Men's basketball notes: Luke O'Brien comes through in the clutch

Feb. 18—LOS ANGELES — Lately, Luke O'Brien hasn't had his number called as frequently.

Yet in a testament to senior perseverance and patience, O'Brien delivered when called upon at USC.

The senior from Columbine made a number of key plays during a 92-89 double-overtime comeback victory for the Colorado men's basketball team at the Galen Center on Saturday. Tops among those plays was his game-tying dunk with 3.7 seconds remaining off a feed from KJ Simpson that sent the game into overtime.

"I believe in myself. I believe in my abilities," O'Brien said. "I know I'm one of the best players on the team and I can help the team in a lot of ways. I feel like tonight is another key indicator that I can play more and I'm confident in whatever I do."

O'Brien had scored just five points over his previous three games with a 2-for-9 mark from the floor, a mini-slump that also included a two-game absence due to an ankle injury. Yet in the second half at USC, Buffs head coach Tad Boyle opted to go with a smaller lineup, replacing Eddie Lampkin Jr. with O'Brien.

O'Brien played 30 minutes, 25 seconds for his largest amount of playing time since logging more than 31 minutes for a then-injury-depleted CU team in a Dec. 31 home win against Washington State. O'Brien made the most of his time, sparking a game-changing 17-3 run late in the second half with a 3-pointer. O'Brien also knocked down a pair of free throws early in the second overtime that gave the Buffs a five-point lead.

O'Brien went 3-for-4 and finished with nine points and four rebounds.

"We decided to go with a small lineup. We brought Luke in for Eddie just because we felt like the small lineup could help us get back in the game by switching ball-screens and putting a little bit of pressure on them, and also spreading the floor offensively," CU head coach Tad Boyle said. "Those are decisions you have to make a as a coach based on game-to-game personnel. I thought Luke O'Brien was key in that. He really guarded (Isaiah) Collier well down the stretch."

Hometown hero

Simpson has turned in all sorts of big-time scoring performances for the Buffs. But the Los Angeles-area native had never enjoyed one in his hometown.

At least until Saturday.

The junior point guard scored 24 of his 30 points after halftime to lead CU's comeback. He finished 9-for-17 overall with a career-high six 3-pointers, adding nine rebounds and five assists with only two turnovers. Thanks to the two overtime sessions, Simpson played a career-high 48 minutes. In a 50-minute game, Simpson was off the floor for only 2:09.

In his previous four games combined at USC and UCLA, Simpson had gone just 3-for-14 on 3-pointers. He was coming off a season-low four-point performance at UCLA on Thursday. It was the fifth 30-point game of Simpson's career.

"It felt great, definitely," Simpson said. "I feel like I've been laying eggs at home. Especially the last game (at UCLA). It was real disappointing for not being as aggressive as I usually am. I just wanted to make sure that I left this trip with no regrets. No regrets with the team, no regrets individually. My dad told me, 'Just go out there and play basketball. Your whole family is in the stands, just go out there and play basketball in front of your family and have fun doing it.' This was one of those games."

Simpson jumped from No. 29 to No. 26 on CU's all-time scoring list, increasing his career point total to 1,192.

Giddy at Galen

Since joining the Pac-12, the Buffs own only two wins at California's Haas Pavilion. They picked up their first Pac-12 win at Washington last month. CU has never won at Arizona's McKale Center.

The visits to USC's Galen Center have scripted some entirely different stories.

With Saturday's victory in the final Pac-12 regular season matchup between the programs, CU improved to 7-3 at the Galen Center in the Pac-12 era.

Saturday wasn't the first extra-session victory at USC, as the Buffs also posted a triple-overtime win in the 2014-15 season behind Askia Booker's 43 points. The Galen dominance also included a run of three straight victories from 2018-19 through 2020-21 that had its origins in the "timeout" game of 2017-18. That's when USC coach Andy Enfield called a timeout in the waning seconds of a game the Trojans already had in hand to draw up a set play in response to CU coach Tad Boyle's comment earlier that season about taking extra gratification in defeating Arizona in the wake of the FBI college basketball recruiting corruption scandal, which also ensnared USC.

"I don't know the answer to that," Boyle said when asked to explain the road success at USC. "We've won a couple close ones. I remember Askia had 43 here in triple overtime. Tonight's crowd was as good a crowd as they've had since we've ever been here. We won in an environment that was actually pretty hostile. That DJ gets the crowd going, but our guys responded. I think in years past it's been more of a morgue atmosphere in here, but it wasn't tonight. But I don't know why. Here and Maples (at Stanford) we've played really, really well."

Notable

The win marked CU's first double-overtime games since defeating South Dakota State in triple overtime at home on Dec. 15., 2017. ... J'Vonne Hadley posted his second double-double with the Buffs, recording 13 points and 10 rebounds. Hadley also had five turnovers, marking just the third time this season he has had more than two. ... Cody Williams enjoyed another strong shooting performance, going 5-for-6 with 14 points, but he was charged with seven turnovers and has compiled 16 turnovers in the past three games. ... Former CU star and current Portland Trail Blazer Jabari Walker attended the game and visited the team's locker room afterward.