Posts tagged Haley Smith
Buffs STOMP Bruins in second half
Mar 1st
Release: February 28, 2014
By: Anthony Lepine, Student Assistant SID
BOULDER – Colorado’s defense came through again, only allowing UCLA 12 second half points on 3-for-25 shooting as the Buffaloes cruised to a 62-42 victory on Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
Last weekend, the Buffs held Arizona to 10 points in the second half and earned an overtime victory in Tucson after trailing by 20.
The 12 points surrendered ties for the 3rd fewest second half points scored by an opponent in Colorado school history.
“The last four halves felt like we’re getting back to who we are and what Colorado women’s basketball is all about,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said. “Really, how our defense led to our offense that was key.”
Colorado (16-12, 6-11 Pac-12) put the pressure on UCLA from the get-go, forcing UCLA into 11 miscues by intermission, and scored 18 points off 19 Bruins’ turnovers by the games end.
Arielle Roberson notched her second consecutive double-double (sixth of the season) scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to lead the Buffaloes, Haley Smith also tallied a career-high 11 points.
The effort from Smith was much needed as Jen Reese, the Buffaloes second-leading scorer, went down hard after taking a charge with 33 seconds remaining in the first half, sustaining a shoulder injury that sidelined her for the remainder of the game.
“It was definitely needed, and I’m really proud of her,” Roberson said of Smith’s performance. “Tonight she was very confident and it was great to see, and it was great to feel, it gave us all confidence in her and she had confidence in us. She helped us big time.”
UCLA (12-17, 6-11 Pac-12) was led by Antonye Nyingifa with 12 points and Thea Lemberger who scored 11. Nyingifa scored eight first half points, and Lemberger seven, respectively.
“I’ve been saying it for about 3-4 weeks now that we’re getting better,” Lappe said. “Even though other people couldn’t see it, I could see it…Now we’re starting to get that edge that we didn’t have. We feel like the season is not over and we want to play well as we go down the stretch here.”
Colorado trailed 30-27 at halftime but began the second period on a 12-2 run capped off by a Smith layup giving the Buffaloes a 39-32 advantage with 11:52 remaining. UCLA made just one of its first 18 shots to start the half, and the Bruins never found a groove.
Nyingifa cut the lead to four on a 3-point play with 7:53 remaining and it appeared UCLA could fight their way back. But, Colorado had other plans and buried the Bruins with a 16-0 run highlighted by a Jamee Swan layup off the fast break and a Roberson and-one play that gave Colorado a 55-39 lead. Ashley Wilson completed the run with a pair of free throws.
The Buffaloes largest lead of the game came with the final points as Smith hit a free throw with 26 seconds remaining to give CU its 20-point margin of victory.
Unlike the final 20 minutes, the first half featured seven lead changes and three ties as the Buffs and Bruins battled to earn the upper hand. Both teams can expect to see each other in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament starting March 6 in Seattle.
The bracket won’t be officially released until Sunday night, however with only one game remaining and the same conference record for both schools, the Buffs and Bruins will make up the No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup. It will be the third time this season the two teams have faced each other as Colorado won 61-59 on January 5th at Pauley Pavilion.
“We just have to take it one game at a time and for now,” said Swan who finished with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. “We’re focused on Sunday, and as soon as we get into the Pac-12 tournament, we’ll focus on [UCLA].”
Colorado concludes its regular season on Sunday taking on the USC Trojans at Noon (Pac-12 Network) when the program will honor three seniors as Rachel Hargis, Ashley Wilson, and Brittany Wilson will play their final game at the Coors Events Center.
Colorado Buffaloes Women’s Basketball
CU Buff women blast Lazio All-Stars
Aug 19th
ROME – Colorado head coach Linda Lappe was anticipating the opportunity to give her four new freshman valuable playing time during the team’s trip to Italy. She is getting exactly what she was hoping for, and possibly more.
Zoe Beard-Fails had 14 points and Bri Watts grabbed double-digit rebounds for the second straight game as Colorado blasted the Lazio All-Stars 96-22 Sunday at the Stella Azzurra.
All 12 Buffaloes scored with four in double-digits. Jen Reese, Brittany Wilson and Jamee Swan had 12 points apiece. Watts had a game-high 10 rebounds to go with five points and four assists.
Not to be outdone, freshman guard Desiree Harris had seven points and seven rebounds while classmate Haley Smith pitched in six points, three rebounds and three assists.
“(The freshmen) are doing a really nice job fitting in to what we are doing,” Lappe said. “They are getting a lot of minutes and they are capitalizing on that. We’ve seen some really good things from everybody and the freshmen are no different.”
Beard-Fails filled out her stat line nicely with five rebounds, four steals and three of assists while making 7-of-10 from the field.
“We had confidence and cohesiveness,” Beard-Fails said. “We have been spending a lot of time together (on this trip) on and off the court and it’s beginning to show.”
Sunday’s game was over quickly. Colorado scored the first 13 points and led 29-4 after the first 10-minute quarter. Wilson hit her first of three 3-pointers during CU’s opening run, setting the tone for the contest.
“We tried to set the tone to be quicker, and that carried through the game,” Wilson said
The Buffaloes hit 58 percent in the first quarter (11-of-19). Lazio managed just six field goal attempts hitting two, and had 14 turnovers in the first quarter alone.
Colorado built its lead to 49-4 at the half, and didn’t allow more than seven points in any one quarter. The Buffaloes final margin of 74 was its largest. Lazio was 6-of-44 from the field (14 percent) and it took a late 3-pointer by Sbolci to allow the all-stars to break 20 points. Lazio hit 9-of-16 from the foul line.
Colorado scored 64 of its points in the paint, many of them in transition, and scored 45 points of 32 Lazio turnovers.
The Buffaloes made 54 percent from the field. Swan and Reese each hit 6-of-8 from the field.
“We had a few goals for tonight and one of them was to be much sharper,” Lappe said. “We did a fantastic job defensively and that really spurred our offense, that allowed us to get stops, and we did a much better job converting in transition.”
Wilson echoed Lappe’s pregame plan of focus…”Our mindset was to come out more sharp and that took care of everything else. We were more aggressive on defense…we came out more intense and ready to play.”
Colorado will play its third off four games Monday at 7 p.m. local time, 11 a.m. MT, against Latina.
Troy Andre
Assistant SID/Internet Managing Editor
University of Colorado
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