<p>LAS VEGAS — Evan Battey scored 15 points and No. 23 Colorado shook off a sluggish start to beat California 61-58 in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals Thursday night.</p>
<p>The Buffaloes and Bears had a long wait after the two previous games went through three overtimes, setting up a true Pac-12 after dark game.</p>
<p>They played like it was Pac-12 shooting after dark once the game started, combining to miss 36 shots in the first half.</p>
<p>Colorado (25-7) finally got a few to fall, using a 15-3 run to go up 11, and withstood a late Cal run to close out a surprisingly difficult win over the tournament’s No. 11 seed.</p>
<p>The third-seeded Buffaloes will play No. 24 Southern California in Friday’s semifinals.</p>
<p>Cal (9-20) went on an 8-0 run keyed by Matt Bradley to get back in it and pulled within 61-58 on Jalen Celestine’s three-point play with 41 seconds left. Makale Foreman had a good look to tie it, but his 3-pointer rimmed out with 2 seconds left.</p>
<p>Grant Anticevich led the Bears with 11 points and Bradley had 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting before fouling out.</p>
<p>Cal had the biggest upset of the opening round by crushing rival Stanford 78-56.</p>
<p>The Bears and Colorado split the regular-season series, each winning on their home floor. Cal had won two conference games before beating the Buffaloes 71-62 on Feb. 13 behind Bradley’s career-high 29 points and late 3-pointer.</p>
<p>Colorado got a bye into the Pac-12 quarterfinals but looked more rusty than rested, needing more than five minutes to score.</p>
<p>The Buffaloes missed their first seven shots and kept clanging once they got the first one to fall, missing 14 of their first 19 shots. Leading scorer McKinley Wright was 1 for 7 in the first half, letting out a scream and balling his fists after one shot rimmed out.</p>
<p>Colorado went 8 of 28 and 1 of 6 from the arc in the first half — and led 24-20.</p>
<p>Cal, despite getting off to a better start, shot 8 of 24 from the floor, 3 of 12 from 3.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Cal did a good job of mucking up the game in the first half and went on a late run to make it close but missed one final shot to get bounced from the bracket.</p>
<p>Colorado needed a while to get going after getting a bye into the quarterfinals and the late start. The Buffaloes will need a better offensive performance if they’re going to get past No. 2 seed USC in the semifinals.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Cal’s frustrating season is over.</p>
<p>Colorado moves on to Friday’s semifinals against No. 23 USC.</p>
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<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball">https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a> </p>
