Posts tagged women
CU women put it all together–at last
Feb 12th
Release: February 10, 2014
By: Troy Andre, Assistant SID
EUGENE, Ore. – Playing in her native Oregon, Jen Reese felt right at home scoring 18 points and grabbing 13 rebounds as Colorado clipped Oregon 81-75 Monday at Matthew Knight Arena.
Playing aggressive defense and dominating on the boards, Colorado held Oregon, the nation’s top scoring offense, 20 points below its season average. Colorado (14-9, 4-8 Pac-12) grabbed a season-high 54 rebounds, including 24 on the offensive end.
Colorado’s 24 offensive boards translated into 25 second-chance points.
“We were more aggressive in rebounding and that really helped,” said Reese who corralled her third career double-double. “We gave the first punch; we knew we had to box out. They are a great offensive rebounding team and we knew coming in that was going to be a huge factor.
And it wasn’t just Reese on the boards. Arielle Roberson had nine with her 17 points, just missing a double-double. Jamee Swan had eight points and eight rebounds off the bench.
Rachel Hargis also came up with some key minutes down the stretch. She scored seven of her eight points in the second half, getting two key baskets in the final minutes. Hargis was credited with only two rebounds, but her presence in the paint, which included a season-high three blocked shots, caused issues for the Ducks.
“Today, we really focused on our defense and it hasn’t been what it has been in the past,” Hargis said. “If we keep doing that, we’ll get back to where we need to be and we’ll go into the conference tournament with some confidence.”
Oregon forward Jillian Alleyne who entered the game averaging 21.4 points and a nation-best 15.6 rebounds per game, was held to single figures in rebounding for just the third time this season, finishing with nine to go along with 15 points.
Freshman guard Chrishae Rowe scored a game-high 23 points for Oregon on 7-of-19 shooting. Colorado held the Ducks to 33 percent from the field while the Buffaloes shot 44 percent.
Colorado led by as many as 15 points in the first half, but the Ducks stormed back using a 14-4 run to take its first lead at 46-45 with 15:34 left.
The Buffaloes regrouped with a stretch that epitomized the Buffaloes effort on the boards. CU capitalized on three consecutive offensive rebounds to help push its lead back up to eight.
Up by one after a couple of Swan free throws, Swan missed a layup but Reese was in perfect position for the tip in. Fouled on the play, Reese missed the free throw, but Swan got the offensive board and was fouled herself.
Swan made the first but missed the second. This time Lexy Kresl grabbed the offensive board. She was able to split the Oregon defense for a layup as Colorado increased its lead to 52-46. Following a Megan Carpenter missed jumper, Swan grabbed the long rebound and went coast-to-coast, capping of a 9-0 run and a 54-46 Buffaloes advantage.
“I think there’s always flows of the game,” head coach Linda Lappe said. “We knew coming out of halftime, a nine point lead against Oregon is nothing. We wanted to come out aggressive, but we didn’t do that as well. But I like how we composed ourselves. When we have the mentality defensively, we’re going to make plays on offense. Even offensively, we had to grind it out at times tonight, and we did that.”
Oregon stayed close with the long ball. The Ducks hit six of their 10 3-pointers in the second half. When it looked like Colorado could pull away after Reese gave the Buffs a 61-51 lead, Lexi Petersen drilled a 3-pointer that began an 18-5 run for the Ducks. Petersen hit a second long ball during that stretch and Ariel Thomas capped off the run with a 3-pointer to give Oregon a 69-66 lead with 4:41 remaining.
But Colorado never let the Ducks extend the lead beyond that. Hargis, who scored seven of her eight points during the final stretch, answered Thomas with a bucket.
Colorado then clamped down defensively, allowing Oregon (13-10, 4-8) only four points in the final four minutes.
Reese scored the go-ahead bucket on a short baseline jumper with 45 seconds left to break a 75-75 tie. After getting a stop on the defensive end, Brittany Wilson gave Colorado that all-important four-point lead on a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left.
After stopping the Ducks for the second straight possession, Ashley Wilson accounted for the final points with a pair of free throws to close the game. In all the Ducks came up empty on eight of their final 10 possessions.
