No. 8 Arizona comes up short as No. 9 Colorado wins 61-58 to move on in Big 12s

Two former Pac-12 foes, Arizona and Colorado, battling it out in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, and you know it’s going to be an exciting game.

It didn’t matter who was or wasn’t on the court — two top players in UA’s Breya Cunningham and Colorado’s Kindyll Wetta played with foul trouble and were non-factors much of the game.

This time, it was the Buffaloes who came up big down the stretch in the fourth quarter as No. 9 seed Colorado edged No. 8-seeded Arizona, 61-58, Thursday at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.

Skylar Jones, who led the Wildcats with 17 points, had an open 3 with seconds left on the clock to tie the game, but the ball just didn’t go down.

Going into the game, Arizona (19-13) was close to being in the field of 68 for the NCAA Tournament. ESPN’s bracketologist Charlie Creme said that with a Virginia Tech loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament (Georgia Tech won 72-57), all Arizona had to do was win and it would be in — if the tournament was held this week.

Now, it’s a wait-and-see to see what Arizona’s plans are for the postseason, whether it’s NCAA Tournament or the WBIT.

After the game, Arizona coach Adia Barnes said she hopes that the Wildcats’ résumé is good enough to make the NCAAs.

Arizona’s four-game winning streak came to an end. Colorado (20-11) moves on to play No. 1 seed TCU (28-3) Friday in the quarterfinals at 12:30 p.m.

Despite UA holding the lead for more than 33 minutes, Colorado kept nipping away. In the fourth quarter, the Buffaloes outscored Arizona 21-10.

With 3:34 left in the game, Jada Williams stopped one CU run with a 3 to take a 56-54 lead. However, the Buffs went on a 7-2 run to finish it out.

Williams finished with 13 points and five assists.

UA was up by 10 points with a little more than nine minutes left but couldn’t hang on for the win.

Jones said that “Basketball is a game of runs. They just (went) on a run at a good time and it was hard for us to come back from that.”

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Barnes said that the Wildcats had three options for that last shot and that it was “a good read by Jada” and that Jones is one of “our highest percentage shooters.”

After playing the first two quarters to an even, 26-26, the third quarter had a bit of back-and-forth action. The Wildcats came out on a 6-0 run, then the Buffs went on a 5-0 run. It wasn’t until freshman Swann got in the groove and made back-to-back 3s, that the Wildcats seemed to control the game. These six points allowed UA to pull ahead 40-31.

UA’s offense seemed to click the rest of the quarter. The Wildcats outscored the Buffs 22-14.

Williams had three assists, while Cunningham and Jones each chipped in four points in the third frame.

The defense took it up a notch as Isis Beh forced a five-second violation on an inbounds play, Williams took a charge and a steal.

It looked as if the Wildcats, with a 48-40 lead heading into the final frame, would pull away for the win as they have done many times this season. But it wasn’t meant to be.

After watching Colorado’s win on Wednesday over Houston with 33 turnovers, the Wildcats knew their defense had to be turned up. UA came out and did just that — swarming and disrupting on the defense end. The Wildcats forced six turnovers, collecting 12 points off them to take a 14-7 lead. They also went on a 12-2 run led by Beh, who had six consecutive points.

In the second quarter, things switched as Colorado handled the ball better — only four turnovers — and started scoring with Tabitha Betson and Sarah Rose-Smith combining to make 11 of the Buffaloes 19 points in that frame.

Betson finished with 16 points, and Kennedy Sanders had 14 for the Buffs.

Arizona forced 18 turnovers and scored 25 points off them.

Rim shots

– No. 5 seed Kansas State defeated No. 13 UCF, 80-65, in the early game Thursday. Kansas State takes on No. 4 seed West Virginia in the quarterfinals on Friday at 9 a.m.

– Houston coach Ron Hughey resigned on Thursday after 11 seasons with the Cougars.