BOULDER, Colo. – Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski says he loves playing in tough road environments with loud fans, even if his coach found a line was crossed Wednesday.
Immediately after Colorado’s 75-72 upset of Arizona at the Coors Events Center, CU student fans spilled in front of the UA bench and on to the floor, being “pretty disrespectful,” according to Tarczewski, and sometimes making contact.
“To be honest, that should inspire people to play harder,” Tarczewski said.
The problem was, the Wildcats couldn’t play any harder after that court storm. The game was over, as might have been their hopes for an outright Pac-12 title.
If only the Wildcats might have had that edge earlier, Miller might not have ranted until he was called for a technical foul in the first half Wednesday at Colorado.
“Just trying to get our guys to play hard and get them to rally,” Miller said.
While the CU students effectively did that trick, they also worried Miller. Toward the end of a postgame address in which he complimented Colorado and standout center Josh Scott (26 points and nine rebounds) for having that intensity, Miller suggested that the court-storm was something of a powder keg, enough to have a guy like Tarczewski be prompted into retaliating against somebody.
“Only when that happens will everybody say, ‘We have to do something to protect both teams so when the game ends, we have a deep breath to be able to leave the court,’” Miller said.
Court-storming has been an issue for the Wildcats during their road losses in recent years. It happened earlier this season at California and routinely during the Wildcats’ previous three seasons.
Coincidentally, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was in the house Wednesday but Miller said Scott “doesn’t care” about the situation.
In any case, as Miller indicated, there was plenty of other concerns for the Wildcats to think about after snapping their six-game losing streak and dropping to 22-6 overall and 10-5 in the Pac-12. UA is now a full game behind first place Oregon, which defeated Washington State on Wednesday.
Toward the end of the game, there were turnovers by Tarczewski and Gabe York, and a final three-point attempt by Allonzo Trier that missed when the Wildcats had a chance to tie the game at 75 in the final seconds.
But, really, it was about rebounding and defense, always the heart of Arizona’s teams under Miller. Arizona tied Colorado in rebounding 38-38 overall, but allowed the Buffs to collect 14 offensive rebounds and score 17 second-chance points off them.
That’s six more second-chance points that the Wildcats scored off their 11 offensive rebounds, more than enough for the three-point margin of defeat. Colorado’s Wesley Gordon had seven of those offensive rebounds, collecting 13 rebounds all together.
Arizona had 10 rebounds from Ryan Anderson and seven from Tarczewski, but it wasn’t enough.
“We just didn’t play our game,” Tarczewski said.
Then there was Scott, who pulled in nine rebounds and singlehandedly kept the Buffs ahead through the middle of the second half. Scott scored 10 points in less than four minutes. Most of them came inside, but a 15-footer gave CU a 73-64 lead with 6:37 left.
Leading by four at halftime and up to 11 in the second half, Colorado held on from there.
A senior from Monument, Colo., Scott said he’s been especially motivated as his career nears an end.
“It’s kind of hit me,” he said. “I just want to play aggressive. I’ve had some tough shooting nights but the guys kept feeding me.”
Scott helped Colorado improve to 20-9 and 9-7, nearly assuring themselves of an NCAA tournament berth.
Anderson had 19 points to lead Arizona, which had a chance to tie the game with eight seconds left after Scott was called for traveling in the backcourt. But Trier missed a three-pointer just before time expired.
Up by four at halftime, Colorado went on a 6-0 run early in the second half to take a 48-38 lead.
Upset over an offensive call against UA center Tarczewski, Miller protested vehementely as he had through much of the game — CU shot eight more free throws in the first half, after all — and was whistled for a technical foul.
Colorado took a 37-33 halftime lead despite shooting just 36.7 percent from the field. The Buffs edged UA in the first half by nearly matching them in rebounding (21-20) and took nine more free-throws than Arizona. Colorado hit 13 of 17 free throws while UA made 7 for 9, with the six-point difference alone enough to give CU the halftime edge.
