Evan Battey wills CU to 82-79 win over Arizona

The Buffaloes led by as much as 17 in the first half, only to fall behind Arizona down the stretch in the final 20 minutes, but despite CU's spotty defense and the Wildcats shooting nearly 70% from the floor in the second half, Evan Battey powered Colorado (14-5, 8-4 Pac-12) to an 82-79 victory.

Battey finished the game with 21 points, leading the Buffs, on 7-of-9 shooting. He also was a perfect 7-of-7 from the charity stripe and made four critical free throws (CU's final points of the game) to lift the Buffs over the visiting Wildcats.

Up 80-79 with 4.6 seconds to play, Battey got tangled up with U of A's Terrell Brown as the Buffs tried to inbound the ball.

Brown had missed one of his two free throws prior to that, depriving Arizona of a chance to tie the game up and so the Wildcats were looking to blow up the Buffs' inbound.

Brown and Battey went down together, with Brown being called for a foul, while Battey, in visible pain, hobbled to the free throw line for two crucial shots.

Essentially on one leg, he sank them both, and a last-ditch three-point attempt by the Wildcats wasn't even close.

Following the game, Battey indicated that he was going to get some treatment done on his sore leg but anticipated he'd be good to go for Monday's tip against Oregon State.

McKinley Wright IV's legacy is often talked about as he prepares to close the book on his Colorado career. Battey, with a year of eligibility remaining after this season, turned in a performance that will endear him to CU fans for years to come.

“Evan showed great toughness and any fan that follows Colorado basketball knows how special Evan Battey is to us and our program and just what a special human being he is," Tad Boyle said.

Boyle said on Friday that at the end of the day, this game vs. Arizona was just that — one game.

While that may be true, the Buffs' winning tonight certainly does much more to keep the team's high aspirations — a league title and NCAA Tournament berth — in the crosshairs as opposed to if CU had dropped this one.

The Buffaloes currently sit at third place within the Pac-12 and despite recent slip-ups vs. Washington and Utah, the team's aforementioned goals are still very much in play.

“It’s huge for us," Wright IV said. "Arizona is a really good team. They’re always a team, every year, that’s at the top of our conference. I feel like it was a statement win for us. They beat us down in Tucson by 14 and that one hurt. We really wanted to come back and get this one and this one meant a lot to us and our coaching staff.”

While Battey put the team on his back, Wright IV contributed 17 points and six assists. Jeriah Horne had another workmanlike performance, hitting some clutch shots, per usual, including a huge three-pointer with 2:56 to play, putting CU up 74-73.

Horne finished the game with 10 points off the bench.

Eli Parquet was also a man of the hour candidate, breathing fresh life into the Buffs' winning effort via a drained three-pointer with 71 seconds to play, a shot that tied the game at 76.

"That was a hard-fought win, a gut-check win and one our guys had to fight for," Boyle said. "...I thought our guys really trusted each other. McKinley hit Eli on that ball screen — (Arizona) was really trying to keep the ball out of McKinley's hands and get the ball out of his hands."

"That's what a point guard does — trusts his teammates — and Eli was ready to knock down that shot."

Momentum had started to shift towards Arizona as the first half winded down. The Buffaloes were without Dallas Walton, D'Shawn Schwartz and Battey — all of whom had two fouls fairly early on — and so Boyle had to reach deep down his bench to hold the line.

Colorado was without Jabari Walker tonight and per Boyle, will be for at least a week or so. Walker is nursing a foot ailment that the team is evaluating at the moment.

In his absence, Boyle turned to Tristan da Silva to eat up minutes, and with Walton, Schwartz and Battey's foul trouble, Alexander Strating was inserted into the game for about six minutes in the first half, logging his most time of the season.

The Wildcats clawed within six points at the end of the first half but Parquet hit an impressive three-pointer as time expired, giving CU a nine-point lead at halftime.

By the midway point of the final half, a dogfight was ensuing, as cracks within Colorado's defense and a sharpshooting effort by the Wildcats saw Arizona take its first lead since the start of the game.

Arizona went up by as much as four a few times, but in each instance, the Buffs managed to land a counter punch and stay in the game.

The Buffs and Cats were tied at 76, then tied at 78 before Battey's heroic late-game effort from the free throw line.

"To respond like that, the credit goes to our players," Boyle said. "They played with great toughness, great energy and great belief."

Colorado will take an off-day tomorrow and return to action Monday vs. Oregon State to wrap up this current homestand. The Buffs and Beavers tipoff at 5 p.m. MST.