CU Women’s Basketball
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Colorado Women’s Basketball Team Moves Up Two Spots To No. 21 In AP Poll
Jan 14th
Colorado, 13-2 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-12 Conference, received 232 votes, its highest vote total of the season. The Buffaloes have resided in the AP poll for the last five weeks, reaching as high as No. 20 on Dec. 31. CU’s five week run in the AP poll is its longest since appearing in all 19 polls of the 2003-04 season.
The Buffaloes have a long history of rankings in the AP poll, dating back to the 1980-81 season. This week’s ranking marks the 163rd time Colorado has appeared in the AP poll, trailing only Stanford, USC and UCLA among Pac-12 schools.
The USA Today Sports Coaches poll is scheduled to be released on Tuesday. Colorado spent one week at No. 25 in that poll (Jan. 1) and was the second team in the “receiving votes” category last week.
Colorado will continue Pac-12 play by hosting the Arizona schools this week. Arizona State visits Boulder for a 7 p.m. game on Friday, Jan. 18, while the Buffaloes host Arizona on Sunday, Jan. 20, at 2 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
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Buffs’ Balance Kicks In Strong For Sweep Of Utes
Jan 14th
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
SALT LAKE CITY – The No. 23 Colorado women’s basketball team showed itself as a balanced group of road warriors Sunday in a 56-43 Pac-12 Conference win over Utah.
CU’s victory was the second over the Utes in five days and kept the Buffaloes unbeaten (4-0) on the road this season. CU improved to 13-2 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-12, while Utah slipped to 9-6 overall and remains winless in conference (0-4).
The Buffs and Utes competed in unusual back-to-back games, with CU winning 67-57 on Tuesday at the Coors Events Center. In that game, Buffs guard Chucky Jeffery was the dominant force offensively with a season-high 28 points.
On Sunday, though, Jeffery took the opposite approach, taking a step back while her teammates — nearly all of them — stepped up.
Initially, Jeffery’s withdrawal was forced as she went to the bench with two fouls and 8:58 remaining in the half — but not without hitting her 1,400th career point on an “and-one” play early in the game.
Without the senior standout, the Buffs were forced to spread out their scoring and dip into a balanced bench to keep up the momentum. Jeffery’s teammates handled the pressure well, shooting just 44 percent from the field but holding Utah to 31 percent.
“We’re better when we’re balanced, I really feel that,” CU coach Linda Lappe said. “I thought everybody that came in . . . really just kept the flow going. You could never see at any point when we subbed that it affected anything, and I think that’s what you want when you sub. I felt like any of the combinations that we put in contributed a lot, and we’re just really solid.”
Although Jeffery came back in for a couple minutes midway through the first half to restore order after a 7-2 Utah run, she never had to carry the load on offense. The Buffs leading scorer wound up with only six points, but she recorded six assists, three steals and five rebounds – three areas in which she has led the team throughout the season.
By the end of the first half, seven CU players had scored, including freshmen Jamee Swan and Kyleesha Weston and sophomore Jen Reese off the bench.
Meanwhile, forwards Taryn Wicijowski and Michelle Plouffe carried much of the load for the Utes, earning 16 of Utah’s 23 first-half points between them.
Neither team had more than a five-point lead at any point in the half, but CU managed a two-point advantage (25-23) at intermission.
Jeffery started the second half, but the Buffs’ depth continued to show. A 10-4 Buffs run capped by a Jasmine Sborov three gave them an eight-point lead with 14:47 on the clock. Plouffe then hit a three to close the gap to five, but Reese responded with a 7-0 run of her own, putting CU up 42-30 with 11:46 remaining.
The Buffs never relinquished the lead from there. Redshirt freshman Arielle Roberson, sophomore Lexy Kresl and junior Rachel Hargis picked up the effort on defense to hold Plouffe and Wicijowski to a combined eight points in the time remaining. Guard Iwalani Rodrigues, another key offensive threat for the Utes, scored just three on the night.
“What we told our team is, it’s not going to be three players that guard their best three players (Plouffe, Wicijowski and Rodrigues),” Lappe said. “It’s going to be a total team effort in terms of defense . . . everybody who was on kind of a non-scorer did a fantastic job of really making their lives miserable and making them work for everything that they got.”
By game’s end, the Buffs were up by 13 (56-43), and Reese had racked up 11 points off the bench to lead the Buffs in scoring. Roberson also hit double figures for the 14th time this season with 10, while Weston added eight.
In total, nine CU players contributed points, with Kresl and Sborov contributing three each in the second half.
Colorado outrebounded Utah 41-32, led by Hargis’ seven, and shot 44 percent from the field compared to Utah’s 26.3.
Wicijowski led the Utes in scoring with 16, getting her 1,200th career point early in the first half. Plouffe added 15; no other Utah player scored more than three.
Road games are a new strength for the Buffs as they earned a winning road record (9-8) last season for the first time since 2003-04. The reason, said Reese, is that under Lappe’s leadership, CU has found a way to keep the momentum going away from Coors.
“On road games, we have to make our own energy, and that really helps our energy level going into the game,” Reese said. “(Coach Lappe) says, ‘Slow and steady wins the race,’ and I just feel like (road games) show our toughness.”
