No. 9 Arizona falls flat against Buffaloes in Boulder

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Josh Scott scored enough down the stretch to help Colorado weather his two mistakes in the final seconds.

Scott scored a season-high 26 points, including 12 in the last 10 minutes, and the Buffaloes overcame his two late turnovers to beat No. 9 Arizona 75-72 on Wednesday night.

“I just wanted to play aggressive,” Scott said. “I know they were scoring and I was just kind of feeling my Wheaties. Really, I’ve had some tough shooting nights — I was 2 for 7 at one point — but these guys kept feeding me and credit to them for continuing to look for me.”

George King added 14 points and Josh Fortune had 13 for Colorado (20-9, 9-7 Pac-12), which snapped a six-game losing streak to Arizona (22-6, 10-5) while securing its ninth 20-win season and fifth in six years.

“When we play well, we can beat anybody,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “I can’t begin to tell you how important this win was. Number one, it gets us to 20 wins. Number two, it gives us a great win in terms of RPI and Top 10.”

Ryan Anderson had 19 points to lead Arizona, which had its six-game winning streak snapped. Allonzo Trier added 15 points.

“Sometimes you have to take your hat off to the opponent and say tonight they were the better team and they were,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “They were ready to play, they were the harder playing, more physical team. We can’t let one game ruin all that we have achieved.”

Colorado held the 75-72 edge with 26 seconds left when Scott lost the ball driving in traffic. Arizona turned the ball back over, but then with 9 seconds left, Scott was called for traveling under defensive pressure.

Trier attempted a 3-pointer at the buzzer but hit the back of the rim and missed.

“If it had gone in, I would have been beating myself up a lot,” Scott said. “We would have to get a ‘W’ in overtime. Luckily, it didn’t get to that point.”

After leading by four at the break, the Buffaloes moved in front 56-45 after Scott converted a three-point play with 14:21 left. Arizona responded with a 9-3 burst to prevent the game from getting out of hand, but Colorado withstood the pressure, leaning on a series of driving layups by Scott to stay in front. His layup with 3:32 remaining put the Buffaloes up by 10.

A basket by Kaleb Tarczewski and a 3-pointer by Gabe York pulled the Wildcats within 75-70 with 2:10 remaining. Tarczewski then threw down a two-handed dunk off an alley-oop pass from Kadeem Allen.

Arizona missed its first four 3-pointers and trailed 37-33 at the half.

TIP-INS

Arizona: Tarczewski had seven rebounds and increased his career total to 815, snapping a tie with Sean Elliott for ninth-place on the school’s career list. … With seven made baskets in the game, Anderson surpassed 600 for his career (605).

Colorado: Scott has scored in double figures in 25 of 27 games. … Colorado got its 400th win at the Coors Events Center. The Buffaloes are 400-166 at the facility since its opening for the 1979-80 season.

UP NEXT

Arizona plays at Utah on Saturday.

Colorado hosts Arizona State on Sunday.