LAS VEGAS -- Colorado had seen Arizonas defence at work before, in person and in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals. Angel Di Maria Argentina Jersey . Even knowing what was coming, the Buffaloes didnt stand much of a chance. Unable to match Arizona after a close first half, Colorado lost to the fourth-ranked Wildcats 63-43 in the Pac-12 semifinals on Friday night. "We knew they were good defensively and we knew we were going to have to make some shots to beat them. We couldnt get going," Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. "Their defence had something to do with that. Our offence had something to do with that." Arizona (30-3) crushed Utah in its tournament opener behind a record-setting defensive show. The Wildcats didnt peel open the record book against Colorado, but they sure gave the Buffaloes fits. Unlike its previous win over Colorado, Arizona started slow, allowing the Buffaloes to keep it close at halftime. Once they got rolling, Colorado had no answer for the Wildcats defensive pressure and string of highlight-reel plays that had MGM Grand Garden Arena feeling like McKale Center West. Arizona shot 60 per cent in the second half and held Colorado (23-11) to 5-of-22 shooting in the final 20 minutes to earn a spot Saturdays championship game against UCLA or Stanford. Nick Johnson scored 16 points, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 12 and eight rebounds for Arizona. T.J. McConnell facilitated the Wildcats offence and spearheaded the top of the D, finishing with 12 points, five assists and four rebounds "Our defence became great in the second half, but our offence found its flow," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "We shared the ball. We were more ourselves. It was that combination that really broke the game open." Colorado was able to hang with Arizona behind its defence in the first half. But playing their third game in as many days took its toll on the Buffaloes in the second half and they had no pushback when the Wildcats started to race away. Askia Booker had 20 points to lead Colorado, which shot 29 per cent overall and was outrebounded 41-25. Now the Buffaloes have a two-day wait to see if the NCAA tournament selection committee deems them worthy of the bracket. "Im hoping to get in the tournament," Boyle said. "Im not going to be presumptuous and say were in, because these guys werent with us three years ago when our team didnt get in and deserved to get in. I think were in, but thats not for me to decide or anybody else in this room to decide." Arizona put on a show in its tournament opener, flexing its defensive muscles for everyone to see with an overwhelming quarterfinal victory over Utah. The Wildcats held the Utes to 13 first-half points, 39 overall, 12 field goals and 25 per cent shooting -- all tournament records. The 32-point margin also matched the largest in tournament history. Arizona pulled a similar smothering act on Colorado in the teams last meeting. After a 12-point loss in Tucson, Johnson proclaimed Arizona wasnt that good and that the Buffaloes would beat the Wildcats by 20, even with leading scorer Spencer Dinwiddie out for the season. The Wildcats turned the slight into a fury, holding Colorado without a field goal for the opening 10 minutes and shooting 84 per cent in the second half an 88-61 win -- their first in Boulder since 1973. The Buffaloes got off to a better start this time, scoring 8 1/2 minutes sooner. Colorado still had trouble with Arizonas amoebic defence, though, going 10 of 29 from the floor in the first half. But the Buffaloes had something up their sleeve: A little defence of their own. Contesting shots and digging down on the post for steals, Colorado made life much more difficult than it had back in Boulder, allowing them to stay in the game. The Buffaloes held Arizona to 11-of-29 shooting and forced eight turnovers -- five by centre Kaleb Tarczewski -- that led to 11 points. Colorado held Arizona scoreless for over 4 minutes during a 10-2 run that helped the Buffaloes trim Arizonas nine-point lead to 27-24 at halftime. "I thought we stood a lot in the first half," McConnell said. The second half looked more like the game in Boulder. Arizona picked up the defensive intensity even more and started pouring out the highlights to extend the lead. Johnson had one, flying in for a reverse alley-oop dunk and Hollis-Jefferson matched him with a tomahawk dunk over Josh Scott. Gordon provided one on the defensive end not long after that, soaring up for a clean swat on Johnsons one-handed dunk attempt that sent Arizonas fans bursting out of their seats. In just a couple of minutes, the Wildcats were up 51-32 thanks to a 13-0 run, well on their way to the Pac-12 title game. "In the second half, we were sharper," Miller said. And seem to be peaking at just the right time. Nahuel Guzman Jersey . Sam, who joined the Cowboys in early September, has spent the entire season on the practice roster. Javier Mascherano