CU Women’s Basketball
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WBB: An epic comeback and finally a WIN
Feb 24th
Colorado erased a 20-point first half deficit to claim a 61-56 overtime Pac-12 Conference win over Arizona Sunday afternoon at the McKale Center.
Sophomore forward Jamee Swan banked in a short jumper just off the block with 0.9 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime. Senior guard Ashley Wilson then scored seven of her 11 points in the extra session to help Colorado (15-12, 5-11) overcome its largest deficit to win in program history from available records since 1982.
“We needed that one,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said. “We battled back in the second half after one of our worst halves of the season. We were able to get it turned around at halftime.”
Arizona (5-22, 1-15) was able to build its lead with an impressive first half performance from the field. The Wildcats hit 14 of their first 20 shots (70 percent) and built a 36-16 lead by the 4:14 mark.
Colorado came out in a zone defense to take away the paint, but Arizona caught fire quickly hitting five 3-pointers in the first 15 minutes including two each from Candice Warthen and Carissa Crutchfield.
The Buffaloes issues were compounded by their own cold shooting and turnovers. Colorado shot just 29 percent in the first half (7-of-24) and committed 12 turnovers. To make matters worse, Arizona took advantage to the tune of 16 points off those turnovers alone.
Colorado was able to whittle the lead down to 16, 39-23, at the break. Swan scored eight points in the final five minutes and had actually cut the Arizona lead to 14 on a pair of free throws with 5 seconds left, but Warthen was able to take the inbounds pass and went coast-to-coast, finishing off with a runner in the late at the halftime buzzer.
With momentum starting to nudge towards Colorado, the Buffaloes put together an epic defensive effort to get to overtime.
Colorado outscored Arizona 26-10 in the second half, holding the Wildcats to just two field goals, and 10 percent shooting (2-of-20), both all-time CU opponent lows for one half. The 10 points allowed to Arizona was an all-time opponent low for a second half, and tied for the second-fewest in any half in team history.
“It was all about our mind set; we didn’t start off the game well and they were getting shots they don’t usually hit,” Lappe said. “We went back to our defense and made sure that we defended them the right way; changed our mind set to getting stops and keeping them from getting easy shots.”
The Buffaloes immediately cut the lead to 39-27 on layups by Swan and Arielle Roberson. After a LaBrittney Jones free throw, Colorado scored the next six, capped off by another Swan bucket as CU trailed 40-33 with 12:50 remaining.
Erica Barnes put in Arizona’s first bucket of the period on the next possession to put the lead back up to nine. But the Buffaloes kept coming. Haley Smith scored four points during another 6-0 CU run and her two free throws with 8:55 left made it a one possession game at 42-39.
Barnes made a free throw and Crutchfield made Arizona’s second and final field goal of the half with 7:14 left to kick the Wildcats’ lead back to six. Freshman guard Desiree Harris responded with her first career field goal on a nice layup in traffic. Swan followed with a jumper after a stop and Roberson completed the comeback with a pair of free throws that tied the game at 45-45 with 3:22 left in regulation. Roberson then gave CU its first lead of the game on a contested layup with 1:52 remaining.
“We were more aggressive and played together,” Lappe said. “We flipped a switch at halftime and it carried us from there on out.”
Jones kept Arizona going at the line. She hit four free throws sandwiched between a Swan missed shot that gave the Wildcats the lead back at 49-47 at the 1:07 mark. Arizona had a chance to increase its lead but turned the ball over on two straight possessions opening the door for the Buffaloes.
Following an Arizona shot clock violation, the Buffs had the ball with 15 seconds remaining. After a CU timeout with 6 seconds left, Roberson had the ball at the top of the key and found Swan posted up on the left block. Swan hesitated for a second, but turned around and banked in the equalizer off the top of the class from about eight feet out with :00.9 on the clock.
“I saw Arielle was blocked off (up top) and could hear someone yell for me to post up,” Swan said. “When she threw it in I thought about passing it, but the team told me to shoot it. My confidence (to take the shot) came from that.”
In overtime Roberson opened the scoring with a drive through the lane, but Jones answered at the other end. Wilson then hit Colorado’s first 3-pointer of the game for a 54-51 advantage. On the following possession, Wilson picked off a Crutchfield pass and took it the distance for a 56-51 CU lead.
The Buffaloes then held off Arizona at the free throw line. Lexy Kresl hit one and Jen Reese made two – her only points of the game – to give CU a six-point lead. Kama Griffitts pulled Arizona back to within 59-56 on the Wildcats’ first 3-pointer since the first half with 8 seconds left in overtime. Wilson then iced the game for the Buffaloes with a pair of free throws.
Swan finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and a career-high six steals. Roberson recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Wilson added eight rebounds as the Buffaloes enjoyed a sizeable edge on the boards, 45-32.
Jones led Arizona with 13 points. Crutchfield and Griffitts both had 10.
Colorado returns to action on Friday, Feb. 28, by hosting UCLA at 6 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
Colorado Buffaloes Women’s Basketball
WBB: Buffs avoid a meltdown, still come up short
Feb 17th
http://www.cubuffs.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=3200918
By: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Another chance at a close-game breakthrough eluded the Colorado women’s basketball team Sunday afternoon. Following what has become a painfully familiar script, CU faltered in the final 5 minutes and lost 80-77 to Washington State at the Coors Events Center.
