Following the Buffaloes' ugly loss Thursday at the hands of Arizona State, Tad Boyle decided to make a rare change to his starting rotation.

In the first alteration to CU's starting five this season that was not brought about by injury or illness, Boyle inserted true freshman Julian Hammond III at point guard, taking the spot normally held by junior Keeshawn Barthelemy, against No. 2 Arizona.

While Barthelemy had started all of Colorado's previous 28 games heading into Saturday, the move paid off in more ways than one.

For starters, Barthelemy proved to be far from discouraged in coming off the bench, instead contributing 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting with a pair of assists and boards.

Barthelemy scored CU's first field goal of the game in the first half and later scored the Buffs' final two baskets of the second half, both dunks, to put a cap on Colorado's 79-63 takedown of the Wildcats.

"I don't want people to think I was blaming Keeshawn because I wasn't," Boyle said Saturday night, in reference to the ASU loss. "I was just trying to shake things up — let's rattle the cage a bit."

"I told (Barthelemy) and said, 'This is nothing more than to try to rattle some cages and see if we can get a little different mojo going and coming off the bench.'"

As Boyle pondered making a switch, he initially thought about starting fellow true freshman K.J. Simpson, who to date has served as No. 2 at point guard behind Barthelemy on the depth chart.

However, Boyle revealed that Simpson is actually enjoying coming off the bench with Luke O'Brien as the Buffs' first two sub-ins, usually at the first media timeout of the game.

Thus, Boyle turned to Hammond III.

The 6-foot-3 guard out of Cherry Creek High had a quiet first half, along with many of CU's players, but turned up the heat after halftime.

Hammond III managed two quick layups for the Buffs in the opening 90 seconds of the second half and later, drained a three-pointer (one of only four made by Colorado Saturday) down the stretch.

The basket put CU up, 61-50, and gave the Buffs their first double-digit lead over Arizona.

"It felt good," he said. "Obviously, yo don't beat the No. 2 team in the country every day. But once I settled in a bit, I got more comfortable."

When all was said and done, Hammond III has scored seven points on 3-of-5 shooting with a rebound and an assist.

"Julian responded in a big way," Boyle said. "That's a tough game to have your first start — playing at home against the No. 2 team in the country and you're a freshman. The way that kid responded really tells me something about what he's made out of."

With Colorado's win over Arizona, the top team in the Pac-12, the Buffaloes now hold a tiebreaker over Oregon, Washington and Washington State, should all teams finish the season with a 11-9 league record.

The Buffs currently trail Oregon for the No. 4 spot in the Pac by half a game.

CU wraps its regular season next Saturday at Utah while Oregon has two remaining games left, vs. Washington and Washington State, both on the road.

WSU plays Oregon State Monday while the Huskies face UCLA, also on Monday.