“Our overall mentality was different from the start of the game,” Lappe said. “When you’re willing to do whatever it takes and rebound the basketball, you can turn it around.”
Brittany Wilson finished with 11 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Haley Smith scored a career-best nine points on 4-of-6 shooting and dished out three assists.
Colorado returns to action on Friday, Feb. 14, by hosting Washington at the Coors Events Center at 6:30 p.m.
Brooks: Buffs Rely On Tightened ‘D’ In Rout Of Utes
Feb 2nd
Colorado’s coach was more focused on what her team didn’t do than most anything Utah did – and fine-tuning her team was the right approach. Lappe’s Buffs clamped down defensively, made a few offensive tweaks and dispatched the Utes 61-45 at the Coors Events Center.
“It was good to get that win,” Lappe said. “I thought our players stepped up and did some good things on the defensive end and in rebounding.”
Winning for only the second time in their past eight games, the Buffs (13-8, 3-7) scored the afternoon’s first points and never trailed thereafter. CU led 33-16 at halftime, by as many as 20 points early in the second half, and allowed the Utes (10-11, 3-7) no closer than 13 for the rest of the game.
‘D’ was key for the Buffs, who had shot below 40 percent from the field in nine of their previous 11 games. While Sunday’s shooting percentage didn’t climb above 40 (35.8), CU held Utah to a frigid 25.9 percent – well below the 38.8 the Utes shot in Wednesday night’s 58-55 win.
In that game, CU’s Arielle Roberson and Jen Reese combined for only nine points. By halftime Sunday, Roberson-Reese had 16 between them – Roberson with 9, Reese with 7. Reese didn’t score in the second half, but Roberson doubled her first-half productivity and finished as the game’s high scorer (18).
Roberson said Lappe’s characterization of the Buffs now as “underdogs” made them “all come out and be more aggressive . . . we threw the first punch and were more aggressive.”
Defensively, said Roberson, the Buffs “boxed out a lot better, got a lot of defensive rebounds. We were better on our fouls, so I think (Lappe) was very pleased about that. We were scrappy, we were in passing lanes, and that set the tone for our offense.”
Brittany Wilson added 10 points for CU, seven of them in the second half. Freshmen Haley Smith contributed eight points and eight rebounds, matching Roberson’s board total. Lappe said Smith “played tremendous. I liked her demeanor . . . she was aggressive and that gave us a lot of energy and helped our overall intensity.”
Smith, a 6-0 wing from Sammamish, Wash., called Sunday’s win “a good bounce-back game for us . . . I think our mentality is changing.”
Sophomore Jamee Swan, who had scored 15 points and collected eight rebounds in Wednesday night’s loss, was held out of Sunday’s first for violating a team rule. She played 5 minutes, totaling one point and two rebounds.
Utah had one player in double figures – guard Danielle Rodriguez with 11. Forward Michelle Plouffe, the Utes’ high scorer (14) in Wednesday’s game, went 1-for-10 from the field Sunday and finished with 7 points. Cheyenne Wilson, who had 11 points against the Buffs in the earlier meeting, managed nine in the rematch.
Lappe credited Roberson, Reese and Rachel Hargis for their defensive work on Plouffe and for turning Sunday’s game in a guards duel.
“We match up well with her (but) you always have to know where (Plouffe) is,” Lappe said, noting that Hargis did “a great job” in spelling Roberson, which allowed Roberson to stay fresh on the offensive end.
The Buffs raced to a 33-16 halftime lead, finally ending a long 3-point drought and getting an impressive first-half finish from freshman Zoe Beard-Fails.
After missing the last 13 trey attempts – a span of 88:33 or two-plus games – CU got a 3-pointer from Reese to take a 5-2 lead that was never relinquished. Roberson closed the Buffs’ first-half scoring with a straightaway triple from the top of the key.
CU finished the half 2-of-6 from beyond the arc and got one of its top 3-point shooters – junior guard Lexy Kresl – back on the court. Kresl, out for the previous three games with a lower leg injury, played 4 first-half minutes but did not attempt a shot. But with 6:45 to play in the game, she knocked down a critical trey to send CU ahead 50-31. The Buffs finished 3-of-11 from behind the arc.
