Posts tagged EDU
WBB: Buffs take it to wire, but lose
Mar 2nd
Release: March 02, 2014
By: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
BOULDER – The Colorado women’s basketball team had won its two previous games by going into second-half survival mode, locking down Arizona and UCLA in the last 20 minutes. Twice was nice, but the magic finally fizzled Sunday afternoon against Southern California.
Gritty CU erased a 12-point halftime deficit, even took a one-point lead in the last 2 minutes, but couldn’t close out USC in a 66-59 Pac-12 Conference loss at the Coors Events Center. A 55-45 win in January’s league opener gave the Trojans a series sweep.
Needing a full 40-minute effort to send out seniors Rachel Hargis and the Wilson twins – Ashley and Brittany – on a celebratory note, the Buffaloes’ focus was sporadic in the first half and they couldn’t fully compensate for it in the second.
CU (16-13, 6-12) trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and nine midway through the second before catching USC (18-12, 11-7) at 56-56 and going ahead 59-58 on an “and-one” by Brittany Wilson with 1:22 remaining.
But the Trojans scored the game’s last eight points – six of them by junior guard Ariya Crook, a former high school teammate of the Wilsons. Crook hit a layup and went four-of-four from the free throw line in the final 56 seconds, finishing with a game-high 18 points.
“You would think at this point in the season with every game meaning something, there would be a lot of focus throughout the game,” CU coach Linda Lappe said, noting her team was “all over the place” mentally in the first half. “For us, the free throw line is something you can look at and see really quickly if we’re focused. When we’re focused, we knock down free throws 70-80 percent of the time. When we’re not, we shoot about 30-45 percent from the line.”
That was one of Sunday’s trouble spots for CU. Although they hit eight more field goals than the Trojans (25-17), that advantage was blunted by the Buffs’ dismal 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) from the free throw line. CU also missed all nine of its 3-point attempts, but had decided edges in points in the paint (40-12), second-chance points (10-3) and bench points (24-17).
Yet falling behind by 14 early, catching up, then falling back late by nine took its toll in spent energy. “You can’t spot a good team 12 points,” said Lappe. “Ultimately we ran out of gas at the end as well as time . . . I thought we came out ready, but it lasted about five minutes, and then we kind of sputtered through the rest of the first half. We turned the ball over too much (20 times) and missed some easy shots.”
Brittany Wilson, who scored a team-best 15 points, said playing catch up for most of the afternoon was a grueling exercise for the Buffs: “I felt it. We were tired, but we were going to fight, and that’s one thing that we’ve done all year. It is hard coming back from a 12-point deficit, but we all knew we could do it, so I thought we did a great job believing that and we gave a great fight at the end.”
CU had held its past two opponents to a combined five field goals in the second half of each game, allowing 22 total points to Arizona and UCLA in winning both games. After watching the Trojans shoot 47.6 percent (10-of-21) in Sunday’s first half, the Buffs tightened up their ‘D’ again in the second half, limiting USC to 25.9 percent (7-of-27).
But the talented Trojans were better down the stretch than either the Wildcats or Bruins, even with senior forward Cassie Harberts (14 points) contending with four fouls.
In addition to Brittany Wilson’s 15 points, Ashley Wilson, freshman Zoe Beard-Fails and sophomore Jamee Swan added 10 each. Hargis scored six, including a foul-line jumper that brought the Buffs to within 56-54 with 3:39 to play.
“It’s funny because at the game on Friday, I passed up that same shot, and this time, I just caught it right in rhythm,” Hargis said. “I actually heard Ashley scream my name, but I was already into the shot, so I just took it and it bounced around. I was ready to grab it if it was coming out, but it rolled it in, so I was glad.”
The Buffs were without junior forward Jen Reese on Sunday and will be for this week’s Pac-12 Conference Tournament and any further postseason play. Reese, averaging 12 points and 5.8 rebounds a game, suffered a broken bone in her left shoulder near the conclusion of the first half in Friday night’s 62-42 win against UCLA. The Buffs, seeded No. 9, and the Bruins, seeded No. 8, play again in Thursday’s Pac-12 opening round in Seattle (1 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Network, KKZN AM 760)
CU stayed close for the first 41/2 minutes Sunday, but after a 10-10 tie USC put together an 18-4 run and took a 14-point lead (28-14) that the Buffs could reduce by only two (34-22) at intermission. If the Buffs were to extend their winning streak to three games, another defensive lock down would be needed in the second half. An upturn on offense might help, too.