Argentina Jersey .D. Martinezs ninth-inning sacrifice fly scored Torii Hunter with the winning run and the Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 Sunday. http://www.argentinasoccerauthentic.com/Gonzalo-Higuain-Copa-America-Jersey/ . Klose has a bruised pelvic bone and abdominal muscle problems but team doctors are trying to get him fit in time for the match. Bender has a hamstring injury. Germany is already without half-dozen players, due to injury or bad form.A good night for goaltending, Craig Anderson, Kari Lehtonen and a couple goals for Kyle Turris; lineup news, Fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. HEROES Craig Anderson – Ottawa’s goaltender turned in a 34-save shutout in 2-0 win over New Jersey, giving him a .929 save percentage for the season, second-best among goaltenders with at least 15 appearances this year. Kyle Turris – Leading the way offensively for the Senators, Turris scored both goals (one into an empty net) in Ottawa’s 2-0 win. While it seems as though this season has been tough for Turris, his production is pretty close to last season. TURRIS PAST TWO SEASONS YEAR GOALS/GP PTS/GP SHOTS/GP CORSI% REL. CORSI% 2013-14 0.32 0.71 2.62 52.4% +0.5% 2014-15 0.19 0.68 2.52 48.3% +0.4% He’s not finishing at the same rate, converting a career-low 7.7% of his shots, even after Wednesday’s two-goal game, but that could be an indication that the percentages are due to come back towards career norms. Kari Lehtonen – Dallas’ goaltender, who has endured a rough start to the season – with his .906 save percentage matching his rookie season in 2005-2006 for the lowest of his career – recorded a 27-save shutout in a 2-0 win at Vancouver. ZEROES Eric Condra – Normally a strong puck possession performer on Ottawa’s fourth line, Condra was stuck in the defensive zone (3 shot attempts for, 15 against, 16.7%) for much of the game against New Jersey. Bottom five forwards for Canucks – In a closely-contested game, that was 1-0 until an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left, Vancouver had five forwards (Shawn Matthias, Derek Dorsett, Bo Horvat, Brad Richardson, Jannik Hansen) that played more than 11 minutes at even-strength yet all finished below 29% Corsi. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW David Krejci – Boston’s playmaking pivot returned to the lineup for the first time in nearly a month, but had a tough night in possession terms (10 shot attempts for, 23 against, 30.3%). Damon Severson – The Devils’ star rookie blueliner has been diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his ankle and is expected to miss the next four-to-six weeks. Patrik Elias – The veteran winger returned to New Jersey’s lineup after 11 days out with a groin injury. Cristian Pavon Jersey. He played more than 20 minutes and generated a season-high five shots on goal in the 2-0 loss to Ottawa. Curtis Lazar – Ottawa’s rookie winger played a season-low 8:30 at New Jersey, then it was announced that he would be joining Team Canada for the World Junior Hockey Championship. SHORT SHIFTS Bostons Swedes, Loui Eriksson and Carl Soderberg, each had a goal and an assist in the 3-2 win at Minnesota, with Eriksson netting the winner in overtime...Bruins G Niklas Svedberg stopped 35 of 37 shots to earn the win at Minnesota…Canucks G Eddie Lack stopped 27 of 28 in 2-0 loss to Dallas…With Severson out, Devils D Eric Gelinas had 10 shot attempts (6 SOG) while playing a career-high 26:38 against Ottawa…Wild C Mikko Koivu (21 shot attempts for, 5 against, 80.8%) and LW Jason Zucker (23 attempts for, 6 against, 79.3%) had dominant possession games against Boston…It’s been a brutal year for Stars RW Ales Hemsky, but he had an outstanding possession game (14 shot attempts for, 1 against, 93.3%) at Vancouver. FANTASY FOCUS There are seven games on the NHL schedule tonight. Consider getting some of these players into your lineup: Jiri Sekac – The Habs rookie has had some ups and downs early ni his career, but does have four points (2 G, 2 A) in the past four games and is getting more ice time – over 15 minutes in nine of the past 12 games, after crossing that threshold twice in his first 13 games. Scott Laughton – It’s a little soon to get too excited about Laughton, but he is playing a bigger role for the Flyers, skating in a season-high 17:35 last game, skating with Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds on Philadelphia’s second line. Boone Jenner – Getting big minutes in Columbus (20:24 per game in December), the second-year forward is riding hot streak, with six points (5 G, 1 A) in the past seven games. Teddy Purcell – A road game for the Oilers, in San Jose, is hardly ideal, but Purcell is playing lots (17:14 per game in December) and, similar to players I noted on Tuesday, his on-ice shooting percentage (4.5%) is way low, suggesting that – like several Oilers – he’s due for better percentages to start coming his way. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca ' ' '