BOULDER — A capacity crowd of 11,056 packed the Coors Events Center, and none of them stormed the court after Colorado’s dramatic 64-63 victory Saturday over tradition-rich Arizona.
The Buffs and their fans expect to beat good teams at home now — even on an afternoon when coach Tad Boyle’s best player didn’t score and his team shot poorly from the field, missed 10 free throws and was outrebounded by nine.
Defense wins championships, or in this case keeps CU in the wide-open Pac-12 Conference title chase.
“We made one extra play,” Boyle said. “I thought it was really appropriate for our team to win on the defensive end.”
The Buffs (13-6, 5-2) did a great job of retreating and defending after Carlon Brown missed a 3-pointer on their final possession. CU’s impressive last stand on defense led to Kevin Parrom airballing the potential game-winner at the buzzer.
“I don’t even know what happened,” Brown said. “I just know this guy right here (Austin Dufault) grabbed me and said, ‘We won! We won!’ ”
In the decisive moment, Dufault didn’t realize the Buffs had won until he saw Nate Tomlinson running down the court pumping his fist.
“I was just focused on the final possession,” Dufault said. “For some reason I thought the score was tied and I was like, ‘Why is (Tomlinson) so excited that we’re going to overtime?’ ”
The confusion quickly turned into celebration.
Brown’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:18 remaining proved to be the difference. The senior guard led CU with 19 points and made seven of the team’s 22 field goals.
A basket by Parrom had given Arizona a 63-61 lead on the possession before Brown’s clutch shot from behind the arc.
“When it came down to the bottom line, we had to get the stop,” said Brown, who scored only two points and was 0-for-2 from the field in Thursday’s 69-54 win over Arizona State. “We found a way to do that. We got to the shooters out there on the perimeter, making sure Arizona didn’t get any easy baskets as far as switches and cuts. We got a stop to win it.”
The Wildcats (13-7, 4-3) were held to 25.9 percent shooting in the second half and 34.5 percent for the game. The visitors were 15 percent (3-for-20) from 3-point range.
Jesse Perry (20 points, 10 rebounds) and Kyle Fogg (16 points) did most of their damage at the free-throw line, where they were a combined 16-for-20.
Dufault, who finished with 12 points and six rebounds, scored five consecutive points to give CU a 61-56 lead with 3:52 remaining.
CU forward André Roberson, who entered averaging 11.6 points a game, missed all eight shots he took and did not score in 25 minutes.
