No. 25 UCLA defeats No. 21 Colorado, 69
UCLA's Norman Powell tries to keep the ball away from Colorado's Askia Booker during the first half of the Bruins' 69-56 victory Thursday over the No. 21 ranked Buffaloes. (Brennan Linsley / Associated Press / )
Norman Powell matched his season high with 19 points and No. 25 UCLA pulled away in the second half to beat No. 21 Colorado 69-56 Thursday night, handing the short-handed Buffaloes their first home loss of the season.
Jordan Adams had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and David Wear added 13 points for UCLA (14-3, 3-1 Pac-12), which has won consecutive games since a narrow loss to top-ranked Arizona a week ago.
Askia Booker scored 21 points and Josh Scott 19 for Colorado (14-4, 3-2). The Buffaloes were playing for the first time since guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who was leading the team in scoring, assists and steals, suffered a season-ending knee injury during last Sunday's loss at Washington.
It was the first loss in 12 home games for the Buffaloes, who fell to 0-3 against UCLA since joining the Pac-12 three years ago. Colorado dropped to 1-7 overall against the Bruins, with its lone victory coming 52 years ago.
Down seven at the break, Colorado made it 42-39 on a pair of free throws by Scott. But the Bruins scored seven of the next nine points to go up 49-41 with 12:35 remaining.
UCLA then took advantage of a cold stretch by Colorado - the Buffaloes went without a field goal for roughly 8 minutes - as the Bruins extended their lead to 58-46 when Powell finished a 9-1 burst with a dunk.
Scott's dunk with 3:52 remaining ended Colorado's shooting drought and Booker followed with a 3-pointer to get the Buffaloes to 58-51 with 3:22 left.
Booker connected on a 3 and a jumper on successive possessions to pull Colorado to 31-29 with 4:23 left in the first half, but the Bruins closed with a 5-0 spurt. They got a 3-pointer from Zach LaVine and a jumper from Adams to grab a 36-29 halftime lead. The seven-point advantage matched the Bruins' biggest lead of the game to that point.
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