James Akinjo leads Arizona Wildcats to another McKale win over Colorado, 88-74

If the Colorado Buffaloes were ever going to end their McKale Center woes, you’d think this might have been the season to do it.

No rowdy, five-figure crowd of McKale fans. A relatively veteran Colorado core, facing a relatively inexperienced group of Wildcats.

Still didn’t happen. Not with James Akinjo scoring a season-high 22 points, including a buzzer-beating 3 to end the first half, and four other Wildcats scoring in double figures during their 88-74 win Monday.

The Wildcats shot 52.6% overall and committed only eight turnovers, with a balanced attack that also featured Terrell Brown coming off the bench to add 12 points and seven assists without a single turnover. Brown now has gone 126 straight minutes without a turnover, collecting 30 assists to three turnovers for the season.

Meanwhile, Jemarl Baker added 14 points while Christian Koloko and Jordan Brown had 10 points each inside. UA outscored Colorado 38-18 in the paint and edged the Buffs 31-30 in rebounding.

“We had an energy about us offensively and we executed,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “We made shots and anytime you play a Pac-12 game with only eight turnovers, any coach in our conference would take that. That’s a great stat.”

The scoring highlights mostly belonged to Akinjo. Over his previous four games, Akinjo shot just 3 for 18 combined from 3 but made 5 of 7 long-range shots on Monday, tying his career high of 5 3s set vs Marquette in 2018-19 while playing for Georgetown. Akinjo also had eight assists.

The win moved the Wildcats to 7-1 overall and 1-1 in the Pac-12, heading into scheduled road games at Washington on Thursday and at Washington State on Saturday. Colorado, still never having beaten Arizona at McKale Center and 0-9 against UA in Tucson since joining the Pac-12 in 2011-12, dropped to 6-2 and 0-1.

“It’s happening because we just work everyday and we’re doing it together,” Akinjo said. “This is probably the closest team I’ve ever been on in my life. We do a lot of things off the court together. So we’re going to keep getting better and better.”

Beating Colorado, which generated the 31st most points in Associated Press balloting earlier Monday, was probably the Wildcats’ biggest accomplishment yet.

Colorado was picked to finish seventh in the Pac-12’s official preseason media poll, two spots behind Arizona, but the Buffaloes were gaining national respect after building a 6-1 record despite playing only two of those first seven games at home.

“Yeah, this game worries me,” UA coach Sean Miller said of Colorado. “I mean in the Pac-12 right now you should be worried about every game – a lot of returning players from a year ago, a lot of teams that are hungry to have great Januarys and Februarys and Colorado is one of those teams.”

But the Buffs really only played Arizona close in the first half, and Akinjo sent them a signal just before halftime that it wouldn't be their night this time, either.

His buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave Arizona a 50-44 halftime lead. After Colorado's Keeshawn Barthelemy missed a jumper with seven second left in an offensively explosive first half, Ira Lee rebounded it and fired to Akinjo, who raced to the top of the key before launching his shot before time expired.

James Akinjo at the buzzer! Arizona ends the first half on a 8-0 run and leads Colorado 50-44. (Via Pac-12 Network) pic.twitter.com/UHiXK91xQu
— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) December 29, 2020

It was a play Akinjo said he had tried in shootaround but “messed up,” before UA coach Sean Miller still gave him the go-ahead in Monday’s game.

“When I saw that I had the opportunity, I was just thinking about what he told me,” Akinjo said.

Miller said in that situation guards need to measure roughly one dribble per second, making sure not to pull up too early when another allowable stride could give them a better shot.

“A lot of times players don’t have a great feel for what six seconds means, or four seconds means,” Miller said. In the game, “he took that extra dribble, maybe even an extra two dribbles, to get the ball all the way to the 3-point line and take that shot.

“James played a terrific game tonight. There’s no denying it. He was at times the best player on the court and I love the fact that he had eight assists and two turnovers.”

Arizona expanded its lead into the second half. The Wildcats went on a 10-2 lead early in the second half to lead 63-52 by the time Ira Lee drove inside for a layup with 13:25 left.

During the run, Akinjo hit two 3s and Jordan Brown scored inside while Colorado’s Evan Battey picked up two early fouls after halftime and only played two of the first eight minutes in the second half, although he still wound up the Buffs' leading scorer with 18 points.

While Colorado’s Jeriah Horne hit a 3 pointer with 13:09 left to cut UA’s lead to just 63-55, the Wildcats went back ahead by 10 on a dunk from Koloko and never lost a double-digit lead after that.

Both featuring traditionally tough defenses, Arizona and Colorado allowed each other to shoot better than 50% in the first half. UA had particular trouble guarding the Buffs behind the line and Battey pretty much anywhere he was.

Colorado shot 51.6% overall and was 7 of 14 from 3-point range while Battey, the Buffs’ veteran 260-pound forward, had 14 points on 5 for 6 shooting to lead them.

Coming off the bench while Azuolas Tubelis made his second straight start, Koloko maneuvered his way for eight points in the first half. Midway through the half, he stretched to catch a long pass in front of him under the basket, then recovered to slam and scored again on the Wildcats’ next possession to make it 34-32 before Akinjo hit a 3-pointer in transition to make it 37-32.

But Battey reinforced his will over the next four minutes, hitting a corner 3, a fadeaway jumper from 10 feet and a baseline jumper to put Colorado ahead 41-40 entering the final media timeout with 3:33 left.

Early in the game, with Colorado coach Tad Boyle having emphasized a need to compete with UA on the glass, the Buffaloes scored seven second-chance points off seven offensive rebounds over the first eight minutes, and outrebounded UA 9-4 overall during that stretch. But Baker kept UA in the game early by scoring nine points on 4-for-6 shooting over those first eight minutes.

Earlier Monday, Colorado guard McKinley Wright won the Pac-12’s Player of the Week award after collecting 21 points and seven assists in the Buffaloes’ 74-64 win over Grand Canyon at Las Vegas on Dec. 22. Wright entered Monday’s game as the only power conference guard to average better than 16 points a game and shoot 60%.

Wright had six points, four rebounds and two assists for the Buffaloes in the first half. He finished with 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.