“Well, it seems a little bit like déjà vu,” said Buffaloes coach Linda Lappe, whose team lost its fourth Pac-12 Conference game this season by three or fewer points.
Lappe credited the Buffs for competing throughout and staying close enough to win but again lamented their inability to “make key stops, free throws, passes and shots down the stretch that would have helped us have the outcome we wanted.”
After trailing by as many as nine points midway through the second half, CU (14-11, 4-10) rallied to tie the score at 71-71. But the Buffs clanked four of their next five free throws, not hitting one until Ashley Wilson converted a pair with 2:52 to play, then sank one of two to put CU up 75-73 with 2:17 remaining.
From there until the final buzzer, the Buffs got only a field goal by Jen Reese in the last 2 seconds that made it a two-point (79-77) game. After one of two foul shots by WSU’s Shalie Dheensaw with 1.1 seconds left put WSU (14-12, 8-6) up 80-77, Reese threw a three-quarter court length pass to Jamie Swan, who caught the ball then passed to Wilson instead of shooting.
Time expired before Wilson could attempt a shot.
Lappe said Reese’s long pass went a step or two too deep, forcing Swan inside the 3-point circle to catch it – thus Swan’s decision to kick it back to Wilson. Reese said the play was designed for Swan to catch-and-shoot, but added, “If there was more time, Ashley could have shot the ball. The pass was there; she had it.”
Swan, again coming off the bench, and Reese led the Buffs with 19 points each, while Ashley Wilson added 12. Arielle Roberson was a point away from a double-double in points and rebounds – nine in each category. Brittany Wilson left the game with 12:19 to play and did not return after suffering a possible concussion.
The Buffs had problems with Washington’s backcourt of Kelsey Plum (25 points) and Jazmine Davis (24) in an 87-80 loss on Thursday night. This was part of Lappe’s déjà vu: On Sunday, CU surrendered 42 combined points to WSU guards Tia Presley (32) and Lia Galdeira (10).
Presley got 22 of her total in the first half, then picked up eight more points in the first 4:55 of the second half. She didn’t get her 32nd point until hitting a layup with 1:27 to play, putting the Cougars up 77-75.
That nearly 14-minute span of keeping Presley in check, said Ashley Wilson, came from “focusing on keeping the ball out of her hands” in the second half. “We had a couple of different players on her (and) when she was driving, just have our bigger post players waiting for her at the basket. It turned out to work in our favor.”
Lappe also thought a different lineup might work in the Buffs’ favor; she used a bigger five of Swan, Reese, Roberson and Rachel Hargis, with Ashley Wilson at guard, in the first half and again to close the game.
But it didn’t matter in CU making enough late plays to win. “There’s no magic formula,” Lappe said. “You just have to do it. You have to figure out that enough’s enough and decide to be tough enough to do that. You have to understand that every team is going to get tougher down the stretch and that’s when the stars are really born. It’s where players step up.”
The Cougars swept the series with the Buffs, winning 70-60 last month in Corvallis, Wash. With their loss to the Huskies on Thursday, the Buffs gave up 80 points or more for the second consecutive game and the fourth time in Pac-12 play. And it marks the first time CU has allowed 80 or more points in back-to-back games since the 2008 WNIT.
The Buffs trailed 44-40 at halftime, surrendering a 25-22 lead taken on a 3-pointer by Roberson with 8:37 left before the break. But CU didn’t get another field goal for nearly 4 minutes, and during that time WSU was building its largest lead of the half – 34-25 – with Presley scoring eight of her 22 first-half points in that stretch.
“She played too many minutes tonight (36), but you really can’t take her out,” said WSU coach June Daugherty. “She’s such a fierce competitor.”
A defensive upgrade had to be among CU’s second-half goals, but that message – if delivered – apparently took a while to register. The Cougars outscored the Buffs 7-2 to open the half, with Presley scoring consecutive baskets to kick off that run. WSU again stretched its lead to nine – 51-42 – on a traditional three-point play by Shane Romberg (14 points, 12 rebounds).
By the 10-minute mark the Buffs still trailed by seven – 64-57 – but they were about to make their move. With Reese getting four points in a 6-0 run and freshman Zoe Beard-Fails scoring on a put-back, CU pulled within 64-63 with 9:07 remaining.
The Buffs finally tied the Cougars at 71-71 when Swan hit both ends of a one-and-one with 4:23 left. On the previous possession, With 5:51 to play, Swan scored what would be CU’s next-to-last field goal – the last being Reese’s jumper with 2 seconds left.
After Ashley Wilson hit one of two free throws to give CU its 75-73 lead with 2:17 left, WSU got four free throws from Galdeira, Presley’s layup and one of two foul shots from Dheensaw to account for its 80 points.
The Cougars were up 80-77 and the Buffs needed a nearly full-court pass and full-blown miracle to force overtime. They got the first but not the second.
“We have to forget about this game, but we have to learn from it as well and move on,” Reese said. “We just have to finish down the stretch . . . hopefully good things will come.”
CU is at Arizona State on Friday night (6:30 p.m.) and at Arizona next Sunday (3 p.m.). The Buffs close out the regular season at home against UCLA on Feb. 28 and USC on March 2.
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