Posts tagged Air Force
CU MBB: Dinwiddie lights up the Rams for a Buff victory
Dec 4th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
FORT COLLINS – Spencer Dinwiddie has little difficulty believing in himself or his game. His lone hang-up – and it’s receding by the day, maybe by the hour – is knowing when to turn it up and take over.
Just past the halfway mark of Tuesday’s first half in frenetic Moby Arena, Dinwiddie sensed he should be doing both. So he did. Getting help in a second-half stretch run from freshman Jaron Hopkins, Dinwiddie pushed Colorado past rival Colorado State 67-62 for the Buffs eighth consecutive win.
“I’m proud of our guys and Spencer was the big difference,” CU coach Tad Boyle said. “He was the best player on the floor and it wasn’t even close.”
In passing 1,000 points for his career, Dinwiddie finished with a game-best 28 – one off a career-high set in last season’s win against CSU in Boulder. But Tuesday night’s production might have been more impressive; Dinwiddie scored 19 of his total in the second half as the Buffs were trying to overcome themselves, hit seven of seven second-half free throws (he was 11-of-11 for the night), and scored seven of CU’s final nine points.
The 6-6 junior also capably defended CSU’s Daniel Bejarano, who surpassed his 13.6 average with 15 points but hit only four of 15 from the field. Redshirt freshman Wes Gordon held CSU’s leading scorer, J.J. Avila (19.0), to 16 points, and like Bejarano, Avila didn’t do much that wasn’t contested by the 6-9 Gordon. Avila needed 19 attempts to make his four field goals.
Boyle called Gordon’s defense “terrific” and said the Buffs “battled . . . we made plays when we had to make plays and got stops when we had to get stops. It wasn’t a pretty game offensively when you go three for 19 from three (point range). I mean it’s tough – and there were some good looks.”
Two of CU’s three treys came from Hopkins, who scored eight straight points – a steal/stuff, two consecutive threes – in the second half when the Buffs were rallying from a five-point deficit. He finished with 10 points, and teammate Askia Booker added 12 – including a pair of free throws with three seconds to play that sealed CU’s first win at Moby Arena since Dec. 22, 2007.
Boyle called Hopkins’ steal and slam “the biggest play of the game.” And while Hopkins wouldn’t go that far, he did concur, “It was pretty big. I read the play; I’m pretty good at reading the plays.”
Tuesday night’s two-for-two trey performance followed a three-for-three three-point Saturday at Air Force. “Shooting is all about confidence,” Boyle said. “You’ve got to feel like you’re going to make it and he’s feeling it right now.”
The Buffs handed the Rams their first home loss this season and now have beaten all three Front Range schools – CSU, Air Force, Wyoming – in the same season. That hadn’t happened in six previous tries.
“We want and expect to be the most dominant team in the region,” Boyle said. “But you can’t do it by talking about it; you’ve got to go out and do it.”
The game’s first 10 minutes hardly qualified as an offensive clinic . . . maybe clinically dead was a better fit. At the 7:38 mark the Buffs and Rams had combined to make seven of their 31 field goal attempts, with 14 turnovers between them (seven each).
CU finally cracked the ugly code and took a two-point lead (14-12) on a pair of Dinwiddie free throws – that’s when he sensed he should be taking over – and proceeded on a 7-0 run to take its largest lead of the half (19-12) with 7 minutes before intermission. After his pair of foul shots, Dinwiddie added a three-pointer and Xavier Talton hit a jumper to get the Buffs to 19.
“We weren’t scoring very well,” Dinwiddie said. “We had 12 points with about eight minutes to go (in the first half). That’s when I decided to get more aggressive. If we had been up 20 and Josh (Scott) was working and ‘Ski’ was working, you might have seen another ten-point, five-assist type game. When that’s not happening it’s my job to get more aggressive . . . I still am trying to get guys open shots, but if they’re not falling then it’s my job to score.”
And that awareness is what Boyle says makes Dinwiddie special. He had told Dinwiddie on Monday that being more aggressive would be necessary in Moby, adding, “Keep your mouth shut before the game, let your play do the talking . . . he’s smart; he’s going to do whatever this team needs him to do to help win games. It’s awful nice to have a point guard like that.”
Dinwiddie still has flashes of guilt about not being aggressive early enough in the Buffs’ only loss – 72-60 against Baylor in the season opener. “I waited too late in the Baylor game,” he said. “That’s why that loss is still really hard for me and I feel like I let the team down.”
