Posts tagged Alcorn State
WBB: Reese and Huggins HUGE in Pac 12 win
Jan 25th
January 24, 2014
By: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Desperately needing a win and an accompanying dose of confidence, the Colorado Buffaloes grabbed both Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
Powered by the solid mid-range shooting of Jen Reese and reserve Lauren Huggins’ rediscovered long-ball accuracy, CU disposed of Arizona 68-47 to snap a four-game Pac-12 Conference losing streak.
“It’s great to be back on the winning track,” CU coach Linda Lappe said. “You take the game or be taken . . . tonight we took the game and we have to continue to do that.”
Sunday would be an opportune time to continue. The Buffs are back at the Events Center at 1 p.m. to play No. 14 Arizona State on State Farm Day. Also, CU will recognize the 40th season of the women’s basketball program with a reunion featuring former staff and players.
With Friday night’s win, the Buffs (12-6, 2-5) improved to 11-3 all-time against the Wildcats (4-14, 0-7) and remained unbeaten against them in five meetings since joining the Pac-12 in 2011. CU’s record against Arizona in Boulder is now 7-1.
Lauren Huggins regained her long range shooting tuch with 5-for9 3-pointers
Reese, a junior from Clackamas, Ore., tied her career high with 22 points, hitting a career-best eight field goals in 13 attempts. Huggins, a redshirt freshman from Littleton, tied her career high by hitting five of her nine 3-point attempts for 15 points – one below her season and career highs. Huggins had been 2-of-16 from beyond the arc in the previous six Pac-12 games.
For Huggins, regaining focus and her long-distance shooting touch started with early week meetings involving her teammates and Lappe. Huggins said her teammates expressing their belief in her got her back on track: “My teammates said, ‘Shoot the ball, kid, that’s what you need to do.’ Just hearing that from my teammates gave me confidence . . .”
Lappe said players – maybe more so with shooters – often “forget their roles” during the course of a season. Lappe told Huggins “to keep it simple . . . don’t put the ball on the floor, be ready to catch it, slow down your mind and be a shooter.”
Huggins, who scored a career-high 16 points in November against Alcorn State, obviously did what her coach wanted. But Lappe saw another facet of Huggins’ game that was equally locked in – her defense, which Lappe said usually ignites Huggins at the other end. “I thought her defense was solid – the best it’s been,” Lappe said.
“Solid” also has been Reese’s calling card. “She’s a really special player,” Lappe said, comparing her to former NBA star Larry Bird in that while both might be missing the “wow” factor in their jumping ability and overall athleticism, both can be quietly spectacular in their results.
Lappe liked Reese’s offensive aggression against Arizona: “Even when she missed a couple, she took the next (shot) without thinking . . . it was good to see her settle in and not stop when she hit four or five.”
Jen Reese’s short jumpers gave her a career high 22 points
Reese credited her teammates for finding her “with great passes . . . and my shot felt good.”
Reese and Huggins got scoring assistance from Brittany Wilson, who added 12 points and was the only other CU player to reach double figures. Arizona’s Candace Warthen led her team with 14 points.
CU’s guard position suffered another hit with the loss of junior Lexy Kresl. Joining junior Jasmine Sborov (fractured foot) on the injury list, Kresl has a stress fracture in her lower right leg and could be out for a month or more, as could Sborov.
That duo comprised CU’s starting backcourt for the season’s first 15 games. Now, said Lappe, the Buffs must get “creative” with backcourt personnel and have reserves rise to the occasion. “Any time you have a player go down who’s played significant minutes, it hurts,” Lappe said, specifying that the Wilson twins – Brittany and Ashley – will share more minutes at point guard.
After a 14-2 run, the Buffs led by as many as 12 points (20-8) in Friday night’s first half and were up 29-22 at intermission. The Wildcats’ last first-half lead was 6-4 – and it would be their last of the night.
Reese supplied most of CU’s early offense, scoring eight of the first 11 points on two field goals and four free throws. She finished the half with 12 points and was the only Buffs player in double figures. During its 14-2 run, CU got a pair of 3-pointers from Huggins – and more were coming.
