National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Arizona 82, Colorado 72
When: 9:00 PM ET, Friday, March 11, 2022
Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
Officials: # Mike Reed, # Tom Padilla, # Verne Harris
Attendance: N/A

Azuolas Tubelis had 20 points and No. 2 Arizona dominated the paint to beat Colorado 82-72 in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals on Friday night in Las Vegas.

The top-seeded Wildcats (30-3) will face No. 13 UCLA in Saturday night's conference tournament final, with Arizona seeking its first Pac-12 tourney title since 2018. The second-seeded Bruins (25-6) topped 21st-ranked and third-seeded Southern California 69-59 in the second semifinal.

Tubelis, who was 9 of 14 from the field, had 18 points in the first half, including 10 in a row late in the first half. His play inside enabled Arizona to outscore the fourth-seeded Buffaloes 30-14 in the paint after losing that battle 54-26 in a 79-63 loss at Colorado (21-11) in late February.

Arizona was 24 of 25 from the foul line, compared to 8 of 10 for the Buffaloes, and made all 15 free-throw attempts in the second half.

Colorado, which dropped to 1-6 against Arizona in the Pac-12 tournament, set a conference tourney record with 16 3-pointers on 32 attempts. But when inside the arc they couldn't find the bottom of the basket, going 8-of-30 on 2-pointers to shoot just 38.7 percent for the game.

Arizona led 47-38 at the break, but Colorado started the second half like it did the first by hitting a bunch of 3-pointers. The Buffaloes hit four in the first 3:44, including on three straight possessions to get within 51-50 with 16:16 to go.

The Wildcats, who shot 60.7 percent in the first half, were just 2 of 7 with six turnovers over the first eight minutes of the second half before Justin Kier had a three-point play to put his team up 58-54 with 11:41 left.

Kier, who started in place of injured point guard Kerr Kriisa, had 13 points. Kriisa suffered a sprained right ankle in the final minute of Arizona's quarterfinal win over Stanford.

Colorado's Jabari Walker, who had a team-high 19 points, picked up his fourth foul with 10:37 left, and in his absence Arizona pounded the ball inside and got to the line. Then Dalen Terry's 3-pointer put the Wildcats up 69-62 with 7:27 remaining, and another triple by Terry with 2:52 to go made it 74-65.

Colorado hit its first five shots, including a trio of 3-pointers, in the first two and a half minutes while Arizona committed four turnovers before the first media timeout. A fourth 3-pointer, by Tristan Da Silva, put the Buffaloes up 16-8 with 15:19 left in the first half.

Arizona went on a 14-5 run to lead 22-21 with 10:15 left on a Kier 3-pointer, only to see Walker hit his fourth triple 16 seconds later to give Colorado back the lead.

The Wildcats then scored nine points in 59 seconds, fueled by a pair of Terry steals, to go up 31-24 with 7:58 to go.

Colorado was outscored 39-22 over the final 15 minutes of the first half.

-Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Colorado   Arizona
Jabari Walker 19 Scoring Azuolas Tubelis 20
Julian Hammond III 5 Assists Justin Kier 3
Jabari Walker 5 Rebounds Azuolas Tubelis 11
KJ Simpson 5 Free Throws Made Oumar Ballo 6
KJ Simpson 4 Steals Dalen Terry 3
Jabari Walker 3 Blocks Pelle Larsson 2
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Colorado 72 38.7 16-32 8-10 20 23 4 9 14
Arizona 82 52.0 6-15 24-25 14 33 4 10 18