The Colorado Buffaloes are still searching for their first Pac-12 win of the season after letting a chance for victory against the No. 25 USC Trojans slip through their fingers on Sunday at Coors Event Center.
The Buffaloes had the lead with 34 seconds remaining before sophomore forward Chimezie Metu scored the last of his career-high 24 points to give the Trojans their final lead. George King missed a possible go-ahead bucket and Elijah Stewart made a pair of free throws down the stretch to help seal the game. King again missed on a 3-pointer to tie the game in the final seconds and the Buffs remain winless in the Pac-12 through five conference games.
Metu led all scorers and King led the Buffaloes with 16. Xavier Johnson had 15 for the Buffs and Derrick White and Dominique Collier each finished in double digits. After surrendered a record 19 3-pointers to UCLA earlier in the week, Colorado held USC to just 3-of-19 shooting from distance while going 11-of-24 themselves. However, the Buffs shot just 53.8 percent from the free throw line in the loss.
The loss drops Colorado to 10-8 overall and 0-5 in the Pac-12. The Buffs travel to the northwest this week for dates with Washington on Wednesday and Washington State on Sunday.