LOS ANGELES — Kyle Anderson had 22 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists, freshman Bryce Alford scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half on four 3-pointers, and UCLA rallied from a 12-point first-half deficit for a 92-74 victory over Colorado on Thursday night.
Jordan Adams had 17 points and seven rebounds and Travis Wear shot 6 of 6 for a season-high 13 points for the Bruins (19-5, 8-3 Pac-12), who remained in second place in conference action behind Arizona (23-1, 10-1), which plays at Arizona State on Friday night.
Josh Scott led Colorado (18-7, 7-5) with 20 points. Askia Booker added 16 points and a career-high 12 assists and Xavier Johnson had 14 points and nine rebounds.
Alford made three 3-pointers and Adams added five points during an 18-5 run that gave the Bruins a 68-58 lead with 10:21 remaining, and they were on top the rest of the way.
The Bruins are 5-1 at home against league opponents and 3-2 on the road while the Buffaloes are 6-1 at home and 1-4 on the road.
Colorado entered having won three straight and was 4-3 since losing Spencer Dinwiddie for the season with a knee injury last month. The Buffaloes are 15-1 at home with their only loss a 69-56 setback to UCLA on Jan. 16 in the Buffaloes’ first game without Dinwiddie, the team’s leader in scoring, assists and steals when he was injured.
The Buffaloes cut UCLA’s 10-point lead in half before Anderson scored five straight points to make it 81-71 with 5:01 left. Colorado wasn’t closer than seven points after that and the Bruins pulled away by scoring the game’s final 11 points.
The Bruins shot 7 of 10 to begin the game and led by as many as eight points before Scott scored nine points during a 28-8 run that gave the Buffaloes a 33-21 lead.
Four straight points by Anderson triggered a 15-5 spurt that enabled UCLA to draw within two points before a dunk by Scott as the first half ended put the Buffaloes on top 40-36.
Colorado shot 16 of 29 in the first half while the Bruins were 15 of 30. Anderson, the only Division I player in the country averaging at least 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists, had nine points, six assists and three rebounds in the half. The 6-foot-9 sophomore entered averaging 15.1 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists.
Colorado’s Wesley Gordon, averaging 6.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and a team-leading 1.7 blocked shots, sat out his second straight game because of an injured ankle. The freshman forward has started all 21 games in which he’s played.
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