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Despite having much more talent than the injury-decimated 2011-12 squad that finished with only one Pac-12 win, USC has again become the conference whipping boy this season.
In their fifth Pac-12 game, the Trojans (9-9, 0-5) received their fifth beating. Colorado hadn't been able to score in the game and a half it had played without star junior point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who was lost for the season with an ACL injury. But against USC, the Buffaloes (15-4, 4-2) got baskets at will, shooting 50.9 percent for the game.
Colorado started the game on a 20-2 run as USC started 1-for-13 with three of its eight first-half turnovers in the first eight minutes. The Trojans trimmed the lead down to 12, but the Buffs pushed the lead back to 40-23 at halftime.
Leading scorer Byron Wesley only finished with 9 points, and those came after USC was already down more than 20 points. He started 0-for-7 and did not score in the first half. It was the second straight game Wesley finished in single digits have scoring 18+ points in six of the previous seven games.
Starting guards Julian Jacobs, Pe'Shon Howard and Wesley shot a combined 5-for-25.
J.T. Terrell came off the bench and supplied 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting. He knocked down four of his five 3-pointers, but the rest of the team was 0-for-11.
The only other bright spot was Omar Oraby's strong play down low. He finished with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting and grabbed 6 rebounds.
Freshman Nikola Jovanovic continued to struggle in Pac-12 play, finishing with only two points. He is now averaging 4.8 points in conference play -- less than half what he was averaging in the non-conference schedule. USC fell to 2-8 when he doesn't finish in double figures.
All 11 Colorado players that played got on the scoreboard. The Buffaloes finished with four starters in double figures led by Josh Scott, who scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. The Buffs also had 10 blocks with five coming from Wesley Gordon.
The Trojans return to the Galen Center still searching for their first conference win in the Andy Enfield era. USC will welcome Cal (13-4, 4-0) Wednesday night at 8 p.m. PT.
Correction: Apparently, the Colorado stat team had some differences from the original reported stats. Julian Jacobs, Pe'Shon Howard and Byron Wesley's combined field goals, J.T. Terrell's point total and field goal shooting have been corrected.