Lappe said Kresl wasn’t necessarily ahead of schedule in her comeback, noting that she will be brought along slowly and monitored for this week’s games. The Buffs visit the Pacific Northwest this week, playing at Oregon State on Friday (9 p.m. MT) and at Oregon on Sunday (3 p.m. MT).
Beard-Fails, who had scored six points in the previous nine Pac-12 games, matched that total in final 2:38 of Sunday’s first half. The 6-2 Beard-Fails, of Herndon, Va., followed a pair of free throws with two inside baskets as the Buffs stretched their advantage to 30-16.
Half a minute later, Roberson drained her 3-pointer, giving CU its 17-point lead at the break. The Buffs owned a healthy 27-12 rebounding edge after the first 20 minutes (51-35 for the game), but they committed 11 turnovers (17 for the game) which the Utes converted into 11 first-half points – the key number in keeping Utah as close as it was after one half. The plus-15 board advantage was the Buffs’ biggest in a half this season.
CU shot 42.9 percent in the opening half and went into the second half wanting that stat to hold up. It didn’t, but the Buffs compensated on the defensive end. They kept their intensity up to open the final 20 minutes, opened a pair of 20-point leads and kept the Utes playing catch up for the remainder of the game.
Utah coach Anthony Levrets applauded CU for adjusting after Wednesday’s game: “When they played big the first time, we had our two guards guarding Arielle on the perimeter, and then that allowed Plouffe to guard Reese.
“When they went back small today, it was a really good move by them because then our ‘five’ man has to either guard Reese or Roberson –and neither one of them is ever a ‘five.’ Playing on the perimeter was really hard for our big girls. It was a great adjustment by Colorado and I give a lot of credit to them.”
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
WBB: Buffs hang tough until final minute, lose by 2
Jan 26th
BOULDER – Colorado stayed with No. 14 Arizona State for the better part of 40 minutes Sunday at the Coors Events Center. Unfortunately for the Buffaloes, the final half minute was no time to come undone.
Getting a pair of free throws from Adrienne Thomas with 4.4 seconds to play, the Sun Devils edged the Buffs 68-66. CU (12-7, 2-6) had hoped to sweep the Pac-12 Conference’s desert entries after a 68-47 win against Arizona on Friday night that broke a four-game Buffs losing streak.
But it wasn’t to be against the opportunistic Sun Devils (17-3, 6-2).
With the score tied at 66-66, CU coach Linda Lappe called timeout with 21 seconds to play to set her final strategy. It didn’t go as planned; Brittany Wilson lost her dribble, ASU got the loose ball and Thomas was fouled with 4.4 seconds to play.
After Thomas hit both free throws, Wilson lost the ball coming up court, recovered, but could manage only a three-quarter court heave that only added to CU’s afternoon of frustration.
Of CU’s 12 turnovers, none were more costly than the final two. Said Wilson of the miscue coming out of the timeout: “I felt I got tripped, it was a no call. . . nothing much more to say.”
Added Lappe: “Just about everything bad that could have happened did at the end of the game . . . we have to learn how to finish. We’ve got to get a shot off, no matter what happens. (The officials) were calling fouls (23 on each team); we can’t make excuses.”
Lappe declined comment on Wilson’s alleged un-called trip: “I’m not going to comment on that . . . bottom line, we have to make plays.”
Jen Reese, who matched her career high with 22 points for a second straight game, said she believed the Buffs were focused coming of their timeout when the score was tied at 66. “But we should have gotten a shot up,” she added. “We didn’t finish . . . they were fouled and hit their free throws.”
Aiding Reese in the scoring column were Brittany and Ashley Wilson with 12 points each and Jamee Swan with 10. Deja Mann scored a team-high 17 points and was one of three Sun Devils in double figures, and ASU got 25 points from its bench.
CU outrebounded ASU 42-35 and hit 20-of-23 free throws – including 11-of-11 in the first half. Lappe said those two numbers were among positives to be taken away from the loss, the others being a “toughness level” that is becoming what she wants, overall execution in the final 8 minutes, and her team’s turnover total (10) before the final minute.