The Buffs were outrebounded 23-17 in the first half, but capitalized on a dozen Wildcats turnovers while committing only four. CU ended the night with a 33-32 board edge and pressured Arizona into 20 turnovers. Both teams shot 33.3 percent from the field in the opening half, but the Buffs finished the night at 50 percent (24-of-48) while keeping the Wildcats at 34.6 percent.
“I liked how we responded in the second half,” Lappe said. “We came in and were the aggressors. We got everybody involved (and) it was nice to hit shots and get stops. We finished well; we’ve been working on that.”
A fast second-half start would greatly benefit the Buffs – and they came close enough. After Arizona got the first four points of the half, CU scored the next seven and restored a double-digit lead (36-26) with just over 16 minutes remaining.
Reese factored in that run, too, hitting a pair of free throws. Then it was Huggins’ turn to supply the offense. After Arizona’s Kama Griffits hit a 3-pointer, Huggins answered with a pair to push the Buffs ahead 42-31 with 14:12 to play.
When CU pushed ahead by 23 (60-37) on back-to-back treys by Huggins and Brittany Wilson with 7:20 left, all that was undecided was the winning margin.
“It was very important to get the win so we could get back on track,” Reese said. She attributed the much-needed redirection to the Buffs’ rediscovering their “mental toughness” and making “hustle plays . . . us focusing and getting back to our toughness as a team. I felt like we did that tonight.”
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Alcorn State no match for CU women
Nov 16th
Colorado is now 2-0 against Alcorn State and a perfect 6-0 against schools from the Southwest Athletic Conference.
With tonight’s victory over Alcorn State, Colorado extends its streak of non-conference regular season wins to 26 games.
Colorado outscored Alcorn State 27-4 off of turnovers and 39-8 on bench points.
After red shirting last year, Lauren Huggins has come out on fire.
Colorado head coach Linda Lappe wins her 66th game at Colorado, outnumbering Kathy McConnell-Miller (2005-10) for the third most wins in program history. She trails only legendary head coach Ceal Barry, who won 427 from 1983-05 and Russell “Sox” Walseth who won 77 from 1980-83.
Tonight, Junior Lexy Kresel scored nine points achieving 501 points overall in her three seasons with Colorado. She also achieved her 100th career three pointer in the second half which is 11th all-time at Colorado.
Redshirt Freshman Lauren Huggins scored 16 points in tonight’s game which is four more than she scored overall in the five games she played before her injury in the 2012-2013 season.
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CU women b-ballers nip CSU at the last moment
Nov 13th
Roberson and Sborov carry the scoring weight for team
By: B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
FORT COLLINS – In the post-Chucky Jeffery era, even though the Colorado women’s basketball team might still be in search of a specific go-to player, the No. 17 Buffs made a significant opening-night discovery.
They had talked about having each other’s backs, and when crunch time arrived against their in-state rival Tuesday night, they backed each other up. CU withstood a late Colorado State comeback and escaped with a 63-59 win in its 2013-14 season opener at Moby Arena.
“We stuck together and that’s a major accomplishment,” said forward Arielle Roberson, whose layup with 6:43 left was the Buffs’ last field goal of the night. “One of the things we talked about was having each other backs. I think we had that, especially down the stretch. I didn’t feel like I was playing one-on-one; I felt like my teammates had my back. I think everyone felt that way.”
Jasmine Sborov and Arielle Roberson shard high game points at 13 each.
CU led by as many as 13 points twice in the final 10 minutes, including 59-46 on Roberson’s final basket. But the Rams outscored the Buffs 13-1 during that span and pulled to within 60-59 on a basket by Ellen Nystrom with 2:15 to play.
CSU had an opportunity to go ahead on a possession in the final minute, but Roberson stole the ball with 51 seconds left. Jasmine Sborov hit two free throws with 27 seconds showing, giving her a career-high 13 points and putting the Buffs ahead 62-59.
After Buffs center Rachel Hargis blocked Elin Gustavsson at the other end, Brittany Wilson hit one of two free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining – and the resilient Rams were done. The Buffs, who won 72-46 last season in Boulder and padded their series lead to 34-11, return to the Coors Events Center on Friday night to play Alcorn State in their home opener (7 p.m.).