CU got both, holding USC without a field goal in the first 6:00 and outscoring the Trojans 14-2 to tie the score at 36-36 on a put-back by Beard-Fails. Brittany Wilson contributed six of the 14 points in CU’s early second-half run.
USC quickly went back in front by nine (47-38) but CU cut into that deficit with two Brittany Wilson free throws, a layup by Swan on a nice feed from Arielle Roberson, then two Swan foul shots, pulling to 49-44 with 8:48 remaining. But a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Desiree Bradley gave USC a 52-44 lead.
The Trojans maintained an eight- or six-point edge until Ashley Wilson hit a layup and Hargis added her foul-line jumper after Wilson’s missed free throw, cutting USC’s lead to 56-54. Swan’s up-and-under layup tied the score at 56-56 with 2:38 left.
Harberts broke the tie (58-56) with two free throws, but Brittany Wilson converted a conventional three-point play with a layup and a foul shot, giving CU a 59-58 lead with 1:21 to play. Unfortunately for the Buffs, the three points by “B-Wil” would be their last of the regular season.
Although CU closed the regular season by winning two of its last three, Lappe said defeating USC would have generated even more momentum for the Pac-12 Tournament. “I thought we had great momentum after the second half against Arizona, and we took that into UCLA, but then tonight we just didn’t have enough,” she said. “Are we getting better? Yes, we’re still getting better. Are we there yet? No. The good thing about this time of the year, and why they call it March Madness, is that anything can happen.”
Still, Hargis said the wins against Arizona and UCLA and Sunday’s refusal to roll over created “some more positive energy going into the tournament. Before, we were kind of down and didn’t know what we could do. We know now that we can be a great team. We just have to buckle down, focus and play the whole 40 minutes, not start off so badly and we just really have to work hard in practice this week to be ready to go Thursday.”
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Buffs Get Payback and Revenge Over Sun Devils
Feb 20th
Story By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Tad Boyle cringes at the mention of revenge as a motivator, but he probably doesn’t object to pay-back. His Colorado Buffaloes got that (and maybe just a little revenge) Wednesday night at the Coors Events Center, out-gutting and out-grinding Arizona State, 61-52.
CU’s win broke a three-game Pac-12 Conference losing streak to ASU and gave Boyle’s fourth Buffs team its fourth 20-win season – a school-record. The Buffs (20-7, 9-5) now have back-to-back 20-win regular seasons and improved to 60-8 at the CEC under Boyle, including 16-1 this season with only No. 4 Arizona remaining on the home schedule.
Boyle was noticeably dialed in and demonstrative in front of his bench.
“I’m tired of losing to these guys, number one, and number two, I knew what was at stake,” he said. “They’re a physical team and you’d better buck up and be physical back, otherwise they’ll punk you. I wanted to make sure I was dialed in. I feel that way every game. I may not show it every game, but I wanted our fans to know and our players to know how important this game was – and I think they really fed off it.”
He called the grueling win “great for our program and it came at a very instrumental time in our season . . . our guys stepped up and our crowd was fantastic for a 9 p.m. tipoff. I can’t be more thankful and my hat goes off to them . . . now we need them one more time – Saturday.”
If pay-back was on someone else’s mind beside Boyle, it was Josh Scott. In a low-post entanglement last season with ASU’s 7-2 Jordan Bachynski, CU’s 6-10 Scott was flung to the court and suffered a concussion. The Buffs lost 63-62 in overtime.
Wednesday night was day-and-night different. The energized Scott was the banger, Bachynski the bangee. Scott got his 11th double-double of the season – 13 points, 13 rebounds as CU out-boarded ASU 48-27 – and held Bachynski to four points and three rebounds.
“Josh takes this matchup personal,” Boyle said. “What went on here last year in this building, we didn’t like it, we didn’t appreciate it and he hadn’t forgotten about it. Neither had I. And I don’t think our fans had either. I’m proud of Josh, he’s a battler; I’ll take that guy any day of the week.”