“We’re obviously disappointed,” Lappe said. “ASU is tough, well-coached. They find ways to win games this year; they make plays down the stretch. Give them credit, they’ve done this to a lot of teams. Tonight we were the victim.”
ASU led by 10 points in the first half before CU regained its shooting touch and made the afternoon competitive in the second half. The Buffs hit six of their first eight shots, took a 12-9 lead – their largest of the half – then went mountain stream cold.
From the 15:05 mark until 7:23 before intermission, they dropped from 75 percent shooting to 35 percent – going one for 12 and watching the Sun Devils launch a 12-0 run. That surge enabled ASU to take a double-digit lead – 24-14 –and appear to be in control.
But CU wasn’t ready to roll. If their shooting touches from the field occasionally went icy, it was a different story at the free throw line. For only the second time this season, the Buffs were perfect at the foul line, hitting all of 11 of their attempts – which kept them in the game. By halftime their field goal percentage was a humbling 30.3 (10-of-33), while the Sun Devils checked in at 42.9 percent (12-of-28). CU finished the afternoon shooting 38.3 percent from the field, ASU 41.5.
Free throw perfection in the first half’s final 5 minutes – all of CU’s fouls shots came in that span – kept the Buffs within three points (34-31) at intermission. Yet to catch and pass ASU in the second half, CU couldn’t count on doing it with free throws – their shooting had to improve, and the opening 4 minutes of the second half showed signs of that happening.
After Mann scored consecutive baskets to open the scoring and push ASU ahead 38-31, Reese – her nine field goals were a career high – hit a put-back to open a 6-0 run that pulled the Buffs to within 38-37. It was the closest CU had been since 13-12.
The Buffs got their first lead since 12-11 on a layup by Roberson that sent them up 39-38 with 15:16 remaining. CU matched its largest lead to that point – three points at 43-40 – on back-to-back baskets by Reese.
But Promise Amukamara matched Reese’s two buckets, giving ASU a 44-43 advantage and promising a back-and-forth final 10 minutes – if the Buffs didn’t encounter another Ice Age. They didn’t, and even a five-point ASU lead (52-47) didn’t deter them.
The Buffs lost their perfection from the foul line when Ashley Wilson finally missed the first of two with 8:58 to play. But “A-Wil” hit the second attempt, followed with two more on the next possession and tied the score at 52-52.
Neither team led by more than two points over the final 8 minutes, with CU taking a two-point advantage (66-64) on a three-point play by Ashley Wilson with 2:51 left.
With the Buffs leading 66-65, Reese missed a foul line jumper with 45 seconds left and ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne called a time out with 41.9 seconds to play. Fouled by Brittany Wilson on a loose ball battle, Kelsey Moos hit one of two free throws to tie the score at 66-66 at the 28.5-second mark.
Reese controlled the rebound on Moos’ miss and it was CU’s turn for a timeout to set its final strategy in the last 21.1 seconds. If both of the Buffs’ final possessions went bust, the Sun Devils have been there and conquered that.
“A majority of our games have come down to one possession,” Turner Thorne said. “We have a lot of experience in these situations. This team has a lot of confidence, and because of that, we’ve been able to out on top of every single one of these close games.”
The Buffs travel to Utah on Wednesday night (7 p.m.) before returning to the CEC to face the Utes again on Sunday, Feb. 2 (noon).
WAHL HONORED: CU’s first women’s athletic director, Jane Wahl, received the inaugural Jane Wahl Legacy Award Sunday, at both a pregame reunion luncheon with dozens of former players in attendance and again at halftime. The award will be presented annually to a member of the women’s basketball community who through their achievements brings honor and recognition to the program.
Wahl accepted the award from Ceal Barry, CU’s associate athletic director for student services and former women’s basketball coach. Barry noted that the first decade of women’s athletics set the table for future success, and in the case of basketball, began several traditions, including making the Coors Events Center the tough place it has become for opponents to play.
“I view this like a relay race,” Wahl said. “I worked the first leg and then handed the baton to others who went on to bring women’s athletics at CU to where it is today. The work I did at CU was some of the most meaningful of my life. To help create opportunities for women to participate in varsity athletics that didn’t exist before 1974. It was rewarding to do work that empowered women, life-changing work that served them well for the rest of their lives.”