Posts tagged 2011
MBB: Near-perfect game stifles Huskies
Feb 10th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Colorado overpowered Washington 91-65 on Sunday night at the Coors Events Center, capping a crucial three-game home stand with its third consecutive win and its second-largest margin of victory since joining the Pac-12 Conference. The night quickly turned into all Buffs all the time, and coach Tad Boyle called it “as complete of a performance by our team that we’ve had in a long time. When you defend and you rebound and you shoot the way we did, it’s a recipe for a runaway win. “I’m really proud of our guys, they played together . . . we had 18 assists, it’s been a long time since we’ve had that number, we really shared the ball and played inside-out. Great individual performances and a great team performance.”
The win gave the Buffaloes their second three-game Pac-12 winning streak of the season. They opened 3-0, then lost Spencer Dinwiddie and Tre’Shaun Fletcher during a 71-54 defeat at UW and dropped four of their next five games. But on Sunday night, CU (18-6, 7-4) in no way resembled the team that last month slipped badly in Seattle. Getting an air-tight defensive effort on UW sharpshooter C.J. Wilcox and 20-point scoring performances from three players, the Buffs rolled to a 48-33 halftime lead and led by as many as 30 points (89-59) in winning for the 15th time (against one loss) at the CEC this season. Their 15 home wins are the second-best for a CU team; the 2010-11 Buffs went 18-2. Xavier Johnson, Josh Scott and Askia Booker accounted for 68 of CU’s total, with Johnson scoring a career-high 27, Scott tying a career high with 21 (10 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season) and Booker adding 20.
“Those guys just picked it up,” said UW coach Lorenzo Romar. “All three of them picked up the slack for what they didn’t have. I don’t think (their length inside) bothered us much. Not as much as it did the first time. It bothered us the first time we played them although Josh Scott is a very good player and shot blocker and defender.” A trio of Buffs reaching 20 points hadn’t happened since Feb. 3, 2007 when Kal Bay (21), Dominique Coleman (20) and Richard Roby (20) all reached the 20-point mark against Oklahoma State. Booker scored 26 points in CU’s 68-63 win over Washington State on Wednesday night, and Johnson had 20. The WSU and UW games marked the first time in XJ’s career for back-to-back 20-point games, and he also was instrumental in keeping Wilcox in check.
“I felt like if not his best game as a Buff then it’s right up there,” Boyle said of Johnson. “He was terrific on both ends of the floor. The thing I’m most proud of with Xavier Johnson is his ability to take on a defensive challenge. He did it against Cue Johnson (WSU guard) and he did it tonight against C.J. Wilcox.” Johnson called Wilcox “a great player. I didn’t guard him last game, so coach was trying something new and put me on him. I was able to contain him for the most part, but most of the credit goes to Jaron (Hopkins). He guarded him most of the game and did very well on him.”
Scott, who was held to one point and one rebound – both season lows – against WSU – recovered in a big way. His 21 points and 10 rebounds gave him his 11th double-double of the season. “The only thing I’d say about that game (WSU) is that I didn’t rebound well,” Scott said. “There’s not very much you can do offensively with three people in the paint. Tonight I just played my game like I did the other night and it all worked out.” Scott also called going 3-0 in the three-game home stand “huge. You always want to win at home and for us losing any of these games wasn’t an option. It’s big. We have a heavier next couple of weeks so any games we win at home is huge at this point in the season.”
CU outrebounded UW (13-10, 5-5) 44-30 and held the Huskies to 32.3 percent (21-of-65) from the field. Wilcox entered the game averaging 19.8 points (18.9 in league play). In the first game in Seattle, he scored 31 points, including seven 3-pointers. The Buffs limited him to eight points on 2-for-10 shooting Sunday night, and he was 0-for-7 from beyond the arc. Freshman Nigel Williams-Goss led the Huskies, who had averaged 76 points a game, with 15 points. Since January, the Buffs have had to compensate for injuries and the trend continued Sunday. Wesley Gordon, who had 8 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocked shots in Wednesday night’s win against Washington State, missed Sunday’s game with an ankle sprain he suffered when slipping on ice on Saturday. Gordon watched in street clothes, sitting alongside Dinwiddie on the CU bench. Making his first college start in place of Gordon was freshman Dustin Thomas, the “next man up” in Boyle’s philosophy.