Boyle also called Scott “such an underrated post defender,” and except for losing track of ASU sharpshooter Jonathan Gilling, all the Buffs were fairly solid on defense. Gilling, a 6-7 junior, scored nine of his 10 points on consecutive 3-pointers in the second half and brought the Sun Devils (19-7, 8-5) back from a nine-point deficit.
But ASU finished shooting 31.5 percent from the field (17-of-54) while CU was at 37.0 percent from the field (20-of-54). The Buffs committed 14 turnovers to the Sun Devils’ 11, but got 12 points off of the ASU miscues to seven for the visitors. Maybe the night’s most telling number: CU scored 12 second-chance points to zero by ASU.
Boyle called the win grittier and gutsier than it was pretty, adding, “Sometimes Arizona State has a lot to do with that . . . Arizona State makes you earn your shots.”
CU’s Askia Booker and ASU’s Jahii Carson each scored 18 points, and Xavier Johnson contributed 11 for the Buffs. Booker scored 16 of his total in the second half. He got the Buffs’ first six points of the half, then closed out the Sun Devils by making six consecutive free throws in the final 39 seconds.
And the last of Booker’s three assists – CU finished with 11 – was a bullet pass to Dustin Thomas underneath for a layup that made the score 53-48. “In my mind,” said Boyle, “that was the play of the game.”
The importance of the game, said Booker, registered with him and his teammates four minutes into the game “at the first media timeout . . . You could tell how intense coach was in the huddle. This may be the most emotion I’ve seen out of him this year. You could tell he really wanted to win and I think that translated to the players.”
CU ran at every opportunity, and Boyle theorized that ASU “got tired some, I could see some heavy legs and burning lungs out there.”
The Buffs led 27-26 at the end of an intensely physical first half. If you craved defense, the CEC was your kind of venue.
Booker, averaging 19.6 points in February’s five previous games, didn’t get his first basket until the 5:23 mark, converting a steal into a layup and a 21-19 Buffs lead. Johnson, averaging 18.4 points in February, didn’t score until the 2:04 mark with a put-back.
Boyle was forced deep into his bench as Booker, Xavier Talton and Dustin Thomas – all starters – had picked up two fouls each with just over 6 minutes left before the break.
Nonetheless, the Buffs took a one-point lead to their locker room. But once back on the court, it quickly disappeared. ASU scored the second half’s first six points, getting two layups from Carson and a jumper from Jermaine Marshall to go up 32-27 – the largest lead by either team to that point.
But after a timeout, it was Booker time. He scored CU’s first six points of the half – two layups and a short jumper – to give the Buffs a 33-32 lead, then smoothly fed Scott for a fast-break dunk and a 35-32 lead.
CU got a tip dunk and one of two free throws by Johnson to go up 38-34 with 12:31 to play. Two minutes later, Johnson hit consecutive free throws and the Buffs were up 40-35.
It went to nine points — 45-36 – before Gilling connected on three consecutive treys to pull ASU to within 47-45 with 5:28 remaining. The Sun Devils got no closer and the Buffs closed out their 20th win on Booker’s free throws.
Boyle said winning 20 games for a fourth consecutive season “means we’ve recruited good players (and) we’ve coached good players. It takes good players to win games and our staff’s done a great job, our fans have really taken the homecourt advantage to heart. They’ve shown up through thick and thin. It’s a great feeling; we want that to be the standard.”
BLACKOUT SATURDAY: With College GameDay here on Saturday to see the Buffs play No. 4/4 Arizona on ESPN at 7 p.m., fans are encouraged to wear black and make it the Coors Events Center’s best BLACKOUT ever. In addition, Saturday is Senior Night, honoring fan favorites Beau Gamble and Ben Mills. The doors will open Saturday at 6 a.m. (no admission charge) for the morning broadcast hosted by ESPN analysts Rece Davis, Digger Phelps, Jalen Rose and Jay Williams. Live look-ins during the SportsCenter broadcast will start at approximately 7 a.m. Need a reason to get up early? Take your choice:
• Free breakfast food, coffee, Kickstart, and other giveaways for students;
• Free Illegal Pete’s burrito cards to first 250 students;
• Make your own poster at the CEC for the broadcast;
• Show off your CU Pride and Passion on National TV;
• A chance to win CU vs. Arizona tickets;
• One lucky student will win $1,000 and get the chance to make a half-court shot worth $18,000.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Team
• Colorado wins its 20th game of the season, the fourth time in history the Buffaloes have won that many in the regular season (1968-69, 1996-97, 2012-13, 2013-14).
