Colorado
19-14
Arizona
28-4
White Scores 31, But Buffs Fall To Arizona In Pac-12 Quarterfinals
March 09, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
LAS VEGAS — Now the waiting game begins.
Despite 31 points from guard Derrick White, the Colorado Buffaloes couldn't match Arizona's firepower down the stretch Thursday night, dropping a 92-78 decision to the Wildcats in the Pac-12 quarterfinals at T-Mobile Arena.
Now 19-14 on the year, the Buffs will wait for Sunday's postseason tournament invitations to be issued. Any thoughts of an NCAA bid were snuffed by the seventh-ranked Wildcats, but Tad Boyle's crew is still hoping a call from the NIT will extend their season.
White's 31 points — the most by a Buff in Pac-12 postseason play and fourth-most by a CU player in Colorado's postseason history — led all scorers. Xavier Johnson added 20 for Colorado and George King chipped in 11, but they were the only Buffs to finish with more than one field goal.The Wildcats countered with five players in double figures, led by Lauri Markkanen with 20.
HOW IT HAPPENED: For at least a half Thursday night, visions of a conference tournament run were still dancing through the Buffs' heads. Colorado fell behind by as much as nine in the first half, but rallied to take the lead momentarily, and trailed by only one, 38-37, at intermission.
But the Wildcats broke from the gate with a 14-2 run to start the second half and while Colorado managed to cut the gap back to seven at one point, the Buffs could never come closer than that again. Arizona shot a blistering 64 percent from the field in the second half (16-for-25), including 6-for-8 from 3-point range, while the Buffs hit just 12 of their 31 field goal tries after intermission.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of when you lose to a team like Arizona," Boyle said. "These guys, they're a legitimate top 10 team in the country and I think they showed it tonight. I thought our guys really competed, especially that first half. The second half of the game got away from us a little bit in terms of not being able to make shots. We had some good looks that just didn't go down."
The Wildcats led by as much as 18 midway through the half before the Buffs put together one more surge. Two White free throws and a White 3-pointer pulled Colorado to within single digits, 76-67, with 4:31 still to play, but Arizona answered with five straight points and the cushion never hit single digits again.
"These guys know we respect Derrick White as much as any player in our conference," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "He's an unbelievable player. We knew we were in for a test and that's what we got. They play really hard. They play together, very well coached and physical. Our goal was one thing — we wanted to outrebound them."
The Wildcats accomplished that goal, but just barely, holding a 34-33 edge on the boards. CU actually had a 17-4 edge in second-chance points, but the difference came in shooting percentage, particularly in the second half. The Buffs missed their first six shots after intermission while Arizona hit five of its first six in the decisive 14-2 run.
"I thought we took some quick shots and they didn't go in," Boyle said. "When you take quick jump shots and they don't go in, it puts a lot of pressure on your defense. We didn't get any stops during that time, so the game got away from us pretty quick. … We just could never string together a series of stops that we needed in the second half."
While the Wildcats remained hot the entire second half, even Colorado's big guns misfired more often than not. White was 9-for-19 from the field, Johnson was 7-for-17 and King 3-for-8. The Buffs also hit just eight of their 25 3-point tries while the Wildcats were a far more efficient 10-for-19 from beyond the arc.
"We had some guys that weren't on top of their game offensively," Boyle said. "But it wasn't because they weren't ready to play. They were ready from the jump, and we just didn't play well enough the second half."
The Buffs did play well enough in the first half to at least throw a scare into the highly partisan Arizona crowd.
The Buffs led by three, 15-12, just six minutes in before the Wildcats threatened to blow the game open with a 15-3 run. Two Kadeem Allen free throws with 8:29 remaining put Arizona up by nine and seemingly in control.
But the Buffs just as quickly responded. White, who had just seven points in the first game with Arizona this year, started a 7-0 run with a short jumper, then finished it with a pair of free throws to pull the Buffs within two at 27-25.
Arizona regrouped and built its cushion back to seven, but Colorado then put together a 10-2 burst that gave the Buffs a 37-36 lead with 38 seconds left in the half. White, who scored nine of CU's final 14 points of the half, had a 3-pointer in the run, as did Josh Fortune. Seconds after Fortune's trey, Xavier Johnson gave the Buffs their first lead since early in the game with a pair of free throws.
Arizona, though, answered with a Dusan Ristic jump hook with 8 seconds remaining to take a 38-37 lead into the intermission.
TURNING POINT: Arizona's 14-2 run to open the second half put the Wildcats in control and the Buffs were never able to completely climb back into the game.
WHAT IT MEANS: Colorado's hopes of a conference tournament run to an NCAA Tournament berth came to an end, and now the Buffs will wait to see if the NIT comes calling Sunday night.
CU STANDOUTS: Derrick White had 31 points, six rebounds and five assists. … Xavier Johnson had 20 points and seven rebounds. … George King had 11 points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.
KEY STATISTICS: The Wildcats shot 64 percent from the field (16-for-25) in the second half while Colorado shot just 38.7 percent (12-for-31). The Wildcats were also 6-for-8 from 3-point range after intermission.
NOTEWORTHY: White's 31 points is the eighth-highest single-game total in Pac-12 tournament history. Coming on the heels of 32 points from ASU's Torian Graham earlier in the day, it's the first time in tourney history that two players scored at least 31 points in the same day. … White's 31 points also came after he scored just seven in CU's first matchup with Arizona this season. … Johnson had a pair of 3-pointers against Arizona, giving him 129 for his career, seventh-best in CU history. ... White became the 14th player in CU history to have three 30-point games in his career, and the first with three in one season since Cory Higgins had three in 2009-10.
QUOTEWORTHY: "I couldn't be more proud of the fight our guys showed. We just weren't good enough tonight. You have to beat Arizona; they're not going to beat themselves. You have to go out and beat them, and we didn't play well enough to do that tonight."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
