Arizona led by as many as 14 in the second half and then had to turn back a Colorado rally, as the Wildcats won 79-69 in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament.
Colorado cut the advantage to two points in the final minute, but Nick Johnson hit the key basket, and the Cats made their free throws down the stretch.
Arizona plays UCLA in the semifinals Friday night. That one probably won’t be boring, either.
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Nick Johnson blocks Askia Booker’s 3-point attempt with 18.0 seconds left. He’s done it all today.
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Mark Lyons makes two free throws with 23.6 left.
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Nick Johnson takes control on the offensive end, working his down low and somehow worming his way through traffic for a layup with 34.6 seconds left to give Arizona a 73-69 lead. Andre Roberson, in a hurry down court, gets called for an offensive foul with 28.2 seconds left.
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Andre Roberson makes two free throws with 1:03 left. Two-point game.
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Mark Lyons turns over the ball on his dribble, and Colorado calls timeout with 1:16 left, down 71-67.
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Askia Booker’s 3-pointer makes it 71-67. Wild. Arizona calls timeout with 1:31 to go.
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With 2:06 left, Solomon Hill, trying to save the ball from going out of bounds, throws it off a Colorado player. The ball ricochets into the stands but there is only one second left on the shot clock. Arizona inbounds the ball to Mark Lyons in the corner … and he drains a 3-pointer. Unreal.
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Some play-by-play for posterity: Xavier Johnson drives for a layup to cut the lead to 66-62, Brandon Ashely answers with a layup and Spencer Dinwiddie makes it a four-point game again at 68-64 with 2:41 to go.
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Colorado has cut the lead to six four times, but the Wildcats have had answers … so far. Arizona leads 66-60 with 4:02 to go.
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Spencer Dinwiddie’s high-degree-of-difficulty finger roll bring CU within six, 59-53, with 6:28 to go. Buffs won’t go quietly. Should be a superb finish.
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Mark Lyons once tweeted he would never shoot nine 3s in a game again. He is 1 of 8 today. Stop!
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Arizona responds to Colorado’s run with a 5-0 burst. Kaleb Tarczewski rebounded his own miss and scored on a little hook, and then Kevin Parrom hit a wide-open 3-pointer. Nick Johnson was raising his arms in celebration while the ball was still in the air.
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Colorado goes on a 7-0 run in about 50 seconds, capped by a Spencer Dinwiddie’s 3-pointer. Sean Miller calls timeout, his team up 54-47 with 10:10 to go.
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The Jordin Mayes of March 2011 has returned. He hits a 3-pointer and then draws a charge 50 seconds later. In between, he missed a driving layup, but who’s counting?
Arizona leads 54-40 with 11:31 to go.
I’m changing it.Mayes is now Marches. #BearDown #ArizonaWildcats
— Scott Terrell (@Scott_Terrell) March 14, 2013
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Crisis averted. Tarczewski to check back in at a timeout with 12:46 left. Arizona is up 51-40, with the last basket coming on a spin move to the hoop by Solomon Hill. Nick Johnson already has 14 points, the most he has scored in six games vs. CU.
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Kaleb Tarczewski goes down hard with 16:29 to go, and Sean Miller comes from the far side of the court to come take a look. Tarczewski was holding his side as Arizona fans reigned down cheers of “Zeuuuuuus.”
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Colorado starts well. Askia Booker hits a contested 3-pointer from the corner and then Spencer Dinwiddie’s steal at halfcourt leads to two free throws as he cuts the lead to 41-34. But Nick Johnson comes back with a 3-pointer for the Cats … and then a 3-point play on the next possession.
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The Wildcats are 19-1 when leading at the half, the only loss coming to Cal.
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Arizona scores the final six points of the half, including a three-point play from Solomon Hill, to take a 39-28 lead. Colorado has 10 turnovers and has made only 5 of 12 3-pointers. The Cats have had strong efforts from several players and are playing with the kind of intensity that has eluded them at times.
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Colorado is shooting 47.6 percent late in the half, but Arizona’s defense, like it was against ASU last Saturday, isn’t giving up much easy. Lots of focus and intensity and pressure from the Cats.
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The Chol Patrol is everywhere. One of the loudest cheers of the day — which is saying something — comes when he puts in a layup for a 33-23 lead.
