USC fails to close out Buffs, suffers double-overtime loss
They were different until they weren't, putting on lipstick for much of Saturday night against Colorado until crunch time beckoned and all pretense of this USC team was washed away, leading to one inexorably damning reality. They can't close ballgames.
They haven't been able to close since they fumbled away a game they should've won against Long Beach State in early December. They couldn't close after holding a late lead against Washington State in early January. Couldn't close after storming back at Cal earlier this February. And they let their best performance of the season slip away against Colorado on Saturday night, 30 minutes of tremendous basketball washed away under an avalanche of KJ Simpson 3s and offensive stagnation, a fourth-quarter stretch and overtime push and double-overtime fight all rendered null in a debilitating 92-89 loss.
By the final play, USC seemed to have completely lost its way. Coach Andy Enfield appeared to draw up an action for Boogie Ellis to come off a double pindown, but Kijani Wright and DJ Rodman seemed confused in screening, and USC helplessly scurried the ball around the perimeter until Ellis let off a 35-plus-foot heave that had absolutely zero chance of dropping.
The captain drooped for several seconds after the buzzer, his
LOS ANGELES >> THE SCORE
COLORADO 92, USC 89, 2OT
Up next: USC at UCLA, Saturday, 7 p.m., ESPN
SUMMARY
COLORADO (17-9)
Williams 5-6 4-6 14, da Silva 6-16 5-6 18, Lampkin 1-4 1-4 3, Hadley 5-8 3-3 13, Simpson 9-17 6-8 30, O'Brien 3-4 2-2 9, Hammond 2-4 0-0 5, Diop 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-59 21-29 92.
USC (10-16)
Morgan 4-7 0-0 8, Rodman 2-6 2-3 6, Collier 9-19 5-7 25, Ellis 10-19 5-6 30, Johnson 6-13 0-0 14, Wright 1-3 0-0 2, James 1-2 0-1 2, Iwuchukwu 0-1 0-0 0, Page 1-2 0-0 2, Sellers 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 34-73 12-17 89.
Halftime:
USC 39-33; Colorado 9-20 (Simpson 6-9, Hammond 1-2, O'Brien 1-2, da Silva 1-6, Williams 0-1), USC 9-21 (Ellis 5-9, Collier 2-5, Johnson 2-5, Rodman 0-1, Sellers 0-1);
Morgan; Colorado 42 (Hadley 10), USC 20 (Morgan, Rodman, Ellis 4); Colorado 15 (Simpson 5), USC 22 (Collier 9);
Colorado 15, USC 18.
Rebounds:
3-Point Goals:
Fouled Out:
Assists:
Total Fouls:
head bowed as Colorado teammates clapped each other on the back, marooned in frustration out around midcourt after another disappointment.
It washed away the overwhelming good vibrations generated in a tremendous start to the night. “We gotta have more pride,” Ellis has repeated with thinly-veiled disgust, multiple times across a 1-8 stretch in which USC too often looked like a team that had no fight left to give.
And pride was in every fiber of Kobe Johnson's movements from the tip, a struggling junior suddenly imbued with a demigod's confidence, tallying 12 of the Trojans' first 22 points and a couple pickyour-pocket steals. Pride surged through every Trojan defensive rotation, center Joshua Morgan snagging a first-half block of Colorado top scorer Simpson, only for Simpson to grab his own rebound and Morgan recover to somehow block Simpson again. Pride flew from Collier's fingertips, throwing lobs to anyone and everyone available,
They played perhaps their best first half of the season Saturday, taking a 39-33 lead at the break. Morgan frustrated the bigger and stronger Eddie Lampkin, forcing him out of bounds on one possession. Ellis hit three-first half triples, capping it off with one spin move into a leftyfinish as the shot clock expired.
Ellis dropped 30 points on 10-of19 shooting in a heroic effort Saturday. But USC's lead was generated against Colorado, largely, by dynamic ball movement; as Simpson began to heat up and the Buffs continued to slaughter USC on the glass, Enfield's offense too often relied on Ellis or Collier to don a cape and create miracles. A fast-break pull-up 3 by Simpson cut USC's lead to one with two minutes to go. After a late steal by Collier with USC still up one, he made just one free throw, and a Colorado dunk sent a nerve-wracking game improbably into overtime.
USC's last lead came off a Morgan second-chance layup a minute into overtime. Collier drove for a tough layup and Johnson nabbed a beautiful strip at the end of double overtime,
Colorado drained a multitude of free throws in the second OT, and Ellis' last-ditch heave hit nothing..