Down 11 late in the first half, Colorado head coach Tad Boyle pulled a card he hasn’t shown much of all season.
Quincy Allen, who entered Thursday having played only nine minutes all season, was allowed a rare first-half appearance and while his arrival provided the Buffs a minor spark, it wasn’t nearly enough to light a fire in an 84-65 home loss to USC.
Still, the former four-star recruit impressed with seven points and four blocked shots in 21 minutes. Allen admitted afterward he had some early jitters but remained focused on helping in whatever way possible.
“It was exciting to have him out there,” sophomore guard KJ Simpson said of Allen’s showing. “He’s been working hard, he’s proving it in practice and even today, he did some really good things for us. Credit to him, he waited patiently and ran when his number was called.”
Defensively, Colorado allowed five different Trojans at least 10 points in what was a 56.9% performance from the field for USC.
“In yesterday’s practice, we had great energy, great focus,” Boyle said. “I thought our game plan was solid coming in. We didn’t execute our game plan for crap. We did not execute.”
Simpson led the Buffs with 18, Luke O’Brien had 12 and Lawson Lovering also played well with nine points and seven rebounds against a USC team that boasted a considerable size advantage over the Buffs.
Colorado, which fell to 15-14 and 7-11 in Pac-12 play, hosts No. 4 UCLA on Sunday.
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