Colorado keeps clear of the bubble by upsetting No. 9 Arizona
Colorado senior Josh Scott came through with one of the best games of his career Wednesday leading the Buffaloes to their finest win of the year and some wiggle room when it comes to making the NCAA Tournament.
Scott scored 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Colorado’s 75-72 victory over No. 9 Arizona, giving the Buffs their first victory over a ranked opponent this season and their 20th win of the season. Scott and his teammates did beat Oregon earlier in the season when the Ducks weren’t ranked.
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Colorado ended the Wildcats’ seven-game winning streak but almost let the victory slip away in the final minute. The Buffs led by 10 with 3 minutes 31 seconds left, but Arizona whittled the lead to three and forced a turnover from Scott with 10 seconds remaining.
Alonzo Trier’s tying 3-point attempt missed and the Colorado student section poured onto the court to celebrate a victory that should help their Buffs get back to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five years.
Colorado already was considered a No. 10 or No. 11 seed before the game but a loss would have put its hopes of making the tournament in jeopardy. Coach Tad Boyle’s team should be able to add a 10th Pac-12 Conference victory to its resume on Sunday when Arizona State visits Boulder and the Buffs finish the regular season with a road trip to Utah.
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If the Buffs didn’t beat the Wildcats on Wednesday they would have gone into that Utah game in must-win mode and playing on the road hasn’t been easy for them this season. CU has lost its past four road games. Assuming the Buffs beat the Sun Devils on Sunday, they should be able to close out the season with relative confidence in getting an at-large bid next month.
While Arizona is ranked No. 9 in the polls, it too needs more quality wins on its ledger. At this point, the one team the Wildcats have beaten that can be counted on to get into the NCAA field is USC. Other teams the Wildcats have beaten such as Gonzaga, Oregon State and Washington are still tournament hopefuls at this point.
Arizona couldn’t get it done despite getting 19 points from Ryan Anderson and 15 from Trier. The Wildcats shot poorly from behind the arc (3-for-11), gave up 14 offensive rebounds and couldn’t contain Scott.
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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
