Arizona Basketball uses big first half to cruise past Colorado

TUCSON, AZ- Arizona Basketball (10-4, 1-0) uses big first half to pace themselves to a win over Colorado (9-5, 0-1) to open Pac-12 play.

After starting off strong in the first half, the Arizona Basketball team survives to open up Pac-12 conference play with a 64-56 win over the visiting Colorado Buffaloes.

Freshman point guard Brandon Williams turned in a gritty performance, finishing the game with 14 points, six assists and two rebounds en route to the teams’ victory. Brandon Randolph also turned in a solid performance, finishing with 11 points and two rebounds.

Arizona Wildcats

Coming in, it had been a long two weeks, since our Wildcats last played a game. The last time Arizona took to the court, the Wildcats struggled against then 3-7 UC Davis in McKale, holding on to a 70-68 victory just before the Holiday break.

Hoping to come back focused, many were hoping for the team to work out a few more kinks just ahead of conference play. That is until there was news that senior guard Justin Coleman may have injured his shoulder and could be out indefinitely.

Rumors circulated on Wednesday evening, that Coleman could be out an extended period of time. Luckily, it seemed as if the rumors may have been a bit exaggerated, as the grad transfer suited up, logging some minutes this evening against the Buffaloes.

Arizona opened the game trailing for the first eight minutes, before finally rallying when Randolph hit a three to give the Cats the 14-13 lead with 11:37 left in the half. From there, Arizona would finish the first half on a 25-11 run to lead by 15 at the break.

Williams led all Wildcat scorers with nine points, meanwhile the freshman Devonaire Doutrive added six points of his own in just seven minutes played.

During halftime, former Wildcat Deandre Ayton would also be honored, as the current Phoenix Suns’ big man was inducted into the Ring of Honor inside McKale Center!

The second half would be a much colder shooting one, as Arizona would connect on just nine of their 27 attempts (33 percent), finishing at 43 percent for the game. Luckily, the Cats would use a stifling defense, holding Colorado to just 36 percent shooting for the game, and 32 percent for the second half.

The Buffaloes would cut Arizona’s lead to just seven with 2:47 to play, but seemingly couldn’t get any closer than that as the Wildcats paced themselves to the eight-point victory.

64-56 Arizona, ball game.

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 10-4 (1-0) on the year, and will return to action on Saturday when they face Utah (7-6, 1-0) inside McKale at 12 pm MST/ 11 am PST.

Listen to head coach Sean Miller as he speaks with Brian Jefferies following the teams’ win.

https://twitter.com/AZATHLETICS/status/1081055280006189056

At Zona Zealots, we are excited for the great start to Pac-12 play, and hope this gets the Cats rolling like we’ve seen them do in the past! Bear Down, Arizona!