Although his take-over in Tuesday night’s first half got the Buffs (kind of) untracked offensively, the Rams led 34-30 at the break. CU’s nine first-half turnovers were a season-high, with CSU at the same number. The Buffs committed only five more in the second half, but the Rams matched their first-half total and had 18 for the game, leading to 18 Buffs points.
The pace – and the efficiency – smoothed out in the opening minutes of the second half. After CSU extended its lead to six on two occasions, CU rallied behind Dinwiddie and Booker, outscoring the Rams 10-4 to knot the score at 40-40 on a Dinwiddie layup with 16:50 to play. Maybe ugly was done: The Buffs opened the half by hitting five of their first seven field goal attempts.
When Dinwiddie converted two free throws, CU was back in front, 42-40. But ugly wasn’t done: Over the next 31/2 minutes, the Buffs missed six shots until Scott scored on a put-back for a 44-44 tie. The rivals stayed within two or four points of each other until Bejarano’s triple from the left wing pushed the Rams up 51-46 with 10:56 remaining.
The Buffs pulled to within 53-52 on Hopkins’ steal and stuff at the 7:12 mark. Just under 4 minutes later, Hopkins answered again, draining a trey from the right corner to tie the score at 55-55. It was only CU’s second make from behind the arc in 18 attempts, but Hopkins was feeling it.
He canned his second straight trey (and his eighth straight point) to put CU up 58-57, then fed Dinwiddie for a layup and a subsequent three-point play for a 61-58 Buffs lead with 2:54 showing. Dinwiddie drove the lane for another layup (63-58) and CU appeared to be in control.
But the Rams weren’t rolling. Carlton Hurst hit a put-back (63-60) and Joe DiCiman went to the free throw line after Xavier Johnson fouled out and hit one of two free throws (63-61). The Buffs couldn’t control DiCiman’s miss, and Avila was fouled by Scott with 24.8 seconds to play.
Avila hit one of two free throws (63-62) and CU again put the game in Dinwiddie’s hands. With 14.3 seconds left, he hit both ends of a one-and-one (65-62), leaving CSU desperate but not done.
Avila tried a straight away trey that flirted with the net, but Booker controlled the air ball, was fouled on his rush downcourt and hit two free throws to seal it. After Booker hit his first free throw, Dinwiddie walked toward one CSU student section talking to them more than himself.
“I was in a very, very, very polite manner going to the student section that was heckling me constantly during the game and telling them to please be quiet,” he said. “We just won the ball game and now they have nothing to say to me.”
The Rams had the Buffs’ full attention, and Hopkins said he and his fellow freshmen were well-prepped for the Moby madness: “Beau Gamble talked a lot about how it’s going to be crazy and it’s our first real away game. He was right on the money. It was a tough atmosphere to play in and I look forward to playing in more atmospheres like that.”
Although not as hostile, the atmosphere will be even more raucous at the Coors Events Center on Saturday when No. 6 Kansas visits (1:20 p.m., ESPN2). The game, Dinwiddie understated, “is big. It’s about us taking that next step. We believe inside the locker room we’re top 25 but we haven’t proved it. That game is kind of what can put a stamp on our season.”
“It’s really big for us,” added Hopkins. “That’s a game the coaches are looking forward to and we’re looking forward to it as players, too. It’s really big for us and our confidence is pretty high.”
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CU MBB: Scott returns home to rousing ovation
Dec 1st
Beats AFA 81-57
COLORADO SPRINGS — After more than a year of waiting, Josh Scott finally returned home on Saturday. An afternoon that began with a rousing ovation from the Clune Arena faithful culminated with one of the finest performances of his young career.
The 6-10 sophomore from nearby Monument had 16 points and a season-high 13 rebounds as the Buffs led the Air Force Falcons from wire-to-wire en route to a convincing 81-57 victory. Scott reached his third double-double of the year half way through the second half and then sat for the game’s final five minutes while the Buffs coasted to their seventh straight victory.
“It feels good, it’s good to show up for the home crowd,” said Scott. “I won’t lie, so it’s nice.”
After being held to zero points and just three rebounds for the first 12:17 of the game, Scott sprang off the mat to score 16 points and grab 10 boards over the remainder of the afternoon. His tenacious and spirited play in front of the hometown fans helped break a close game wide open in the second half.
