No. 10 UCLA survives scare to beat Colorado 73-67
LOS ANGELES (AP) UCLA was still reeling from its two overtime losses at Oregon State and Oregon over the weekend. Its cure for those blues was a second-half spark from senior point guard Jordin Canada.
Canada scored all of her 20 points in the second half to lead the No. 10 Bruins to a 73-67 victory over Colorado on Thursday night.
Canada also had 11 assists. It was her third consecutive game with 20 points or more, and she eclipsed the 2,000-point milestone. She now has 2,009 points.
''In the first half, I was just trying to find my teammates, trying to create opportunities for them to score,'' Canada said. ''I just let the game come to me in the second half. I wasn't worried about trying to make shots for me. I was just letting the game come to me, and I got good looks. My teammates put me in great position.''
Monique Billings added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Bruins, who narrowly avoided the upset on their home court.
Kennedy Burke made a 3-pointer from the right wing to break a tie and gave UCLA a 67-64 lead with 1:13 left. Canada made a pair of free throws with 27 seconds remaining to seal the win. UCLA made all six of its free throws in the final minute.
Alexis Robinson scored a career-high 31 points for Colorado.
The Buffaloes cut the lead to 64-62 with 2 1/2 minutes remaining on a 3-pointer by Quinessa Caylao-Do and tied the game at 64 on a pair of free throws by Mya Hollingshed. Then Burke made her 3-pointer. Robinson's 3-point attempt to answer with 52 seconds didn't fall, and Canada got the rebound. UCLA made all six of its free throws in the final minute.
The last time the teams played, UCLA got off to a 16-0 run and never looked back in a 93-55 win in January at Colorado. This was much different.
''For me, it's hard to compare (the two games),'' Colorado coach JR Payne said. ''It's like we were Boulder High playing against UCLA (in Boulder) and now we're the University of Colorado Buffaloes and we're competing at UCLA. I really feel that way. We're so much better now.''
UCLA (22-6, 13-4 Pac-12) snapped a two-game losing streak after dropping a pair of overtime games at Oregon State and Oregon last weekend.
Colorado (14-14, 5-12) had just gotten back on the winning track in conference with victories over Washington and Washington State but couldn't pull off the upset at Pauley Pavilion.
Colorado pulled within 42-39 in the third quarter, but UCLA responded with a 14-4 run to take a 56-43 lead. Canada, the senior point guard who hadn't scored before that run, had all 14 points in the spurt. Canada attempted just two shots in the first half. Even in the second half, the Bruins seemed to lack their usual energy.
''Unfortunately that's been a weakness of ours, that when we've had disappointing losses, (like) back when we lost to Connecticut, it took us a while to get back into the swing of how we wanted to play and the energy we wanted to play with,'' UCLA coach Cori Close said. ''Obviously, we were really disappointed to lose those two overtime games with plenty of opportunities, if I was to attribute it to something, we stayed in that disappointment too long.''
Billings was three rebounds shy of a double-double by halftime. She finished with the 44th double-double of her career.
''They were crashing (the boards) really hard,'' Billings said. ''That was an adjustment we tried to make at halftime. Their guards were crashing the boards ... Just trying to make sure we were in position to outrebound them.''
COLORADO CONNECTION
UCLA freshman Michaela Onyenwere, who was a three-time Colorado Gatorade player of the year out of Grandview High in Aurora Colo., had eight points and eight rebounds.
BIG PICTURE
Colorado: The Buffaloes played a much more respectable and competitive game than the last time they played the Bruins, and that's something on which first-year coach JR Payne can use to build on for the future.
UCLA: With the Pac-12 championship no longer a realistic possibility but still mathematically possible, UCLA did its job with a win in hopes of solidifying its NCAA Tournament seeding.
UP NEXT
Colorado: Plays at USC on Saturday.
UCLA: Hosts Utah on Saturday.
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More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-Top25