The Colorado Buffaloes gave it all they had Saturday night in Las Vegas but it just wasn’t enough as they fell to the Arizona Wildcats 82-72 in the Pac-12 semifinals. Arizona is too good of a team to let them shoot 25 free throws in a contest and expect to win.
Fouls and unforced turnovers were a big problem for the Buffs in Saturday’s contest. Colorado was outshot 25-10 — a +15 margin from the charity stripe. Arizona bucked down and went an almost perfect 24-of-25 from the free-throw line and shot 26-50 from the field.
Hard to beat a top-5 team when they put up stats like that so you have to tip your cap to them.
Jabari Walker was on fire in the first half for the Buffs and pretty much kept them in the game with his three ball. Unfortunately for Jabari, foul trouble caught up to the sophomore as he scored just two points in the second half.
Walker scored 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting, going 5-of-6 from beyond the arc while hauling down five rebounds.
Arizona’s size was far too much for the inexperienced Buffaloes. This was a game where having freshman Lawson Lovering would have been great for Tad Boyle‘s bench. Evan Battey and Jabari Walker both picked up their fourth fouls early in the second half which led to more minutes of undersized basketball.
As a result, Arizona out rebounded Colorado 36-27.
Azuolas Tubelis was the player of the game for Arizona. It didn’t matter who Colorado put on him, whether it was Tristan da Silva or Luke O’Brien — they just simply didn’t have an answer for him.
Tubelis scored a game-high 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting while collecting 11 rebounds.
Five of Arizona’s eight players that registered minutes scored in double-figures.
Colorado shot 16-of-32 (50%) from three which kept them in the game. They recorded just eight baskets inside the three-point line.
Not a recipe for success.
As for Colorado, this essentially eliminates the team from an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. I don’t see the Buffs getting in unless there’s an absolute miracle.
Colorado will likely hear their name called Sunday night for the NIT.
You can’t complain about a 21-11 season for this young Buffs team who struggled to find their identity early on. Selfishly you’d want them to get in the tournament for Evan Battey’s final ride but Colorado will likely be playing a game or two more at the Coors Event Center.