Brayden Burries, Koa Peat lead Arizona past Colorado to set regular season wins record

It wasn’t pretty, but Arizona handled business on the road. The Wildcats never led in the first half, but outscored Colorado by 12 points in the second half to beat the Buffaloes 89-79 on Saturday.

It was the Wildcats’ 29th win of the year, which set the regular-season program record.

The freshmen took over Senior Night. Brayden Burries led all scorers with a career-high 31 points and Koa Peat scored 25. Colorado’s Isaiah Johnson led the Buffaloes with 28 points.

On a night meant to honor Colorado’s seniors, Elijah Malone contributed seven points, including a big 3-pointer in the first half and an important deep 2-pointer early in the second half, and eight rebounds.

However, it was the underclassmen’s night in Boulder. Arizona’s freshmen scored 69 of its 89 total points.

Colorado got off to a fast start. The Buffaloes led 26-18 with 8:08 left in the first half and extended their lead to 11 points with 4:21 remaining.

But you can’t hold the No. 2 team in the country down forever. Arizona ended the half on an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to two points heading into halftime.

Arizona trailed at the half, 38-36, despite Peat’s 19 points (9-of-12 shooting). Johnson led the Buffaloes with 15 points (4-of-6 shooting), including 4 for 4 from the free-throw line.

Three minutes into the second half, Arizona tied the game and took its first lead as Burries buried a 3-pointer, Motiejus Krivas blocked a Malone layup and Ivan Kharchenkov made a layup on the other end.

The two teams went back-and-forth until the halfway mark of the second half, when Malone hit a clutch jumper to give the Buffaloes a one-point lead, 62-61.

After that, Arizona went on a 15-4 run to take a 10-point lead, its largest of the night at that point.

The Buffaloes gave the Wildcats a fight, but the Big 12’s regular-season champion wasn’t going down on Saturday.

Colorado made 20 of its 21 free throw attempts while Arizona made 19 of its 26 attempts. The Wildcats had made more free throws than their opponents had attempted entering the game.

Arizona also ranks No. 4 in the country in rebound margin, averaging 10 more rebounds per game than its opponents, and the Wildcats only had five more rebounds than the Buffaloes on Saturday.

However, after shooting 0 for 6 from 3 in the first half, Arizona went 4 for 5 from deep in the second half and shot 56% in the game.

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