Thomas fouled out with 1:41 to play after scoring 3 points and collecting 4 rebounds. Boyle said his team, while obviously missing Dinwiddie, has “settled in. We’ve moved on, we certainly miss Spencer still but I think Askia Booker has really taken on that mentality of a facilitator, Xavier Talton has stepped in and given us good minutes. We do need Wesley back because he’s going to be important to us. We’ve made the transition, but now the test for us is to go on the road. We’ve done what we needed to do at home, we’ve won our home stand and now we need to go on the road and get some road wins.” The Buffs opened and closed the first half on baskets by Talton, who was making his second career start at guard.
Talton opened the scoring with a 3-pointer from the left wing and three of his teammates quickly followed suit. CU hit its first six shots, including its first four 3-point attempts. “Colorado, wow,” said Romar. “They came out on fire, shots contested, not contested. They were just knocking shots down and knocked us back on our heels right away. I thought coming into the game we were pretty focused and ready to play but their ability to hit shots early pushed us back a little bit. They did a nice job coming in to play.” CU shot 52 percent from the field and 60 percent from beyond the arc (6-of-10) in the first 20 minutes and finished at a season-best 64.4 percent (9-of-14) from long range for the game. The Buffs shot 55.4 percent (31-of-56) from the field for the night. Booker, Johnson and Thomas all hit their first 3-point tries, helping push CU to a 16-4 with 16:10 left before intermission.
UW didn’t get its first field goal until just under 31/2 minutes into the game, missing 10 of its first 13 shots. The Buffs stretched their lead to 17 (26-19) before they temporarily cooled off, allowing the Huskies to creep back to within seven (37-30) with 4:10 left before the break. But over those final 4 minutes, CU outscored UW 11-3. When Talton hit a buzzer beater to end the first-half scoring, the Buffs had a 48-33 lead and their largest first-half total of the season. Booker’s 16 points led all first-half scorers and gave him a career high for points scored in one half.
The opening of the second half mirrored the first, with Talton draining a triple from the left wing and Johnson scoring the next six points to send CU up 57-39. Booker then hit a pair of free throws with 15:25 to play, fed Scott for a fast break dunk and hit a short jumper in the lane to push the Buffs ahead by 23 (63-40). If the Huskies were going to avoid their third consecutive loss, something dramatic had to happen – and fast. It didn’t, and UW lost for the fifth time in six Pac-12 road trips. CU, meanwhile, hadn’t beaten a conference opponent that badly since burying Utah 73-33 in 2011 — both schools’ first season in the league. The Buffs play at UCLA on Thursday (7 p.m. MT, ESPN2) and at Southern California on Sunday (6 p.m. MT, ESPNU).
Buffs lose to #1 Arizona
Jan 24th
TUCSON – The Colorado Buffaloes left Arizona’s McKale Center last season doubting they’d lost. The top-ranked Wildcats allowed no room for doubt on Thursday night.
Leading by as many as 20 points midway through the second half, Arizona disposed of CU 69-57, sending the Buffs to their third defeat in their last four Pac-12 Conference games. It was also CU’s fourth loss in six games against ranked opponents this season and its 16th all-time loss (no wins) against a top-ranked foe.
CU will try and salvage this season’s trip to the desert with a 5 p.m. game on Saturday at Arizona State.
The Wildcats (19-0, 6-0) led 39-24 at halftime and posted their first 20-point lead (51-31) on a reverse dunk by freshman Aaron Gordon with 15:02 to play. But the Buffs (15-5, 4-3) kept battling and came as close as 11 (66-55) on an Askia Booker layup with 1:15 remaining.
“We did a good job of battling back, even in the first half we cut it to six, but we couldn’t get over the hump. They are an explosive team,” CU coach Tad Boyle told KOA Radio. “There are some positive things we can take from this, but we have to be a better offensive executing team on the road . . . but when you leave a game like this, you have to focus on the positives. We won the second half (33-30) and that’s a sign of progress.”
The talented Gordon, who scored 12 points, was one of three Wildcats in double figures. Nick Johnson led Arizona with 18 and Brandon Ashley added 15, including seven of the Wildcats’ first 11 points as they raced to an 11-2 lead.
