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Arizona-Colorado game blog: Wildcats drop second in a row

The scene before the game, including the raging cutout of Colorado coach Tad Boyle. Photo by Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The ninth-ranked Arizona Wildcats have lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Arizona, coming off a 77-69 home loss to Cal in which it shot 39.3 percent, still had trouble putting the ball in the hoop at Colorado on Thursday night. UA managed just one field goal in a nearly 10-minute stretch spanning halftime, allowing the Buffs to take control.

Colorado won 71-58, and fans stormed the court.

Spencer Dinwiddie scored a game-high 21 points — 19 of which came in the second half. Freshman Xavier Johnson scored a career-high 19 for the Buffs.

Arizona made just 5 of 19 3-points shots.

The Cats drop to 20-4 overall and 8-4 in the Pac-12, a game behind Oregon. Solomon Hill led Arizona in scoring with 12. Mark Lyons added 11.

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Colorado freshman Xavier Johnson continues to have one of his best games, hitting a 3-pointer with 4:24 left for a 63-51 lead. Kaleb Tarczewski comes back with a dunk with 4:01 left, and Sean Miller than calls his final timeout. Difference in game: Colorado is 8 of 16 from 3-point range; Arizona is 4 of 17.

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Getting close to the point of no return. Colorado leads 56-43 with 7:04 to play.

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Spencer Dinwiddie has 17 points, yet another 6-foot-6 player the Wildcats have had trouble guarding lately, joining UCLA’s Shabazz Muhammad (23 points) and Cal’s Allen Crabbe (31). Arizona lost to UCLA and Cal.

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Well, never mind that last post below. After a timeout, Colorado has scored eight consecutive points, with Spencer Dinwiddie assisting on a 3-pointer, scoring on a fast-break layup and then making a trey of his own. CU is up 53-39 with 9:25 to go.

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The Wildcats have hung in there. A Nick Johnson drive to the basket and a Grant Jerrett 3-pointer have brought Arizona within 45-39 at the 10:53 mark of the second half. The long jumpers have been falling lately.

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Some things don’t change: Colorado led Arizona by 11 at the second media timeout of the second half of the game in Tucson. Tonight, the Buffs lead by 11 at the second media timeout of the second half.

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Not Solomon Hill’s night … at least so far. He’s 1 of 9 from the field and has three points with 12:56 to play.

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Not a moment too soon, Mark Lyons and Nick Johnson hit 3-points for Arizona after the Buffs had taken a 15-point lead. The Cats climb within 38-29 with 15:53 to go.

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Sean Miller calls his second timeout of the half with 17:50 to play. No energy at all from the Cats. Miller puts in Angelo Chol, the one guys who has been aggressive on offense tonight.

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Another bad sequence for Arizona: The Cats execute their offense nicely, dropping a pass to Kaleb Tarczewski inside. But he misses the layup and Colorado taps the rebound ahead for an easy two points. Colorado opens the half on an 8-0 run. Shades of the Cal game on Sunday for Arizona.

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Arizona begins the second half with a turnover on offense, and then Brandon Ashley fouls Spencer Dinwiddie on a 3-point attempt. Dinwiddie makes them all for a 33-23 lead. For the second time this season, CU has a double-digit lead in the second half on Arizona. Sean Miller takes a full timeout with only a minute gone in the half.

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Nick Johnson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer comes up well short, and Colorado goes into halftime up 30-23. The Buffs end the half on a 10-3 run and are holding Arizona to 34.5 percent shooting (10 of 29). The 23 points ties a season low for Arizona in the first half (it also happened at Washington). Colorado playing with more intensity and have done a better job than Arizona attacking on offense.

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That stretch every game in which Arizona goes cold? Yeah, the Cats just had it. They went 6:14 without a field goal, a drought ended when Solomon Hill rattled in a jump shot with 1:23 to go before halftime. The Buffs have used the icy streak to forge ahead 28-23. Arizona is 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

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Colorado’s Xavier Johnson averages 7.7 points. The 6-6 freshman has 12 in as Colorado leads 23-20 with five minutes to go before halftime. He had 13 points when the teams met last month. “He can do a lot of different things, but it’s his versatility that makes him stand out,” Sean Miller said recently.