Scott’s first bucket came at the 7:43 mark of the first half, as the Buffs were clinging to a tenuous nine-point lead. By the time he scored his final bucket nearly 18 minutes later, the Buffs lead had ballooned to 28 points mostly on the strength of the big man’s domination of an undersized and overwhelmed Falcon front court.
“Once I got the ball in the high-post, I was just looking for Josh down low and we executed well,” said freshman forward Wesley Gordon.
Scott’s play may have been the highlight of the game, but it was an effective Colorado defense that won it. The Buffs out-rebounded the Falcons 42-25 and forced them into a resounding 18 turnovers as AFA was held to a season-low 57 points. The 57 points were the fewest the Buffs have allowed in a road game since they gave up 47 at Oregon last year.
Despite all of the Air Force mistakes, the turnover issues were far from one-sided. The Buffs turned the ball over nine times themselves in the first half and it was the sloppy play that kept Air Force in the game for more than a half. The Falcons, who had more than twice as many turnovers (12) as assists (5), were down only 10 at halftime.
CU coach Tad Boyle later attributed the first-half carelessness to an Air Force zone that took his young team more than a half to decipher. After a few halftime adjustments, the Buffs then turned the ball over just five times in the second half.
“It’s not fun playing against the zone for 40 minutes,” said Boyle. “We tell our guys all the time, the reason they are playing a zone is because they don’t feel like they can guard you (in man-to-man defense). So, we have to be patient, and get the ball moved. Our guys would rather play 40 minutes against the (man-to-man defense), but we’re going to see a lot of the zone. It’s just the way college basketball is being played now, and people trying to stay out of foul trouble.”
Scott wasn’t the only Buff player who triumphantly returned to his hometown on Saturday. Gordon, who also hails from the Colorado Springs area, scored six points, pulled down three rebounds and had two blocks in his own successful return to the city.
“It was a big game for them, in front of their friends and family,” said Boyle. “Colorado Springs, and this community, means a lot to both those young men and their families – their families are obviously both still here and part of this community. So, it was big for them, and I was happy that they both played well. So, it was a good, good feel-good victory for both those young guys.”
The game began under a barrage of Askia Booker jump shots as the trigger-happy junior hit his four shots, two of them from three-point range, and scored eight of the team’s first 10 points. Booker’s success from the field came as the rest of the team combined for just four field goals in the game’s first 12 minutes.
Booker’s hot early shooting helped the team weather the initial struggles of the other go-to players on offense and gave them each time to find their own rhythm in a slow-paced first half. Booker then scored just three points after the game’s first four minutes, but by end of his hot streak the rest of the CU offense had gained their footing and was more than happy to take the weight off Booker’s shoulders.
“It was nice to see (Booker) come out and hit some shots and get us kind of going, and then we kind of took it from there,” said Boyle. “We came out first part of the second half and made some buckets and extended that thing and never let them get back in the game.”
After a season-opening loss to the Baylor Bears, the Buffs have now won seven straight for the first time since January 2011 as they now head into the gauntlet of their non-conference schedule.
The Buffs will travel to Fort Collins to play a solid Colorado State team on Tuesday at Moby Arena, where they haven’t won since 2007. CU will then play two of the following three games against teams currently ranked in the top five in the country – hosting No. 2 Kansas on Saturday, Dec. 7, then taking on No. 5 Oklahoma State in Las Vegas on Dec. 21.
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CU Soccer Matches Record-Setting Start
Aug 31st
BOULDER – The University of Colorado is in familiar territory. Three games into the 2013 season, the Buffaloes have tied last year’s program record of three straight shutouts to begin the season, and Annie Stuller has notched the fifth multiple goal game of her career.
The Buffs took down the Air Force Falcons 2-0 for the second straight year. Colorado has matched its record-setting start to the season to earn a 3-0 record. The Falcons fall to 0-2-1 after facing Big 12 and Pac-12 Conference opponents in back-to-back games.
Defense was the name of the game for 72 minutes, until the Buffs went on an offensive frenzy. At the 72:47 mark, Olivia Pappalardo edged the net, slamming the left post. Just seconds later, Anne Stuller was ready on the attack for her first goal of the season. Less than five minutes later, Stuller was at it again, scoring off an assist from Alex Huynh.
“I think the first half she was pressing a little bit, trying a little bit too much,” CU head coach Danny Sanchez said. “The first goal is the kind of goal we want her scoring. Where she’s inside the box and can shoot from there, instead of having to do stuff from midfield. The second goal was just a great ball from Alex to release her and a quality finish. It’s good for her to open her 2013 account, but obviously we’re just counting on her to score some goals this year … I don’t think it’s any big secret that she’s dangerous. We need to get her on the end of stuff. When she does that, she’s obviously good around the box.”
