Aggressive Colorado downs Oregon in Pac-12 basketball

With Askia Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie attacking the basket, Colorado managed to beat high-scoring Oregon at its own game.

Booker scored a career-high 27 points, 11 in the last 4:40, and Dinwiddie scored 16 of his 23 in the second half as No. 20 Colorado rallied from a 10-point deficit to hand No. 10 Oregon its first loss of the season, 100-91 on Sunday in Boulder, Colo.

“You’ve got to fight fire with fire,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “When they’re trapping you and they’re attacking you defensively, you’ve got to attack them.”

Booker and Dinwidde were the first 20-plus point scorers in the same game for Colorado since Cory Higgins (22) and Alec Burks (25) both surpassed that threshold against California on March 18, 2011.

“It’s pretty simple,” Dinwiddie said. “When ’Ski plays well, we play well. We kind of go as he goes. He played extremely well today and we got a good win against a top-ranked team.”

Five-and-a-half minutes into the second half, Colorado found itself trailing by 10 points. From there, the Buffaloes got their transition game going, with Booker and Dinwiddie leading the charge down the court.

Xavier Johnson and Josh Scott had 15 points apiece for Colorado (13-2, 2-0 Pac-12), which is off to its best start since the 1968-69 team began the season 13-2. Scott had 12 rebounds for the Buffaloes, who remain unbeaten in 11 home games this season.

Mike Moser had 24 points to lead Oregon (13-1, 1-1), which was denied its first 14-0 start since 1937-38. Joseph Young and Damyean Dotson both added 16 points.

UCLA 107, Southern Cal 73: Kyle Anderson scored 23 points and Jordan Adams added 21 as UCLA handily beat USC (9-5, 0-1) at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA (12-2, 1-0) scored 11 of the game’s first 13 points and never looked back. The Bruins led by 25 points in the first half.