Pac-12 Tournament Day 3 Recap

Published: 10^th Mar 12 3:14 pm

by David LaRose
University of Colorado Writer

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Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Day 3 at the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament was not as exciting as day two but it still produced some great games. Colorado advances to their first conference championship games since 1990 and Arizona makes a return trip after losing last season. Here’s what I saw from court side at the Staples Center:

1) Colorado is finally putting it together on the road. Head coach Tad Boyle said in the post-game press conference, after his Buffs beat Cal 70-59, that his team is finding its heart on the road. The Buffs struggled to a 3-6 conference road record but they are starting to find their mojo on the road at the right time. Senior guard Carlon Brown has broken out of his month long shooting slump and came up big in last night’s game leading the Buffs with 17 points while capping off the victory with a huge windmill dunk in the closing minute. First team all-conference forward Andre Roberson continued to star by shooting 6-6 from the field and joined Brown by notching 17 points. CU advances to play Arizona in the inaugural Pac-12 Championship game later this afternoon after the two teams split the regular season matchups, with both teams winning on their home floors.

2) Arizona shut down the cinderella Beavers. The Wildcats put an end to the cinderella story by going on a 20-3 run after halftime and shutting down the Beavers inside and forcing them to settle for outside jumpers. In the second half Zona held Oregon state to just 27.8% shooting from the field and held the Beavers to their third-lowest scoring total of the season, limiting them to only 61 points. The Wildcats played stellar defense on the conference’s leading scorer Jared Cunningham holding him to just 14 points. Arizona returns to the conference championship game where they lost a heart-breaker in overtime last year to Washington. They have the most conference titles out of any other school at 21 and they will be looking to win number 22 against upstart Colorado.

3) Defense wins championships. Tad Boyle said after the game that it’s fitting that the two best field goal percentage defenses are meeting in the conference championship game. Arizona is number one while the Buffs are number two and they have shown that so far in this tourney. Neither team has let their opponent score over 63 points this whole tournament and both teams have a player on the Pac-12 all-defensive team, Kyle Fogg for Arizona and Roberson for Colorado. It’s going to be a grind it out type of game and it will come down to which team can execute their half-court sets better and that team will win.

The Pac-12 Championship game is all set as it pits the conference mainstays against the new guys in town:

Championship- No. 4 Arizona vs. No. 6 Colorado 3:00 p.m. PT

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