CU Women’s Basketball
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Strong Second Half Pushes CU Women Past USC Trojans, 65-49
Feb 3rd
It’s been a tough road trip for the No. 22 Colorado women’s basketball team, with three straight road losses against nationally ranked opponents in the past two weekends.
On Sunday, though, the CU women had one last chance to pull out a road win over the Southern California Trojans — and this time, they made it happen.
Arielle Roberson was high scorer with 15 points
With a solid second-half effort on both sides of the ball, Colorado pulled away from the Trojans for a 65-49 victory.
“I really liked our toughness in this game,” said Colorado head coach Linda Lappe. “We didn’t have any of that on Friday, and so it was nice to kind of get our identity back because that’s who were are when we’re playing our best.”
It was a success that came at a much-needed time, as the Buffs were in the midst of their longest losing streak of the season. After falling to top-10 teams Cal and Stanford last weekend, Colorado shot less than 30 percent from the field in a 62-46 loss to No. 18 UCLA on Friday.
“I think we knew we could definitely win this game and that we had to win this game,” said redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson, who led the Buffs in scoring with 16. “We just knew we had to do it in a fun way and not make it too stressful.”
The stress was certainly still there in the first half, as the Buffs and Trojans traded baskets and both teams struggled to gain a solid advantage. The lead changed eight times throughout the half, and neither team went up by more than five.
In the four minutes before intermission, however, USC found its momentum and went on a 13-3 run to reverse Colorado’s five-point lead to a five-point lead of its own by halftime (31-26).
The Buffs shot 36 percent from the field in the first half compared to USC’s 33, but the Trojans were efficient from the line with an free throw percentage of 89.
Colorado, though, took control at the start of the second half, going on an 8-0 run and forcing five turnovers in the process to build a three-point lead.
“I kind of had a feeling that (the Trojans) were going to get tired in the second half,” Lappe said. “And I think that’s what happened. I think we pushed the ball really well at them in the first half, we were physical with them in the first half, and I think that wore on them in the second half.”
With 12:17 remaining, Roberson knocked down an “and-1” play to put the Buffs up eight (41-33). Four minutes later, senior guard Chucky Jeffery scored on a steal and a fast break to give CU a 10-point lead.
In the final two minutes, Colorado went on an 8-1 run capped by a Roberson trey and a Jeffery free throw, erasing USC’s chance for a late-game comeback.
By the final buzzer, the Buffs had gone up 16 for a 65-49 victory.
Lappe said the improvement her team made from Friday night’s struggle to Sunday’s success was indicative of a high-level team.
“Everybody has a bad game, championship teams have bad games,” Lappe said. “But the real championship teams respond in a great fashion. They can let it go, they can take it for what it’s worth, and they can get a little mad and come back even stronger. I think that’s what’s going to happen to us after that Friday night game.”
Colorado demonstrated its depth in both scoring and rebounding on Sunday, with four players scoring in double figures and six players grabbing five or more boards.
In addition to Roberson’s game-high 16 points, Jeffery scored 15 and grabbed 10 rebounds in the process for her fifth double-double of the season. Junior guard Brittany Wilson added 12 points, while sophomore guard Lexy Kresl scored 11 and grabbed six rebounds.
Overall, the Buffs out-rebounded the Trojans 44-29, with 13 of those on the offensive end. Colorado ended the game shooting 40.4 percent from the field, holding USC to just 27.5 percent.
Junior forward Cassie Harberts led the Trojans in scoring with 14 total points, below her average of 18.7, while sophomore guard Ariya Crook added 10.
The win bumps Colorado’s record to 16-5 overall and 5-5 in the Pac-12 Conference, while USC falls to 8-13 and 5-5 in conference play. The Trojans remain unsuccessful against ranked teams (0-6) so far this season.
Though the Buffs may be only .500 in conference play, their start to the season has been far from smooth sailing. Half of Colorado’s matchups so far in conference play have been against nationally ranked opponents, and four of those have been against top-10 Cal and Stanford teams.
Only one of Colorado’s next eight opponents, Washington, currently has a better record than the Buffs in the Pac-12.
