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BOULDER, Colo. — Because he's still taking medication for bronchitis, Brayden Burries might seem the least likely of the unacclimatized Arizona players on Colorado’s mile-high floor Saturday to breathe easy.

Yet he still managed to score a career-high 31 points to lead the Wildcats to an 89-79 win over Colorado, setting a new UA school record for regular-season wins at 29.

Go figure. Arizona's magical regular season transitioned into tournament season over the weekend and afterward, Burries barely acknowledged that the high altitude had any effect.

“Not too crazy though,� Burries said.

As it turned out, UA coach Tommy Lloyd was the guy not breathing too easy and for reasons that had nothing to do with altitude. His Wildcats, which had clinched the Big 12 title five days earlier, trailed the 10th-place Buffs by up to 11 points in the first half and never led until early in the second half.

Lloyd had tried to rest the Wildcats, giving them both Tuesday and Wednesday off after they beat Iowa State at home on Monday to clinch the Big 12 regular season title. But when they returned to practice on Thursday, Lloyd said he “didn’t even recognize the team,� though they looked better in practice on Friday.

By the first half Saturday, they were still lagging. Lloyd said he didn’t know whether altitude played a role, but he did speak about the difficulty of turning around from a big weekend in which they beat Kansas and Iowa State to capture the league title.

They were breathing a different sort of thin air — the figurative kind from being atop the Big 12.

“There's a lot of emotions in the game (against Iowa State) and a lot of pats on the back, so to speak,� Lloyd said after Saturday's game. “I was hoping we'd come out and play really well from the start today, but we didn't. The ability to figure it out, it's really important and I thought the guys really showed some resolve.�

Lloyd said he actually did come into Saturday’s game thinking he might go deeper into his bench early and tinker with his rotation, but pulled back and stuck with his usual eight once he saw his players came out “a little bit flat� early in Saturday's game.

Fortunately for the Wildcats, one of them wasn’t lacking energy early: Freshman forward Koa Peat scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half to keep Arizona from getting too far behind to prevent a comeback.

Peat scored 12 of the Wildcats’ first 14 points and tied the game at 14 when he hit a 12-footer with 13:14 left in the first half.

“When your team's not playing good, it's great to have a guy like that step up and kind of keep your team in the game,� Lloyd said. “Koa did a great job of that in the first half.�

Taking advantage of a Colorado defense that was playing without starting big man Sebastian Rancik because of an injury, Peat was unstoppable from within 10 feet whenever he received the ball, either driving all the way to the basket, pulling up for short jumpers or dunking it with force to crank up the 2,000 or so UA fans inside the gold and black arena.

“My teammates found me in good spots, they put me in space,� Peat said. “It was good for me to go out there, trust my work that I’ve put in and just go out there and show it.�

Peat turned the offensive heroics largely over to Burries after Colorado took a 38-36 lead at halftime.

Though they never took a lead in the first half, the Wildcats tied the game at 46 less than three minutes into the second half when Burries hit what was the Wildcats’ first 3-pointer of the game. Arizona, which had missed all six 3s it took before halftime, received another 3 in the right corner from Dwayne Aristode that later gave them a 69-64 lead with 8:44 left.

From there, Tobe Awaka scored inside on two straight UA possessions to make it a 7-0 run for the Wildcats, and UA took a 73-64 lead into a timeout with seven minutes left.

Both Awaka and center Motiejus Krivas added 10 points and seven rebounds each to make the Buffaloes’ lives more difficult, while Krivas also stymied Colorado senior reserve Elijah Malone, who was putting in a spirited 29-minute Senior Night effort in Rancik’s absence.

With 4:39 left, Arizona successfully challenged an out-of-bounds call against Jaden Bradley, though Burries wound up tossing the ball out of bounds. Burries made up for it, however, by stepping in front of a pass from Colorado’s Bangot Dak and racing in for a layup that gave UA a 78-70 lead.

Arizona led by at least six points the rest of the way while Burries hit 3 of 4 free throws and drove in for a layup in the final minute to seal it for the Wildcats.

“Stone-cold killer, man,� Peat said. “I'm really proud of Brayden.�

It just took a while for Burries to get there. While Peat was slicing through the Buffaloes early, Burries was beating himself up over a first half in which he had nine points and three rebounds while shooting just 2 for 7 from the field.

“I don’t think it was the altitiude — I think it was just us not playing as smart or fast we usually do,� Burries said of UA’s first half. “Especially me, I was playing pretty lazy, not to my standard of rebounding, cutting out, getting back door. So it was just locking in on defense, which helped me create offense.�

Saying he was more aggressive in the second half, Burries had 22 points on 7-for-9 shooting with four more rebounds after halftime.

“You don't really have to challenge him,� Lloyd said. “He's a competitor. He kind of figured it out on his own and got himself going a little bit.�

So again, the way Lloyd described it, everything about the week and Saturday's game was more about psychology than physiology.

“I know this: Human nature is tough to beat. Human nature is almost undefeated,� Lloyd said. “A lot of these seasons are about just figuring out how to endure the ups and downs and the emotions that go with the season, the fatigue that comes with the season.