• The 20 wins in a season is the eighth team in school history (113 years) that feat has been accomplished (Boyle owns four of them).
• It’s also the fourth-straight season CU has won 20-games in a season – all under head coach Tad Boyle .
• CU breaks a three-game skid to ASU, evening the all-time series at 5-5 and evening its record to 3-3 in Pac-12 games against the Sun Devils.
• CU improves to 4-1 at the Coors Events Center against Arizona State (the lone loss coming last season).
• The Buffs improve to an impressive 60-8 (.882) record at the Coors Events Center under the Boyle-coaching staff.
• Colorado is now 16-1 at home this season, the second-most wins at home in school history.
• CU improves to 37-21 (.638) against Pac-12 teams in the Boyle era.
• The Buffs end their three-game streak of scoring at least 40 points in the first half (27 tonight). CU didn’t break in to the 40’s until 10:34 left in the second half.
• ASU went on a 6-0 run to start the second half (20:00-15:52). This gave the Sun Devils their largest lead of the game (5).
• CU has held the opponent to below 39 percent shooting 11 times this season, six times in Pac-12 play (Arizona State, Washington, USC, UCLA, Oregon State, at USC). ASU shot 31% tonight.
• Just the fourth time CU has 8 or more league games four years in a row: Once in the RMAC, once in the RMAC/MSC, once in the Big 8 (1962-65), so nearly 50 years.
• Arizona State’s 52 points is the lowest scoring performance by an opponent this season.
• Colorado’s 61 points is the lowest points scored in a win by the Buffs since their 60-50 win over Utah Feb. 21, 2013.
• Six Buffs had five or more rebounds (Johnson-6, Thomas-6, Scott-13, Booker-6, Gordon-5, Hopkins-5).
• CU is an incredible 27-0 at home when out-rebounding the opponent AND holding the opponent under 40 FG% (CU outrebounded ASU 48-27 and held ASU to 31.5% from the field).
• Under the Boyle staff at the Events Center, the Buffs are 50-1 when outrebounding the opponent (last year outrebounded Arizona State, 41-26, OT loss).
Dustin Thomas
· His eight points tonight is the most he has scored in Pac-12 play (previous high was 7 vs. USC).
· Career-high six rebounds.
Askia Booker
- 13th time this season with over 15 points (18 tonight).
- Perfect 8-for-8 at the free throw line.
- Season-high 17 field goal attempts.
Josh Scott
- 11th double-double this season with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
- 11th time this season with 10 or more rebounds.
- Fourth time this season with 13 rebounds (ties season-high).
Xavier Talton
• Handed out a career-best 5 assists.
Andrew Green | Assistant Director Sports Information
Department of Intercollegiate Athletics | University of Colorado Boulder | 357 UCB | Fieldhouse Annex 50
WBB: Swan and A-Wil weren’t enough to beat Huskies
Feb 15th
Husky’s backcourt unstoppable, but Buffs were in the game til the very end
BOULDER – Colorado’s Jamee Swan and Ashley Wilson hit career highpoints on Friday night, but a business-as-usual performance by Washington’s backcourt trumped them and the Buffaloes.
While Swan (25 points) and Wilson (15) were scoring career highs and Wilson was collecting her first career double-double with 10 rebounds, UW guards Kelsey Plum and Jazmine Davis were combining for 49 points to push the Huskies past the Buffs 87-80 at the Coors Events Center.
It wasn’t anything the Buffs hadn’t seen before – and they didn’t have many answers then either. In UW’s 81-71 Pac-12 Conference win last month in Seattle, they combined for 55 points, with Plum getting 35 and Davis 20.
On Friday night, Plum scored 25, Davis 24. They entered the game as the nation’s No. 2 top scoring backcourt, averaging 38.9 points.
“Washington’s two guards were outstanding . . . they torched us,” said CU coach Linda Lappe. “They pretty much did whatever they wanted to do . . . Davis carried them in first half (with 14 points), Plum came alive in the second (with 18). They were tough for us to guard.”