With Johnson, freshman big man Josh Scott, sophomore guards Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker, plus junior Andre Roberson, the Buffs are going to be fearsome next season if they avoid early defections.

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Kaleb Tarczewski has two points, one rebound and has had a shot at the rim blocked by Andre Roberson. He also has two fouls as the Cats trail 18-17 with 7:46 to go.

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Colorado grabs the lead at 18-17 with 8:36 left on what figures to be the prettiest pass of the night. Colorado’s Askia Booker, on a fast break, slips a bounce pass between Angelo Chol and Nick Johnson, with no room to spare, feeding Xavier Johnson for a dunk. Sean Miller calls timeout.

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Arizona takes the lead at 15-14 with 10:44 to go in the half, thanks to five quick points from Mark Lyons. After a 3-pointer, he steals the ball and takes it in for a layup that spins around the rim before falling in. Colorado’s strength so far is its rebounding, including four on the offensive end.

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Pac-12 Networks analyst Dan Belluomini just said the Wildcats should be looking “to go to Chol” on offense. First time that has been uttered at an Arizona game.

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Hello, Chol! Here is something we have never seen from Angelo Chol: A drive from the outside, a spin move and then the finish with a left-handed dunk. Such a carryover in confidence from a couple of games ago.

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Sean Miller goes to bench much earlier than usual, with big men Angelo Chol and Grant Jerrett coming in with 16:26 to go in the half. That’s a nod to the altitude in Boulder and Colorado’s typically deep rotation (at least up front). Cats need to be fresh at the end of the game.

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Brandon Ashley gets things started with an 18-footer from straight-away but there is some sloppy play early, including Arizona not getting into its offense and having to take a bad look from 3-point range at the end of the shot clock, and Mark Lyons missing a fast-break layup. Arizona leads 4-3 at the first media timeout.

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Wow. Maybe a loss to Cal isn’t such a horrible thing. The Bears are destroying UCLA at halftime, leading 47-22. UCLA entered tonight a half-game behind first-place Oregon (9-3) in the Pac-12. It’ll be the Ducks and Arizona at the top if the Cats win tonight.

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Looks like Colorado can’t forget about the past. Based on the pregame scoreboard, the Buffs are staking claim to the three points they think they deserved from Sabatino Chen’s waved-off shot at McKale.

Yeah, the revenge angle is a natural, but, Colorado isn’t going to do itself any favors by dwelling on how they thought they got robbed in Tucson. Getting too emotional could be an issue.

“Everybody knows what happened in Tucson,” Colorado guard Spencer Dinwiddie told CUBuffs.com.

“Our crowd is going to be into it. Our crowd is already into it; the game’s been sold out for a very long and it’s supposed to be rocking. I understand being overhyped, but in some cases it’s better to have that type of intensity and drive and focus to win a game as opposed to not taking it serious.”

Serious? Colorado fans on Twitter are using the #valentinesdaymassacre hashtag in posts about tonight’s game.

A sellout crowd of slightly more than 11,000 is expected.

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Seth Davis of SI.com posted his top 20 candidates for national coach of the year. Arizona’s Sean Miller came in at No. 13.

Wrote Davis:

“This is a program vote as well as an endorsement of what Miller has done with this team. Few coaches are as good at loading up players — and then coaching them up — as Miller. The relationship he forged as Xavier’s coach while recruiting Mark Lyons proved invaluable when Lyons transferred to Tucson last spring. Miller’s teams defend hard, and when they can get out on the break and score, they’re as dangerous as any team in America.”

Find his top 20 list at SI.com.

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Three of the four meetings between Arizona and Colorado since the Buffs joined the Pac-12 have been doozies.

Colorado won 64-63 in Boulder last season when Arizona missed a last-second shot; the Cats also misfired at the buzzer in a 53-51 loss in the Pac-12 tournament championship game. Then there was the epic no-call game on Jan. 3.

The scoreboard shows three points for Colorado at the Coors Event Center before the game. Photo via @RyanThorburn on Twitter.

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