No. 8 Arizona dominates Colorado, sweeps Mountain schools on road
When asked about the challenges of playing in higher elevations, Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said Tuesday that his team shouldn’t overthink it.
With 25 teams consecutively falling to Utah and Colorado on the road heading into Thursday night, perhaps it was the UA’s mental fortitude that propelled it to hand the Mountain schools their first home losses of the season.
After beating Colorado earlier in the season by 47 points with two starting opponents out, Saturday night saw the Wildcats dominate 99-79 over a full-healthy Buffaloes for their first win at CU Events Center since 2015, as well as capturing their first road sweep of the Mountain schools since that same year.
This marks the first time that UA has swept CU in a season since 2020.
"Our guys are competitors and their winners," Lloyd said after the win. "We knew everyone was trying to make excuses for us, and we don't make any excuses."
Arizona was led by Caleb Love, with 19 points and Pelle Larsson, who finished with 18 points, four rebounds and three steals. Oumar Ballo had 16 points and 13 rebounds, his fourth consecutive double-double, while shooting over 50% from the field.
UA point guard Kylan Boswell, who played with tape over his left shoulder, also contributed well, logging 15 points, along with three steals.
The Wildcats had five players score in double digits in regulation in Pac-12 road play for the first time this season.
The Wildcats only allowed Colorado’s Cody Williams, who came into the game averaging 14.4 points to only eight points, along with five turnovers.
Arizona (19-5, 10-3 Pac-12) started the game on a 15-2 run to take an early 18-10 lead. Senior guard Pelle Larsson, who had a career-high at Utah last game, along with leading scorer Caleb Love was able to lead the charge, with a combined 19 points to help take a comfortable 12 point lead with 3:29 left.
The Buffs making five out their last seven shots, including two 3-pointers helped cut the lead to seven points at halftime. A large part of CU’s success in the first half was scoring 14 fastbreak points.
After only logging four assists in the first half, the Wildcats swung the ball a great deal more, getting as many assists in the first four minutes of the second half as the entirety of the first. Arizona finished with 14 assists.
The Wildcats, which coughed up six turnovers in the first half took care of the ball, not surrendering a turnover in the first 10 minutes and three turnovers in total for the rest of the half.
UA also forced 16 turnovers, 10 coming in the second half and scored 23 points off of them. The Wildcats also only allowed the Buffs, who came into the game as a top-10 3-point shooting team to only shoot 29.4% from behind the arc.
"I think we stayed the course," Lloyd said. "... Earlier in the year we were struggling making that first run in the second half, for whatever reason and we couldn't pin point it but today we made that first run in the second half."
Lloyd mentioned multiple times in previous weeks his frustration with himself that he has not gotten Conrad Martinez and Filip Borovicanin in the game as they deserve to get some run.
Up more than 15 points in the second half, both Martinez and Borovicanin got real minutes and combined for four points, one steal and one assist.
UA sophomore guard Jaden Bradley, who averaged 5.1 points, usually has been a large contributor in the team’s [+/-], made more of an impact on the stat sheet, pouring in a season-best 14 points, along with three steals.
"Jaden played his best game at Arizona [against Colorado]," Lloyd said.
Bradley said that sweeping this road trip was big for the team and that a lot of people doubted the Wildcats' chances of taking down the Buffs.
"Going on the road and playing is not easy," Bradley said. "A lot of people doubted us, and when they doubted us, it just kinda put a bigger chip on our shoulder and we came out and executed."
No. 8 Arizona will host in-state rival Arizona State on Feb. 17 at 7:30 (MST) on FS1.
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