The CU women return to the Coors Events Center next week with matchups against Oregon State on Friday and Oregon on Sunday.
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CU Women’s lackluster performance nets fifth PAC-12 loss
Feb 2nd
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
LOS ANGELES – The No. 22 Colorado women’s basketball team had an opportunity on Friday night to gain a win over a ranked Pac-12 Conference opponent for the first time this season — but the Buffs couldn’t capitalize.
Shooting just 20 percent in the first half and 28.6 percent overall, CU fell to No. 18 UCLA 62-46 at Pauley Pavilion.
Lexy Cresl was the only Buff who looked like she wanted to win
It was the Buffs’ third straight road game against a ranked opponent, having fallen to then-No. 7 California and then-No. 4 Stanford last weekend. Now 4-5 in the Pac-12 and 15-5 overall, CU has just one day to regroup before taking on Southern California Sunday at 10 a.m. MST.
Colorado was No. 1 in the conference in scoring defense going into Friday’s matchup, holding opponents to an average of 52.1 points per game — but UCLA’s forceful offense was too much for the Buffs to handle.
The Bruins (16-4, 7,-2) shot 55.5 percent from the field, improving from 44 percent in the first half to 70 in the second. Senior guard/forward Markel Walker led the Bruins with 17 points, and senior forward Alyssa Brewer added 10.
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Junior guard Brittany Wilson and senior guard Chucky Jeffery led CU in scoring with 12 and 11, respectively. The Buffs, however, didn’t show their usual scoring depth, with all non-starters combined scoring just nine points.
Rebounding, though, was perhaps Colorado’s biggest struggle. The Buffs were outrebounded 25-16 at the half and 44-29 on the night. Four Bruins recorded at least six rebounds, while only one CU player had more than four.
The Buffs did force 29 Bruin turnovers while only committing 17. CU head coach Linda Lappe said that while that may have been the only positive on the stat sheet for her team, the inability to capitalize off of those turnovers was costly for the Buffs.
“They gave us plenty of opportunities,” Lappe said. “Obviously they weren’t really ever threatened by us, and so perhaps they gave away some passes that they wouldn’t have if the game had been closer.”
Lappe said her team was capable of much more than it showed Friday night, especially on the defensive end.
“We didn’t have any mental toughness tonight,” Lappe said. “I mean, we were really a shell of ourselves. We didn’t rebound, we didn’t really play defense, we didn’t play together.”
CU started with a bang in the first half, going up six on a Lexy Kresl three with 16:32 remaining. When UCLA’s Walker responded with a 6-0 run of her own, though, the Buffs were unable to recover. In the 10 minutes following Walker’s run, Colorado scored just three points, allowing the Bruin’s lead to grow to 14 with five minutes left in the half.
By intermission, CU had recorded only 15 points to UCLA’s 29.
The Buffs found some energy with a 6-2 run at the start of the second half, even closing the Bruins’ lead to 11 with 14:43 remaining.
Ultimately, though, an inconsistent CU offense paired with UCLA’s dominance on the boards prevented the Buffs from a successful comeback.
With 6:41 on the clock, UCLA’s lead had grown to 19 — and while Colorado would not stop fighting, the shots simply didn’t fall.
“We were off the entire night,” Lappe said. “We couldn’t make layups. We weren’t necessarily turning the ball over a ton, but we just couldn’t get stops. We were on our heels the entire night. When we did get a stop, they’d get an offensive rebound put-back, or they’d get to the free throw line because we’d bail them out. There are so many things to point to that I can’t even name just one.”
The Buffs have just one day to regroup before taking on USC and Lappe doesn’t plan to waste that time.
“We’ve just got to get back to the drawing board, we’ve got to figure out how to get ready for the next game,” Lappe said. “Play like we can play, play with a sense of confidence, understand what we’re trying to do. We’ve got to play together. We just have to get back to doing the things that we were doing to win so many games that we seemed to not want to do tonight.”
CU Women’s Comeback Falls Short Against No. 6 Cardinal
Jan 28th
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
STANFORD, Calif. – The Colorado women’s basketball team encountered another in-game lapse on Sunday against Stanford, rallied from it, but couldn’t finish its comeback and fell 69-56 to the No. 6 Cardinal at Maples Pavilion.
