Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
22-11
Arizona
25-7
Buffs Rally Comes Up Short As CU Falls To Arizona
March 10, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
LAS VEGAS — Now begins the waiting game for the Colorado Buffaloes.
Thursday afternoon, the Buffs' stay in the Pac-12 Tournament came to an abrupt end, as a furious rally down the stretch fell just short and 15th-ranked Arizona held on for an 82-78 win at the MGM Garden Arena.
Sunday, the Buffs hope the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will see things the way most of the national "bracketologists" have seen Colorado: as a team worthy of an invitation to the NCAA's annual postseason party.
The announcement will be made late Sunday afternoon from New York. The general consensus is that 22-11 Colorado is an NCAA Tournament team with a strong RPI, strong strength of schedule and a solid list of wins over top-100 RPI teams.
CU coach Tad Boyle, though, wasn't in the mood to speculate or campaign for his team Thursday evening. Asked if he believed his team's resume´ is worthy of an NCAA berth, Boyle said, "Short answer, yes. Realistic is it doesn't matter what I think."
But later in his press conference, Boyle did reference his team's postseason chances one more time when discussing CU's four seniors.
"These four guys really deserve to finish their college career on a high note," Boyle said, "and boy, I sure hope we get that opportunity because we're a team that I don't think a lot of people are going to want to play. There's going to be a lot of good teams in this tournament, but we'll figure out if we're part of it. If we are, we'll relish the opportunity."
If the Buffs do earn an NCAA bid and play like they did in the second half Thursday, they will indeed be a tough out. CU trailed by as much as 21 in the first half and 20 in the second half before storming back late in the game to pull within five with 33 seconds to go, four with 19.3 remaining and two with just under two seconds to go.
CU ended up outscoring the Wildcats 58-45 in the final 20 minutes, and it took eight UA free throws in the final minute — including two from Gabe York with just under two seconds to play — to seal the win for Arizona.
"Obviously, we're extremely disappointed," Boyle said. "We came here to win this tournament and felt like we were in a good place mentally and physically to do that. We came up short tonight.
"But the one thing about our team is there is no give-up. They've got tremendous fight, tremendous resolve, and I'm really proud of the comeback we staged to get ourselves back in the game."
Arizona coach Sean Miller, though, wasn't exactly happy the way the second half played out.
"I question our effort wholeheartedly in the second half," Miller said. "I think they scored 58 points in the second half. Our guys certainly did not play hard. They didn't play together in the second half defensively."
George King led the Buffs in scoring for the second day in a row, finishing with 22 points — 19 coming in the second half. CU senior Josh Scott recorded his 12th double-double of the season, tallying 16 points and 13 rebounds, and Josh Fortune chipped in 10.
But the Buffs couldn't quite overcome the hole they dug for themselves in the first half. CU shot  shot just 25 percent from the field (8-for-31) while Arizona was a hot 48 percent (15-for-31), including 5-for-8 from 3-point range. Arizona jumped out to 13-2 lead six minutes into the game, stretched the margin to 21-8 with seven to play in the first half and held a comfortable 37-20 cushion at the half.
"Tale of two halves," Boyle said. "Arizona obviously outplayed us convincingly in the first half, and I thought that's where we kind of lost the game."
But to their credit, the Buffs didn't quit. After Arizona extended its lead to 20 early in the second half, Colorado began chipping away at the lead. A King basket with 6:13 to play cut the edge to 10, and the Buffs finally brought it back to single digits minutes later when a Scott offensive rebound, basket and free throw narrowed UA's lead to 64-57.
Arizona briefly rebuilt its lead to 10, but the Buffs cut the margin to seven, then five, four and two in the final minute on a King 3-pointer — but could never quite get over the hump, as the Wildcats made just enough of their free throws to hold on to the win.
CU took 45 shots in the second half compared to just 17 for the Wildcats, and finished with a 51-35 edge on the boards. Arizona, though, shot 44 free throws — 12 in the final minute — while the Buffs hit 21 of their 25 tries from the line.
"We could not get to the free throw line, and that was the difference in the game," Boyle said. "We could not get there and we were trying to get there. We didn't finish some baskets in the first half I thought we could have finished. But we kept attacking, we kept plugging and we made a great comeback. We just came up a little short."
Allonzo Trier led Arizona with 23 points and Ryan Anderson added 17. The Wildcats face Oregon, which beat Washington on Thursday, in Friday night's semifinal.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
Â
