BOULDER, Colo. — UCLA knew the obstacles it faced Thursday night in the Coors Events Center. A fan’s sign listed them clearly.
The “effects of altitude” didn’t cost the Bruins the game in their first Pac-12 road contest at Colorado. But, in a 69-56 victory, it made things a little less certain. It turned what could have been an early runaway victory into a 40-minute, grind-it-out in-conference win.
The first symptom of an altitude struggle was a dizzyingly off-target performance from three-point range. The Bruins shot 6-of-25 on the game from deep and just 39.4 overall.
“(We) proved to ourselves that we can win even when we don’t have a good shooting night,” said coach Steve Alford. “We had a lot of guys that struggled shooting the ball tonight, but I thought we showed some toughness by doing some other things.”
They had no choice but to try something else. Building a 36-29 halftime lead, the Bruins’ accuracy troubles led to intense shortness of breadth. With 14:33 left in the game, two free throws made by Colorado sophomore forward Josh Scott shrank UCLA’s lead to just three.
The Bruins worked a 49-43 advantage two minutes later, but heavy legs couldn’t carry them to a quick finish. The score remained 49-43 for over four minutes and UCLA didn’t claim its first double-digit lead until 5:27 remained.
The key to slowing a rapid team pulse in front of a crowd of over 10,000 white-clad fans was junior guard Norman Powell, whose noted increase in aggressiveness was handsomely rewarded. Powell made 8 of his 13 attempts from the field for a team-high 19 points, 13 coming in the first half. With sophomore guard/forward and primary ballhandler Kyle Anderson looking on from the bench with two early first-half fouls, Powell picked up the offensive slack and trudged onward.
“I feel like the team really rallied behind it, and I feel like what I did set up for what the rest of the game was,” Powell said. “I hadn’t been shooting the three ball the way I wanted to and I’ve been getting extra shots after practice. I feel really confident in my shot and it’s going in.”
No. 21 Colorado (14-4, 3-2 Pac-12) likewise didn’t have its go-to player, junior guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who missed his first full game Thursday with a torn ACL. In response, the Buffaloes were forced to rely on other producers, like junior guard Askia Booker, who notched a game-high 21 points, as well as Scott, who added 19.
“We really didn’t know what they would bring,” said sophomore guard Jordan Adams. “That’s their best player that went out, so we didn’t know what they were going to throw at us. We had to have a defensive mindset the whole time.”
All of a sudden, an advantage for UCLA became an un-scouted disadvantage, both on offense and defense. Adams lumbered to a 4-of-15 showing from the field, but even with the headache of shots not falling in, the sophomore found his rhythm on the glass, where he added six offensive rebounds. Adams called it a remedy to a “horrible” shooting performance, while Colorado coach Tad Boyle said the sophomore “kicked our tails” on the boards to close the game.
No. 25 UCLA (14-3, 3-1) will now try to ride on the tails of a win that was symptomatic of a team affected by its mile-high environment, but mentally strong enough to recover from it.
“We talked about poise all week,” Alford said. “I thought we showed some poise. I’m proud of the team for being able to do that.”
The Bruins will head to Salt Lake City for a Saturday showdown against the Utes to close out their first conference road trip of the season. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.