The No. 20 Buffaloes held their own for most of the first half, staying within single digits of the Cardinal by halftime (35-26). That gap could’ve been smaller, however, had the Buffs not given up 10 first-half turnovers and allowed the Cardinal to go on a 9-3 run to cap the first half.
Colorado didn’t regain its momentum until midway through the second half, and with 14:25 remaining, Stanford had already built a 21-point lead from which CU could not recover. That slow second-half start, CU head coach Linda Lappe said, was reminiscent of another scoring drought the Buffs had the last time they played Stanford – a 57-40 loss on Jan 4.
“In both games that we’ve played these guys, we’ve had a stretch where we have not played very well, and we’ve just given them way too many opportunities,” Lappe said. “We weren’t making them work to get that 21-point lead, and that’s probably the most disappointing thing, in both games. Last time it was at the beginning of the game, this time it was right before half into the second half.”
Freshman Jamee Swan was high scorer in the game.
With the loss, the Buffaloes drop to 15-4 overall and 4-4 in Pac-12 Conference play, while Stanford improves to 18-2 and 7-1 in the Pac-12.
The two teams were ranked No. 1 and 2 in the conference in scoring defense entering the game, with the Buffs holding opponents to 52.7 points per game and the Cardinal 52.9. On Sunday, though, Stanford’s defense prevailed, forcing 18 Colorado turnovers.
Despite its ineffective opening to the second half, CU had nearly 15 minutes to play and wasn’t about to give up. The Buffs brought themselves back into contention with a 12-0 run, trimming the score to 51-42 with 10:45 remaining. The Cardinal’s lead eventually shrunk to just seven (53-46) as Brittany Wilson hit a three with eight minutes on the clock.
But every time Colorado brought the energy, Stanford responded. With 6:10 remaining, Stanford made what turned out to be a five-point play: forward Joslyn Tinkle hit a three-pointer, and missed her “and-1” shot, which forward Chiney Ogwumike rebounded for a layup.
It was the spark the Cardinal needed to bring the game home.
“We didn’t close out with our high hands, we run into the shooter and then we don’t box out on the free throw, and that was a huge deal at that point in the game,” Lappe said. “It gave them a lot of momentum.”
Though the Buffs kept fighting, they would never get closer than 10 points.
Lappe said that while Stanford brought a high level of play to the game, many of the Buffs’ mistakes were of their own creation.
“We didn’t do nearly enough that it was going to take to win tonight,” Lappe said, “and I felt like we controlled a lot of that.”
But junior guard Ashley Wilson, who scored five of her seven points during CU’s second-half comeback attempt, said her team had to feel that a win was still possible until the final buzzer.
“It’s just never giving up. No matter what position we’re in, we have to fight, fight ’till when the horn goes off,” Wilson said. “We’ve just got to be ready to bounce back. That’s all we can do every single time is bounce back and not let it defeat us.”
Sophomore forward Jamee Swan led Colorado in scoring with 14 points off the bench, while senior guard Chucky Jeffery added 13. Jeffery and redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson grabbed a team-high seven boards each, helping CU to out-rebound the Cardinal 39-33.
Stanford’s Ogwumike led all scorers with 20, adding 12 rebounds to earn her 15th double-double of the season. Three other Stanford players – Tinkle, guard Toni Kokenis and guard Amber Orrange – also scored in double figures, as the Cardinal hit 49.1 percent from the field compared to CU’s 36.1 percent.
Colorado has now played both of the Pac-12’s top-10 teams, Cal and Stanford, twice each, with those four games being the Buffs’ only conference losses.
Ashley Wilson said there were definite benefits to taking on such tough competition early in the season.
“We know we can play with the top teams in the country, we’ve proven that multiple times,” Wilson said. “So now we just have to take this confidence, take the positives out of this game and just let it keep rolling into the next few games.”
CU plays the third of four straight away games on Friday night against UCLA. The matchup is set for 9 p.m. MST and will air on the Pac-12 Network.
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