It's one down with another big one to go for seventh-ranked Arizona on its final road trip of the regular season.
It was all focus and teamwork for the Wildcats at the Coors Events Center on Thursday in defeating host Colorado 82-54. The win maintained Pac-12 Conference leader Arizona a one-game lead on Utah before Saturday's game with the No. 13 Utes in Salt Lake City.
"We came ready to play," Arizona coach Sean Miller said during his postgame radio show. "We focused and practiced hard and came into the trip locked in."
Arizona (25-3, 13-2) has won five consecutive games and 11 of 12 as it continues to pursue a No. 1 seed in next month's NCAA tournament. Right now, going into Saturday's big game, projections have Arizona as a solid No. 2 seed.
"I feel very fortunate to have a team like we have, (one) that is as focused as we (are) this late in the year," Miller said. "We hope to play our best basketball at this period of time. I'm very excited about the record we have. I told the guys it's not easy to be a team that wins 25 games in the regular season, especially when it is 25-3. We move on and know the next challenge is a big one."
After last week's stilted performance against UCLA, the Wildcats came out from the start Thursday and looked like a top 10 team, dominating Colorado (12-15, 5-10) early. Arizona jumped out to a 17-7 lead behind two of Gabe York's 11 first-half points. It slowly built the lead to 25-12 behind two Kaleb Tarczewski free throws.
It was York, who went 3 for 3 from the floor in the first half, and Tarczewski who started Arizona's slow burn of the Buffaloes, each eventually playing one of their better games of late. Tarczewski had eight second-half points, looking confident with every basket.
Each finished with 14 points, one shy of Stanley Johnson's team-best 15. Five Arizona players scored in double figures. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had a team-high eight rebounds to go with 11 points.
"There was a lot of good tonight," Miller said.
York and Tarczewski, however, were the centerpieces to the victory, one in which Arizona enjoyed a 20-plus-point lead most of the second half. Tarczewski was 6 for 8 from the floor and added three rebounds and continued his recent strong play. He's shooting better than 65 percent in his last five games.
"I'm so excited about Gabe York's play," Miller said. "He started to come around a few games ago and obviously did a great job against UCLA. From our perspective we've never seen him more confident. And he had five rebounds. It's not easy to have five defensive rebounds as a guard. He's playing some great ball."
Going into Thursday's game it was thought by some Arizona might not get up for the Buffaloes with the Utes looming. But Arizona was strong offensively and defensively in the quick-and-easy win, its sixth straight over the Buffaloes.
Arizona shot 48 percent in the first half and 53 percent for the game. It limited Colorado to 33 percent.
"It was an easy thing (to get up for)," Miller said. "Colorado (was) the next team on our schedule. We had four days to prepare and we 100 percent prepared for Colorado. We respect them."
Miller said one of the focuses was rebounding, given the Buffaloes' athletic ability. Arizona dominated the category, grabbing 38 to Colorado's 25.
"That's one of their greatest strengths and one of our greatest strengths," Miller said. "We were ourselves."
Arizona also showed it has gotten better from the free throw line, hitting a season-high 92 percent. Arizona went 23 for 25.
"It was an all-around performance," Miller said.
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