Arizona Wildcats beat Colorado, advance to Pac-12 Tournament title game

The top-seeded Arizona Wildcats continued their season of winning Friday night in Las Vegas, beating No. 4 seed Colorado 82-72 in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament.

The Wildcats book a ticket to Saturday’s championship game where they await the winner of UCLA vs. USC on Friday night.

The second-ranked team in the country was helped by a standout performance from forward Azuolas Tubelis,  who scored 20 points with a masterclass shooting performance, going 9-14 from the field.

It was a slow start for Arizona as the Buffaloes had a seven-point lead early in the first half, but the Wildcats were able to erase the deficit partly due to a 16-3 run late in the half. The Wildcats led 47-38 at the break thanks to 18 first half points from Tubelis.

“I want to give my staff a ton of credit,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd told reporters postgame.

“We did some things we’re not traditionally comfortable with today. Those are emotional things, what those guys mean to me, but they had some great ideas and we hung with it.”

The Wildcats were without the services of starting guard Kerr Kriisa after he suffered an ankle injury at the end of Thursday’s quarterfinal win over Stanford.

“I think playing him next week is a real possibility,” Lloyd said.

“We just got to take it day-by-day. All the major stuff checked out OK. Now it’s just a matter of attacking it.”

Starting in his place was Justin Kier, who made the most of the opportunity.

Kier tied his season-high with 13 points playing a key role for the Wildcats offensively with Pac-12 Player of the Year Bennedict Mathurin (10 points) having a cold night for his standards.

“I knew I had to come out, do what I needed to do for the team,” Kier told reporters postgame. “I had to fill the spot with Kerr.

“These guys give me the most confidence in the world. When I get confidence from them, that’s all I need.”

Arizona had an efficient night offensively, shooting 52% from the field.

The Wildcats were also effective at getting to the charity stripe where they cashed in big, making 24 of their 25 free throws.

While Arizona scored the basketball at an efficient clip, they did have 18 turnovers which can’t make Lloyd too pleased heading into the NCAA Tournament.

The title game from Las Vegas will tip off at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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