BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Brayden Burries scored 22 of his season-high 31 points in the second half, fellow freshman Koa Peat had 25 points and No. 2 Arizona rallied from 11 down to beat Colorado 89-79 on Saturday night.
Arizona (29-2, 16-2), which clinched its first Big 12 Conference title with a victory over No. 6 Iowa State on Monday night, finished with the most regular-season wins in program history.
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Isaiah Johnson had a season-best 28 points for the Buffaloes to break the school’s freshman scoring record. He entered 14 points behind Alec Burks and passed him with two free throws late in the first half.
Colorado (17-14, 7-11) dropped to 0-7 against ranked opponents this season.
Peat had his best scoring night since putting up 30 points against Florida in his college debut. The burly forward made 12 of 15 shots and kept the Wildcats in the game with 19 points in the first half. Arizona was 0 of 6 from 3-point range in the first half and trailed 36-25 with 4:25 left in the period.
The Wildcats closed the half on an 11-2 run to get within 38-36 and started strong in the second half.
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Arizona tied it at 46 when Burries hit the team’s first 3-pointer of the night, and Ivan Karchenkov’s runner gave the Wildcats their first lead. They went ahead 51-46 but Colorado rallied to go up 54-52 and the lead changed hands nine times over the next three minutes.
Arizona took the lead for good on Peat’s layup with 9:53 remaining and led by as many as 12 down the stretch.
Up next
Top-seeded Arizona has a double bye into the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals Thursday.
Colorado is the No. 11 seed and will face 14th-seeded Oklahoma State in the first round Tuesday night.
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