Colorado Needs Triple Overtime To Send USC To 5th-Straight Loss
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Askia Booker scored a career-high 43 points to lead Colorado to a 98-94 win against Southern California in triple overtime on Thursday.
Booker, a Los Angeles product, scored eight points in the third overtime, including a jumper to put the Buffaloes (11-9, 4-4 Pac 12) ahead for good to win their first road game in seven tries this season. Booker made another long jumper for a 95-92 lead and two free throws with 13.4 seconds left.
Fellow local player Xavier Johnson returned after a four-game absence because of an ankle injury and had 12 points and five rebounds before he fouled out with 2:31 in the second overtime.
Katin Reinhardt had career-highs of 35 points and nine 3-pointers and Nikola Jovanovic scored a career-high 30 points, but the Trojans (9-11, 1-7) lost their fifth straight. Jordan McLaughlin had 11 points and seven assists.
Reinhardt tied Anthony Pendleton for the school single-game 3-pointers made record.
Booker scored on a drive to tie it at 83 and force a third overtime. Reinhardt opened the second overtime with a 3-pointer and made another to give USC an 81-76 lead, but Booker scored Colorado's next seven points.
Colorado blew an 11-point lead with eight minutes left in regulation. It did not make a field goal in the final 10 minutes of regulation through the first 4:30 of the first overtime, going 0 for 7 until Johnson made a 3-pointer to tie it 73-all. McLaughlin missed on a drive to end the first overtime.
Jovanovic tied it at 66 with a jump hook with 44 seconds remaining in regulation. Johnson missed on Colorado's possession and USC missed on two attempts before the regulation buzzer.
(© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
