Bennedict Mathurin, No. 2 Arizona Upset by Unranked Colorado 79-63 in Pac-12 Action

The second-ranked Arizona Wildcats were stunned Saturday in a 79-63 loss to Colorado at the CU Events Center.

Riding a nine-game winning streak that moved them up to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since November 2017, the Wildcats suffered their first loss since Jan. 25 against UCLA.

Arizona collapsed on both ends of the court in the second half. The Buffaloes had a 47-26 scoring advantage after halftime to earn their first win over a ranked opponent this season.

Tristan da Silva scored a game-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Jabari Walker put up a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds in 33 minutes.

Bennedict Mathurin had one of his worst performances of the season. The Wildcats sophomore star scored 12 points and went 3-of-11 from the field.

Saturday was a bad day to be a ranked team in college basketball:

That list doesn't even include top-ranked Gonzaga, which lost 67-57 to St. Mary's.

Arizona had been steadily moving up the rankings all season as it kept winning and other teams kept losing. Its only losses prior to Saturday were against UCLA and Tennessee, two teams ranked in the Top 20 of the current Associated Press poll.

Since their 75-59 loss to UCLA on Jan. 25, the Wildcats were averaging 81.6 points per game during their nine-game winning streak. They scored at least 83 points in four straight contests.

This game looked like it was going to be more of the same for Arizona in the first half. The offense dropped 37 points through the first 20 minutes.

Things fell apart quickly coming out of the intermission with Colorado scoring on back-to-back possessions to make it a 37-36 game. Da Silva's layup with 17:24 remaining put the Buffaloes up 43-42, a lead they wouldn't relinquish the rest of the game.

K.J. Simpson scored five consecutive points early in the second half that helped Colorado open up an eight-point lead.

Simpson had 13 points total, with 12 coming in the second half. The sophomore guard had more points in this game than he did in the previous two combined (12).

Mathurin and Azuolas Tubelis were the only Arizona players who scored in double figures, but they shot a combined 6-of-20 from the field. The entire Wildcats team had 16 turnovers to 11 assists.

Things don't figure to get easier for Arizona with a game against No. 16 USC on Tuesday. The Wildcats won the first meeting between those two teams, 72-63, on Feb. 5 at McKale Memorial Center.

Colorado will wrap up the regular season on March 5 against Utah at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.