Xavier Johnson led CU with 21 points – one off his career high – and got assistance from Josh Scott (15 points, 11 rebounds) and Booker (11 points). Scott’s double-double was his ninth of the season and fourth in Pac-12 play.
Johnson made four of his five 3-point attempts and all three of his free throw tries. “X. Johnson plays well against these guys,” Boyle said. “There’s something about it; he’s amped for these guys, but we need that every time.”
CU committed 16 turnovers, leading to 23 Arizona points, while the Buffs got only 11 points from seven Wildcats turnovers – and Boyle called the Buffs’ 16 miscues “the tale of the game . . . they got 24 layups, we want that number to be seven or less. And they had 24.”
Arizona, allowing a conference-best 56.7 points a game, held CU to 60 or fewer points for only the second time this season. Baylor defeated the Buffs 72-60 in the season opener. The Wildcats, who shot 49.2 percent from the field, limited the Buffs to 38.5 percent shooting.
CU managed only six assists to Arizona’s 16, but held its own on the boards (32-32). The Buffs limited the Wildcats to two offensive boards in the second half after allowing nine in the first half. Still, Arizona ended the night with a 44-26 scoring edge in the paint.
The Wildcats have athletes, speed, skill and the advantage of a raucous, sold-out (14,545) building where they have now won 16 consecutive games and are 33-7 in Pac-12 games under coach Sean Miller. “When the crowd gets into it we have to be able to handle it,” Boyle said. “We have to learn to win in environments like this.”
With Thursday night’s 19th win of the season, Miller’s fifth UA team tied for the longest streak in program history. The Buffs now are 3-4 against the Wildcats since joining the Pac-12 in 2011.
CU last won in the McKale Center 54 years ago (Dec. 3, 1960), although much of the college hoops world believed the Buffs’ visit last season produced a “W.” But after Sabatino Chen’s 3-pointer at the final horn was waived off, Arizona won 92-83 in overtime.
Thursday night’s outcome never hinged on a buzzer beater.
CU never led, as Arizona jumped to a 9-0 lead and built its advantage to 13-2 before Askia Booker managed the Buffs’ first field goal with 14:35 left before intermission. The Wildcats surged ahead by as many as 14 (18-4) before the Buffs launched a 10-2 run, with Scott scoring seven of the 10 points, and pulled to within six (20-14) at the half’s 9:33 mark.
Instrumental in that CU rally was strategic shift on the defensive end: Boyle dusted off the 2-3 zone last employed in the Buffs 75-72 upset of Kansas in early December. Stunned initially, the Wildcats adjusted offensively and did a defensive clamp down of their own, not allowing a Buffs field goal for the next 6:33.
By then, Arizona had taken its largest lead of the half – 32-16. CU would go to its locker room trailing 39-24 and hoping to find some answers for the final 20 minutes.
The 15-point halftime deficit marked the third time in the past four games the Buffs have trailed by at least 13 points at the break. CU’s 29.6 percent from the field was second only to the 21.2 percent in the first half of the season-opening loss to Baylor.
CU still leads the overall series 11-9, but fell to 2-5 in games played at Arizona. The Wildcats’ win was their first against the Buffs in successive years since 1973 and 1974.
CU women stay cool through big Iowa comeback, win 90-87
Nov 21st
By: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
BOULDER – The draw was clear, but it didn’t matter. Colorado students turned out by the hundreds for Wednesday night’s women’s basketball game matching No. 16 CU against previously unbeaten Iowa. Never mind that they came mostly for tickets to the men’s game on Dec. 7 against No. 2 Kansas.
All that mattered to CU coach Linda Lappe and her players was that the students showed up. Turns out, the Buffs needed them. They had a difficult time holding leads, but they held off the Hawkeyes nonetheless, winning 90-87 at the Coors Events Center.
At game’s end, students traded wrist bands given to them upon entering the CEC for the coveted KU tickets. The court was nearly stormed – not to celebrate a win – but in time the distribution of just under 2,000 tickets went smoothly. Another 500 will be made available to students.
“Whether they came for tickets or to watch us, it was their choice to come . . . I mean they were there, what more can you say?” said CU senior guard Brittany Wilson.
