Bruins push their lead to 14 points at 43-29 before the Buffs finally started chipping away. UCLA went over five minutes without a field goal while the Buffs combined continued strong shooting with a sudden remedy for the turnover problems.
CU tied the game at 51-51 on a KJ Simpson-to-Tristan da Silva dunk with a little less than 7 minutes remaining, and the game was tied again at 54-54 on a da Silva 3-pointer with about 4:50 to play. UCLA, however, responded with a 9-2 run, giving the Bruins a 63-56 lead with 2:06 remaining.
The Buffs remained within 63-60 on a driving basket by freshman Cody Williams, and a defensive stop gave CU a final chance after taking a timeout with 17 seconds remaining. But a driving attempt from da Silva was off the mark, and UCLA’s Lazar Stefanovic knocked down a free throw with 2.1 seconds left to seal the win for UCLA.
“We kind of dug ourselves a hole, especially in the first half,” da Silva said. “That’s really all it came down to for us, (19) points off turnovers. We don’t have to be perfect, but it can’t be like 20 points.”
Williams shook off a mini-slump over the previous three games by going 8-for-9 with 18 points, while da Silva hit three 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. Simpson went 1-for-7 and finished with a season-low four points, although he also recorded team-highs of seven rebounds and five assists.
CU outshot the Bruins .522 to .444, but the Buffs couldn’t overcome UCLA’s lopsided 19-4 advantage in points off turnovers. UCLA did grab 10 offensive rebounds but never really took advantage of the extra chances, as it was the Buffs who posted an 8-6 edge in second-chance points despite grabbing four fewer offensive boards.
The Buffs lost for just the ninth time in 114 games under Boyle in which they have shot at least 50%. And once again, CU will have very little time to regroup ahead of a Saturday night date at USC.
“I think the biggest thing is coming out and really locking-in on the defensive end from the jump,” Williams said. “Just taking care of the ball was a big thing. If you turn the ball over (against UCLA) you’re not going to get the ball back for 35 seconds, because they’re going to run it to the final second of the shot clock. He wanted to get the game going fast and we did that better in the second half than the first half. We kind of just dug ourselves a hole, which is why we came up a little bit short.”
COLORADO (16-9, 7-7 Pac-12)
C.Williams 8-9 0-0 18, da Silva 6-11 1-2 16, Lampkin 5-7 2-2 12, Hadley 3-8 2-4 8, Simpson 1-7 1-2 4, Hammond 1-3 0-0 2, O’Brien 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-46 6-10 60.
UCLA (14-11, 9-5)
Bona 5-9 4-5 14, Andrews 5-11 1-2 13, Mack 7-11 5-7 19, Stefanovic 2-5 1-2 6, B.Williams 1-4 1-2 4, McClendon 1-7 0-0 2, Buyuktuncel 2-5 0-0 4, Mara 1-2 0-0 2, Nwuba 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-54 12-18 64.
Halftime — UCLA 38-29. 3-point field goals — Colorado 6-15 (da Silva 3-6, C.Williams 2-3, Simpson 1-3, O’Brien 0-1, Hammond 0-2), UCLA 4-12 (Andrews 2-3, Stefanovic 1-2, B.Williams 1-3, Mack 0-1, McClendon 0-3). Rebounds — Colorado 29 (Simpson 7), UCLA 29 (Bona 7). Assists — Colorado 14 (Simpson 5), UCLA 8 (McClendon 3). Turnovers — Colorado 14 (Williams 4); UCLA 5 (Andrews 3). Total fouls — Colorado 15, UCLA 12. Attendance — 7,183.