The Buffs return to Boulder this week to take on Arizona State on Friday at 7 p.m. and Arizona on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the CEC.
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Jeffery’s 28 Pushes Buffs To Pac-12 Win
Jan 9th
BOULDER – Linda Lappe’s third Colorado women’s basketball team is more balanced than her first two, but after a pair of Pac-12 Conference losses she wisely recognized that a stronger dose of Chucky Jeffery might be just as beneficial as balance.
After dropping consecutive home games to No. 4 Stanford and No. 7 California, Lappe and Jeffery talked – and on Tuesday night Jeffery responded. The senior point guard scored a season-high 28 points and collected 12 rebounds to lead No. 23 CU to its first Pac-12 win of the season, 67-57 over Utah at the Coors Events Center.
“Chucky came out a lot more aggressive,” Lappe said. “She was tentative against Cal and Stanford . . . we needed more from her.”
More is what Jeffery delivered, helping key a 20-3 second-half run as the Buffaloes (12-2, 1-2) finally pulled away from the uncooperative Utes (9-5, 0-3).
CU also was lights out from the free throw line, hitting 22 of 26 in the second half and 23 of 28 for the game. The Buffs’ final nine points came from the foul line, and they sealed the win by sinking five of six free throws in the final 33 seconds.
Lappe said Jeffery, whose 10 field goals tied a season high, “got in a great flow offensively . . . she took her time, but she was being aggressive and everything was in rhythm. She didn’t force too much.”
Registering her 23rd career double-double (third this season), it was the type of trademark performance expected of Jeffery in her first three CU seasons. “And we still need that from her,” Lappe said. “She knew when we needed to score . . . she understood her role and sometimes that’s taking the bull by the horns. There are times when we need her to step up; she understands big possessions.”
It wasn’t as if Jeffery was completely unproductive against Stanford (17 points) and Cal (13). But she agreed with her coach about playing tentative to open Pac-12 play: “After the past two games, I watched film with coach . . . and I was tentative and wasn’t looking to score. She just wanted me to be more aggressive. She told me when I’m more aggressive I make smarter and better decisions to create and help my teammates score as well.”
CU won’t have to put in extensive film study for its next game with Utah. The Buffs play the Utes in Salt Lake City on Sunday (3 p.m.). Last season, CU and Utah split their regular-season series, with each team winning on the road and CU breaking the tie with a win in the Pac-12 tournament.
The Buffs only led once in Tuesday’s first half, and it took them 19 minutes to finally catch the Utes. They did it by closing the half on a 10-1 run, with eight of the points scored by Jeffery as CU took a 32-31 lead at intermission.
Behind Plouffe’s 11 first-half points, Utah led by eight points on two occasions before CU shook itself awake. The Utes’ last eight-point advantage (30-22) came on a pair of Wicijowski free throws with 4:42 remaining before the break.
That’s when Jeffery went to work, getting eight of her 14 first-half points in the final 41/2 minutes. The Buffs’ other basket was scored by freshman Jamee Swan, who finished with a career-high 11 boards and eight points in 22 minutes and was a catalyst in CU catching up in the first half, said Lappe: “She kept us in the game for a lot of the first half.”
The Buffs’ 32 first-half points gave them a nice start toward finally reaching 50 in their third conference home game. They managed only 40 and 49 in the two previous losses, marking the first time since the 1974-75 season CU had been held under 50 points in consecutive home games.
But that wasn’t a second-half focal point for the Buffs; scoring 49 and getting a one-point win would have been fine. They opened the second half with a basket by Swan, taking their largest lead (34-31) of the night to that point.
Plouffe answered for Utah (34-33), then got a trey by Rachel Messer to go up 36-34. Meagan Malcolm-Peck’s layup tied the score at 36-36 before a 9-2 Utes run opened a 45-38 advantage for the visitors with just under 13 minutes to play.
It was the Buffs’ turn to respond, and they did with an 11-1 run, with seven of the points made at the free throw line. The final pair by Brittany Wilson put CU up 49-46 with 8:49 left.
Jeffery took it from there. After hitting a short jumper, she got a steal at the other end, was fouled and hit two free throws for a 55-48 Buffs lead. And when the Utes misfired on their next possession, Jeffery made them pay with a three-pointer from the top of the key that completed CU’s 20-3 surge and opened a 10-point lead (58-48) with 5:58 remaining.
The Utes pulled to within five points (62-57) when Plouffe made one of three free throws with 36.1 seconds to play. But the Buffs pulled away at the free throw line, hitting five of six free throws to pocket their first Pac-12 win.
“I’m happy . . . it’s nice to get that first one,” Lappe said. “You have to give Utah credit, though; they don’t beat themselves. You really have to work hard to beat Utah.”
A chance for a sweep comes again in five days, which Lappe calls “different (because) we play them again so soon . . . I think there will be some changes by both teams, but for the most part we know each other’s game.”
The Utes know Jeffery’s game, said Utah coach Anthony Levrets: “We played a really good team and obviously Chucky made a ton of plays to beat us. But I’m pleased with my team’s effort and we’ll keep working and try to get ourselves ready to go on Sunday.”
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