Stuller is just the fourth Buff to record at least four multiple goal games in her Colorado career. She joins Fran Munnelly (four) and Nikki Marshall and Katie Griffin, who each had seven. In each of the last three seasons, Stuller has had at least one multiple goal game.
“It’s totally a confidence boaster,” Stuller said. “It helps me just feel like, ‘OK, I can play with these girls. I can do this.’ It feels good, but more than anything it feels good to win. I’m just more happy about that than anything else.”
The Buffs shined in the second half, outshooting the Falcons 11-6 during the game, taking nine shots in the second half alone and limiting Air Force to just one second half shot. CU also had three opportunities off corner kicks, while Air Force had none. Both Annie Brunner and Kelly Stambaugh both grabbed three saves in their respective nets.
“I think Air Force has much improved,” Sanchez said of the team the Buffs also defeated 2-0 last season. “You know they’re always going to work hard and be organized. I think they have some quality on the field. I was pleased with how we turned it on at the end, but obviously the first half we didn’t play our best soccer. The second half, especially those last 20 minutes, I felt like we really started connecting and had a little bit more run of the play. A lot of credit to Air Force, they played very well today.”
Colorado’s first shot came in the first 41 seconds off the boot of leading scorer Brie Hooks. The Buffs wouldn’t get another shot off until the 39th minute, when Darcy Jerman got blocked.
Brunner picked up her first save in the seventh minute. Just over two minutes later, Air Force sent off another shot, this time sending the ball wide.
The Buffs got a lot of touches in the first half, but couldn’t seem to keep total control of the ball, with neither team successfully dominating the offense.
With 10 minutes remaining before the half, the Falcons gained momentum, but Ashley Greco’s shot made for an easy save. The Buffs backline held off any more attacks, with Lizzy Heral stopping a ball by the left post to prevent a close call at a shot attempt.
“Hats off to our defense,” Stuller said. “Everyone’s been so solid. Brunner’s controlling the back line so well, Lizzy’s just a great senior leader and she makes it look easy. She’s a good defender. She makes some hard stops that she makes look pretty easy.”
Colorado picked up its intensity on both sides of the ball in the second half, attacking early. Huynh took a long free kick in the 49th minute to set the ball up for several Buffs at the net. Herzl got the first touch, hitting it just wide. Later, Hayley Hughes made contact, but once again the shot was wide.
The Falcons continued to press the Buffs’ net, but the CU defense refused to allow any shots to get past them. Air Force’s only shot of the half came at the 68:08 mark, but Brunner was ready for another save.
With 20 minutes remaining, Stuller was on the offensive, rushing from the backfield to the net, but she couldn’t control the ball. The Buffs quickly reassembled, with Bianca Jones sending one to the keeper from deep right. One minute later, Stuller, at the left corner of the field, found Emily Paxton at the net, who hit the ball high.
The Buffs’ drive couldn’t be stopped, keeping possession to set up their first goal. After an Air Force foul, the Buffs took charge. In the 73rd minute, Pappalardo hit a close one to the left post. Stuller was ready for the rebound, scoring just six seconds later.
“They felt really good to get,” Stuller said of her two goals. “As a forward, you want to score. There were two easy goals thanks to my teammates. Brie took the ball down on the first one, beat a girl, it was a good beat, and drove it across. It was a jumbled mess in there and I think Olivia got on it and got a touch and it came right to me. I just had to hit it far post, pretty easy goal because of my teammates.”
In the 78th minute, Stuller was ready again, taking an open shot from Huynh behind the right side of the box to give the Buffs a 2-0 lead that would hold for the remainder of the game.
Come cheer on your CU Buffs soccer team as they take on the St. Mary’s Gaels on Sunday, Sept. 1 at 1 p.m. Remember to support the Buffaloes from the Buff Brigade cheering section located on the north end of Prentup Field.
“They’re a very good team, very athletic,” Sanchez said of the Gales. “West Coast Conference is a very good conference. They’re very tough. They play top end teams week in and week out. I expect a very end-to-end game. Their team likes to attack like we do, so I expect a very entertaining game on Sunday.”
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Marlee Horn Graduate Assistant SID University of Colorado [includeme src="http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html" frameborder="0" width="670" height="300"]