'No excuses': Arizona finishes road sweep by snapping 5-game skid at Colorado with 99-79 win

BOULDER, Colo. — After Arizona swept its first two-game Rocky Mountain trip since 2015 in exhausting fashion, with a triple-overtime win at Utah and a 99-79 romp at mile-high Colorado on Saturday, Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd was asked to discuss it all in the corner of a narrow cement corridor deep inside the CU Events Center.

“No chair?” Lloyd said with a smile. “Standing in the corner after the 12th round? … It was a long couple of days.”

And that was just the coach. Imagine how the Arizona players might have felt after surviving a 55-minute thriller at Utah, then moving over to the CU Events Center — where UA had lost five straight — and still beating CU by 20.

Actually, though, the Wildcats were fine. Mentally fine, certainly.

Lloyd was joking about the chair, of course, and his players, ah, well they just pushed on.

“I knew our guys would respond,” Lloyd said. “There are guys who are competitors and there are winners. We knew everybody was trying to make excuses for us and we don't make any excuses. We knew full well we could come here and lose to a good Colorado team today, and it had nothing to do with three overtimes on Thursday.”

Sophomore guard Jaden Bradley funneled that mandate into his best game of the season, scoring a season-high 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting while recording three steals and playing defense that helped limit Colorado to just 5 of 17 3-point shooting.

“The biggest thing we were harping on was just `no excuses,’ " Bradley said. “I feel like we came in with a lot of energy. Our bench players, our coaches brought a lot of energy, and it showed when everybody was on the court.”

Guard Caleb Love led the Wildcats in scoring with 19 points and Pelle Larsson had 18 to lead Arizona, while center Oumar Ballo recorded his fourth straight double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Ballo pulled down six offensive rebounds to help offset the limitations of forward Keshad Johnson, who had just five points in 19 minutes while mired in foul trouble.

Then there was Bradley’s efficient offense and defense, and a workmanlike 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting and four assists from point guard Kylan Boswell, despite the fact that Boswell suffered a left shoulder injury Thursday at Utah.

Boswell initially wore black therapeutic tape over the shoulder but removed it in the first half.

“Tough. He’s a tough kid,” Lloyd said. “Anyone who questions him, you’re questioning the wrong guy. The kid’s special. He’s 18 years old, playing his ass off, playing dinged up. I’m lucky to be his coach.”

The win also kept UA with a one-game lead atop the Pac-12, moving the Wildcats to 19-5, 10-3 in the conference, a game ahead of Washington State. The Cougars (9-4) broke a tie for second place with Oregon by beating the Ducks 62-56 earlier Saturday.

Previously unbeaten at home this season, Colorado dropped to 16-8, 7-6.

Having clobbered the Buffs 97-50 at McKale Center on Jan. 4, the Wildcats did it this time by shooting 52.9% from the field, including 10 of 22 3-pointers. UA also scored 23 points off 16 Colorado turnovers and 23 second-chance points off 12 offensive rebounds.

Leading 47-40 at halftime, Arizona received 3-pointers from Love and Johnson in the first 65 seconds of the second half to take a 13-point lead. Colorado never came within single digits again.

UA took a 20-point lead, 65-45, with 14:54 left. By the 12:01 mark, Lloyd inserted what is usually his 11th player, guard Conrad Martinez.

Martinez had played in only four of Arizona’s previous 12 Pac-12 games, including the Wildcats’ 97-50 win over Colorado in early January. But this time, he entered the game with UA ahead by 17 and played with four other regular rotation players, helping ease the foul-trouble pressure the Wildcats were feeling at that point.

“We had a little lead, and I really trust Conrad with the ball,” Lloyd said. “He's got great speed and great instincts. If you have an appreciation for point guard play, he’s an exciting player to watch. I see it every day in practice. He gives our starters fits every single day.”

Martinez wound up playing five minutes, while making a layup and missing a 3-pointer, drawing a foul and recording a steal, as Lloyd tried to manage the Wildcats’ foul situation. Guard KJ Lewis fouled out after just seven minutes on the court while both Johnson and Larsson picked up four fouls.

One of Johnson’s fouls came as a result of a double-technical when when he and Colorado’s KJ Simpson appeared to exchange a few spicy words early in the second half, when the Wildcats took control of the game.

Speaking in general about the chippy exchanges the teams had in the second half, Simpson said: “They’re already up, there’s no need to go out of your way and talk trash. ... (It was) unnecessary stuff, and as a leader, I’m just wired to stick up for my teammates.”

In the first half, Arizona shot 51.6% from the field while taking a 47-40 halftime lead. Colorado shot 48.4% overall, but the Buffs made just 4 of 11 3-pointers and had six fewer second-chance points than Arizona despite having the same number of offensive rebounds (five).

Arizona led by up to 12 points in the first half and by 11 with 1:22 left before the Buffaloes scored the final four points of the half and a 3-pointer from Love was waved off because of an offensive foul on Ballo.

Love, who earlier had a shot blocked in the lane by Cody Williams, hit a 3-pointer to give UA a 28-21 lead with 7:50 to go and then hit one with 3:29 left to put the Wildcats ahead 40-28.

“I never lose my confidence whether I’m 0 for 5 or 5 for 5,” Love said. “I put so much work in, and my coaches and my teammates believe in me to make each and every shot. So I have to keep my head high, take good ones and trust in my teammates.”

Tristan da Silva and Julian Hammond hit 3s to help Colorado cut UA’s lead to seven points in the final minutes of the half, but the Wildcats expanded their lead to double digits again when Bradley hit a 3-pointer and Ballo dunked in a missed 3-pointer from Boswell to give UA a 47-35 lead with 1:22 left.

Colorado really only appeared to be a threat to Arizona early in the game. The Buffaloes raced to an 8-2 lead when da Silva dunked after stealing the ball from Boswell, who took an inbounds pass but never had it in secure possession.

But the Wildcats went on a 16-2 run from there, getting 3s from Larsson and Boswell to take an 18-10 lead with 13:15 left in the first half, and had little trouble after halftime.

“No excuses,” Love said, repeating the theme of the night. “We knew the game plan and we executed.”