The versatile Sborov, who has seen her role undergo alterations in each season of her college career, said hitting the two late free throws “felt good, I’m not going to lie. It was really comforting to know my teammates and coaches trust me with those shots. I feel comfortable taking them and they give me reassurance.”
But, she added with a smile, if she had dwelled too much on the scenario when she stepped to the free throw line, “I would have been a head case. I tried not to think about it and tried to act like it was a regular free throw in practice. And that’s what Jen (Reese) said – shoot it just like practice.”
The Rams’ late 13-1 run included a pair of free throws by Caitlin Duffy following a technical foul called on CU coach Linda Lappe. Duffy, who had hit a three-pointer on the previous possession, sank both free throws and pulled the Rams to 60-57 with 2:30 to play. CSU closed to within one on Nystrom’s basket but could get no closer.
Lappe’s explanation of her ‘T:’ “My clipboard fell . . . I didn’t say anything . . . it wasn’t the smartest move. But the players have each other’s back and my back. When you’re a team and you’re family, people make mistakes. There were a lot of missed shots, a lot of fouls, and I definitely made a mistake. I think it shows a lot of resilience from our team.”
Said Roberson: “I think with the technical we definitely could have folded, but we didn’t. I think that’s a positive for us.”
Lappe called her team’s victory “gutsy,” adding, “We found a way to win, which is really important. First game of the year, on the road against your rival . . . CSU is a good team. We got stops when we needed to, got rebounds and made free throws when we needed to. There’s a lot of things to take out of this game.”
And there are areas that obviously need improvement. The Rams turned the Buffs’ 19 turnovers into 15 points and outscored the visitors 28-24 in the paint. Gustavsson scored a game-high 21 points and got assistance from Duffy with 13 and Sam Martin with 10.
CU benefited from balanced scoring from its five starters, with Roberson and Sborov each scoring 13. Reese added eight points and guard Lexy Kresl grabbed a career-high nine rebounds, with four points and four assists.
Kresl said the Buffs knew the Rams “had improved from last year. We didn’t want to underestimate them. They had five people on the floor that could score. It was a really big challenge for us defensively.”
She conceded the Buffs eased up when they opened their 13-point leads, but called the way the win was finally secured “good . . . especially in the first game of the year. It shows you a lot about our team and our heart.”
The Buffs opened the night by hitting four of their first eight field goal attempts and went ahead 10-4 before cooling off. When the cold touches arrived, they lingered; CU went 0-for-7 from the field during a 6:18 stretch and CSU took advantage.
The Rams caught and overtook the Buffs 11-10 at on a Martin three-pointer with 11:15 left in the first half and increased their lead to as many as four (22-18) just under 5 minutes later. During that Rams run, the Buffs’ lone spark was freshman Zoe Beard-Fails, who got five points and two rebounds in 2 minutes. She also picked up two fouls and Lappe said Beard-Fails needed to improve her defense before getting significant minutes against scorers like CSU puts on the floor.
“Right now, she’s not quite ready to guard a team like CSU where all five players can shoot the three, drive, score one-on-one,” Lappe said. Beard-Fails did not play in the second half.
With about 5 minutes left before halftime, CU appeared to at least temporarily solve its turnover (10 for the half) and shooting problems and launched a 13-0 run that opened a nine-point lead. After an Ashley Wilson basket to start the surge, Reese scored on a put-back and a turnaround jumper from the foul line, Roberson hit a jumper, Reese followed with another and Lauren Huggins drained a three-pointer.
Suddenly, the Buffs were up 31-22, although by halftime the Rams had trimmed that lead to 33-27.
The second half started as the Sborov show. The 6-0 junior scored CU’s first six points of the half on two field goals and a pair of free throws, jump-starting an 11-5 run that sent the Buffs up by 12 (44-32).
They led by as many as 13 points twice in the final before the Rams launched their comeback and put a large opening-night scare into the visitors.
“They’re a really good team, much better than last year,” Sborov said. “But I do think making a big run like that, you do start getting a little too comfortable. That’s what need to work on – keep our foot on the gas pedal, keep going until the game’s over.”
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