Wilson topped five Buffs in double figures. She started for the first time this season and scored a career-high 26 points – 17 in the first half. Arielle Roberson scored 17 points, contributed a game-best nine of CU’s 44 rebounds (Iowa had 35) and had a career-high six assists. Lexy Kresl scored 12, while Jasmine Sborov and Jen Reese added 10 points each for the Buffs.
Rounding back into form after a leg injury, Wilson hit seven of 10 free throws in the final 1:46 as the Buffs turned back their Big Ten visitors. For the foul-filled night (59 were called on both teams), CU hit 30-of-40 free throws to Iowa’s 21-of-32. The Hawkeyes lost three players to fouls, the Buffs two. But CU benefitted most at the line, getting 15 of its final 18 points at the free throw line in the last 4:54.
Lappe called the CU students “a huge help in a game like that . . . we enjoy having them and we hope they come back. Having students support you is important in women’s basketball. We knew the student section was going to be awesome.”
With the Twitter world abuzz Tuesday about the KU ticket distribution plan, Lappe had told her players to “keep a narrow focus” on Wednesday night.
The Buffs did, didn’t and finally did. A 20-point first-half lead was cut to two early in the second half. A 15-point second-half lead was cut to three in the final half minute. Yet the Buffs kept their cool, remained unbeaten (3-0) and eventually handed the Hawkeyes their first loss in five games.
“We knew they weren’t going to lay down and die,” Lappe said. “Their players play hard. But in the end I liked how we responded to every one of their runs. We could have folded; instead, we came down and hit shot, got key rebounds and got stops.”
The Buffs led by as many as 20 points (46-26) late in the first half, but a 9-2 run to close the half pulled the Hawkeyes to within 48-35 at intermission. The Buffs’ 48 first-half points were their most since the 2011 WNIT when they hit 50 against Cal, but they ended up allowing more than 70-plus points since the 2011-12 season.
CU forged its double-figure lead with a 17-0 surge that broke an 8-8 tie less than 5 minutes into the game. Wilson scored six points during the Buffs’ spurt but just as instrumental as her scoring in that run was CU’s defense. While the Buffs were going from that 8-8 tie to a 25-8 advantage, the Hawkeyes went without a field goal in six attempts. By the time Iowa found its range again, CU had opened its 20-point margin.
The Buffs shot 45.9 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, hitting 17 of their 37 attempts, while the Hawkeyes went to the locker room at 40.7 percent (11-of-27). Iowa finished the game at 46.9 percent, thanks to 51.4 percent second half shootinig.
If the Buffs believed they could open the second half in cruise control, the Hawkeyes quickly put an end to the notion. Less than 2 minutes into the final 20, CU’s 20-point first-half lead was a distant memory.
The Hawkeyes one-upped their 9-2 run that closed the first half, outscoring the Buffs 10-2 to pull to within five points (50-45) on a Theairra Taylor three-pointer with just over 17 minutes remaining. Two minutes later, CU saw its lead cut to three (54-51) on a pair of free throws by Iowa freshman guard Ally Disterhoft.
One of two free by freshman Alexa Kastanek shrunk the Hawkeyes’ deficit to 56-54 – and the Buffs were in dire need of a boost. They got it with a 15-2 run.
Field goals by Sborov and Roberson, coupled with two Roberson free throws and another pair by Reese, pushed CU back up by 10 (64-54) with 10:01 left. Kresl added a layup, aided by a sweet look-off of an Iowa defender, then freshman Lauren Huggins drained a three-pointer from the left corner.
Suddenly, the Buffs were back up by 15 points (71-56) and appeared to be out of danger. The Hawkeyes had something else in mind – and rolling over wasn’t it. They used a 12-1 run to get within four points again (72-68) until Huggins’ huge trey from the right wing opened a 79-72 CU lead with 3:28 remaining.
Again, Iowa wasn’t done. Four consecutive free throws by Melissa Dixon brought Iowa to within 79-75 with 2:02 to play, and a layup by Clair Till pulled the Hawkeyes to 84-80 with 41.4 seconds showing. They got to 85-82, then 87-84, then 90-87 at the buzzer on a three-pointer by Samantha Logic, who tied Wilson with a game-high 26 points.
Lappe called the win “huge” for her team “to gain confidence and for our young players to get some minutes and see what that looks like.”
And as for the CU students, added Kresl, “Maybe it opened their eyes to us.”
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