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Grant Jerrett’s 3-pointer gives Arizona its biggest lead at 31-21 with 3:36 to go.
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Angelo Chol checks into the game for the first time with about 4 minutes left. Arizona’s rotating depth up front could really be a factor against a troubled front line for the Buffs, especially in an intense game like this. The Cats need Chol because Brandon Ashley has three fouls.
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Colorado is turning to little-used 7-footer Ben Mills to eat up some minutes.
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Another long jumper from Jordin Mayes (only a 2-pointer), this one with 6:10 to go for a 25-18 lead. We’ll try to find out where this shooting touch has been all season.
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The Wildcats have stalled a bit offensively, including two turnovers on attempted entry passes into the post for Kaleb Tarczewski. Brandon Ashley has six points to lead the Cats in scoring. Arizona up 23-17 with 7:45 to go.
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Josh Scott, with two fouls, comes back into the game for CU with about 10 minutes to go. Risky move for the Buffs, but the alternative is playing with a four-guard lineup.
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Arizona up 22-13 and has a 7-0 edge in fast-break points. Nice to see.
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With Josh Scott in foul trouble, his backup, Shane Harris-Tunks, gets tangled with Grant Jerrett and hit his head on the court. The game is stopped with 12:45 to go and Harris-Tunks leaves the game, leaving Colorado with a very short lineup.
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Jordin Mayes continues to show signs of life, hitting a 3-pointer for a 16-11 lead. He seems to have worked through whatever confidence issues he had for virtually all the season.
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Good start for the Wildcats, who lead 11-8 at the first media timeout, 14:53 to go. Nick Johnson has the defensive assignment against CU’s Spencer Dinwiddie, but Dinwiddie ends up against Solomon Hill on the first possession and blows by him for a dunk.
Lots of action after that, including Arizona’s Kevin Parrom and Mark Lyons taking charges. CU big man Josh Scott has two fouls already. Nick Johnson, who entered the game 4 of 22 from 3-point range in five games against the Buffs, hits one from the corner for the 11-8 lead.
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Rich Rodriguez said he was going to try to make it to the Pac-12 tournament, and indeed he has. He has scored with a court seat two chairs down from Pac-12 commish Larry Scott.
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UCLA rallies past Arizona State 80-75 in the first game of the day, which might be bad news for the Wildcats, if you’re looking at the path to tourney title. On the other hand, can UA fans ever root for ASU?
ASU needed a deep tourney run to make the NCAAs, but the Devils will now wait for a bid to the “other’ tournament. Arizona fans chanted “NIT … NIT” at ASU in the final seconds.
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LAS VEGAS — Some pregame thoughts and notes while I take in Arizona State-UCLA …
The MGM Grand Garden Arena should be rocking this afternoon. Arizona sold the most tickets, and CU probably is next. We know from last year’s league tourney that Buffs fans can get crazy with the best of them.
The arena is maybe 60 percent full at the start of the ASU-UCLA game — capacity for this event is about 13,100 — and will continue to fill up nicely as the Arizona-Colorado game approaches.
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One Arizona player who hasn’t had a problem against Colorado is senior Solomon Hill. In five games against the Buffs, he is averaging 13.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and has made 25 of 52 shots from the field.
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Arizona freshman center Kaleb Tarczewski is coming off perhaps his best game — nine points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes, while helping to lock down ASU big man Jordan Bachynski.
But if we’re talking key post players, what about Angelo Chol? He didn’t play at all against ASU, but he was huge the last time the Cats played the Buffs, providing a good matchup to CU’s athleticism. Chol played 20 minutes, with eight points and four rebounds.
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Read more pregame notes from Javier Morales at WildAboutAZCats.net.
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ESPN had 10 of its college basketball analysts predict the winners of the conference tournaments. Half of them went with Arizona to win it all in Las Vegas.
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Still more pregame reading:
More coverage from the Pac-12 tournament:
Arizona-Colorado: Three things to watch
Arizona has plenty of motivation
KOLD interview: Getting to know Mark Lyons
Javier Morales: Stanford’s OT loss to ASU makes Dawkins’ seat hotter
Javier Morales: ‘Rivals’ Arizona and Colorado to battle again in Pac-12 tournament
Bruce Pascoe’s scouting report at the Arizona Daily Star.