Still, even with Plum-Davis running mostly unchecked, the Buffs (14-10, 4-9) stayed in contention, cutting a 10-point Huskies lead to three twice in the final 1:16 but failing take the rally any further.
After tying the score at 60-60 on a Swan put-back with 8:57 remaining, a 10-0 run pushed UW ahead by 10 (70-60). CU first closed to within three (81-78) on Jen Reese’s first four points of the night, then got to within three again (83-80) on a basket by Arielle Roberson, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.
But three points back was as close as the Buffs would get, and Wilson said the game was lost by CU’s inability to “get those crucial stops, whether it was keeping them from scoring or getting a defensive rebound . . . It all comes down to the same thing: we make a push and tie the game and then we have a mental lapse where we don’t get that stop or defensive rebound. It’s been like that all conference season long.”
Lappe said scoring that many points – CU was averaging 70.2 – should have rewarded her team with a win: “Anytime we score 80, that has to be a game where we find a way to win. But it just didn’t go the right way tonight . . . you can’t give up 87 points; there are very few games that we will win that way. We just didn’t do what it took on the defensive side.”
Swann, whose previous career high was 20 against Stanford, said the Buffs lost focus late: “I think it comes down to who wants it more and it just happens that they want it a little more than us and we lose focus.”
UW coach Mike Neighbors didn’t seem surprised by Swan’s productivity. “She was on the scouting report because we recruited the heck out of that kid,” he said. “We wanted her very badly . . . she got it really going and we didn’t have a lot to answer – 25 points in 18 minutes . . . I’m just glad she had five fouls (No. 5 came with 1:30 left) or otherwise she could have had 50 (points).”
UW (14-10, 7-6) outscored CU 34-26 in the paint, outrebounded the Buffs 45-38 and converted 13 CU turnovers into 18 points. CU’s bench outscored UW’s 36-19 – mainly on Swan’s contribution before she fouled out with 1:30 to play. The Buffs hurt themselves at the free throw line, converting only 21 of 33 attempts. The Huskies shot 46.7 percent from the field (28-for-60), the Buffs 40.9 percent (27-for-66).
CU jumped to a 9-2 lead but UW recovered quickly with an 11-2 run and took its first lead on a Plum 3-pointer with 15:01 left before intermission. Davis followed with trey on the Huskies’ next possession, giving them their largest advantage (16-11) of the first half.
The first half’s last 13 minutes produced six ties and 11 lead changes before Ashley Wilson hit one of two free throws with 22.1 seconds left to put CU up 40-39 at the break.
The Huskies took a 49-43 to open the second half, getting back-to-back treys by Davis and Talia Walton, the latter hitting her triple with 16:38 left in the game. The Buffs fought back, closing to 51-50 on a 3-pointer by Lexy Kresl with just over 13 minutes remaining.
But the Huskies answered with a 6-0 run on consecutive conventional three-point plays by Plum and Chantel Osahor to open a seven-point advantage – 57-50 – with 12:19 to play.
If CU was to make a move, it would have to be soon. Ashley Wilson and Swan made two free throws each to pull the Buffs to within 57-54. After Swan scored consecutive baskets to tie the score at 60-60, the Huskies got 3-pointers from Osahor – only her second in five games – and Mercedes Wetmore and two free throws each from Katie Collier and Plum to pull ahead 70-60.
It was UW’s largest lead of the night, but a runner by Plum in the lane put CU behind 11 (75-64) just over a minute later. The Buffs pulled to within five (76-71) on a trey by Ashley Wilson, then seven (81-74) on a triple by Kresl with 1:16 left.
Reese got her first points of the night on a jumper to bring CU to 81-76 with 1:06 remaining, then hit a pair of free throws 3 seconds later to cut the deficit to 81-78. A layup by Roberson made it 83-80 but the Huskies closed it out with four free throws by Aminah Williams in the final 22 seconds.
“It took some warriors to win and I was so proud of our kids up and down the bench,” Neighbors said. “We get 19 (points) and 12 (rebounds) off of our bench tonight. There’s been games where we’ve gotten zero and zero.”
CU returns to the CEC on Sunday afternoon (1:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) to play Washington State.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU