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CU MBB: Scott returns home to rousing ovation
Dec 1st
Beats AFA 81-57
COLORADO SPRINGS — After more than a year of waiting, Josh Scott finally returned home on Saturday. An afternoon that began with a rousing ovation from the Clune Arena faithful culminated with one of the finest performances of his young career.
The 6-10 sophomore from nearby Monument had 16 points and a season-high 13 rebounds as the Buffs led the Air Force Falcons from wire-to-wire en route to a convincing 81-57 victory. Scott reached his third double-double of the year half way through the second half and then sat for the game’s final five minutes while the Buffs coasted to their seventh straight victory.
“It feels good, it’s good to show up for the home crowd,” said Scott. “I won’t lie, so it’s nice.”
Josh Scott hit his third double/dounble of the season
After being held to zero points and just three rebounds for the first 12:17 of the game, Scott sprang off the mat to score 16 points and grab 10 boards over the remainder of the afternoon. His tenacious and spirited play in front of the hometown fans helped break a close game wide open in the second half.
Scott’s first bucket came at the 7:43 mark of the first half, as the Buffs were clinging to a tenuous nine-point lead. By the time he scored his final bucket nearly 18 minutes later, the Buffs lead had ballooned to 28 points mostly on the strength of the big man’s domination of an undersized and overwhelmed Falcon front court.
“Once I got the ball in the high-post, I was just looking for Josh down low and we executed well,” said freshman forward Wesley Gordon.
Scott’s play may have been the highlight of the game, but it was an effective Colorado defense that won it. The Buffs out-rebounded the Falcons 42-25 and forced them into a resounding 18 turnovers as AFA was held to a season-low 57 points. The 57 points were the fewest the Buffs have allowed in a road game since they gave up 47 at Oregon last year.
Despite all of the Air Force mistakes, the turnover issues were far from one-sided. The Buffs turned the ball over nine times themselves in the first half and it was the sloppy play that kept Air Force in the game for more than a half. The Falcons, who had more than twice as many turnovers (12) as assists (5), were down only 10 at halftime.
CU coach Tad Boyle later attributed the first-half carelessness to an Air Force zone that took his young team more than a half to decipher. After a few halftime adjustments, the Buffs then turned the ball over just five times in the second half.
“It’s not fun playing against the zone for 40 minutes,” said Boyle. “We tell our guys all the time, the reason they are playing a zone is because they don’t feel like they can guard you (in man-to-man defense). So, we have to be patient, and get the ball moved. Our guys would rather play 40 minutes against the (man-to-man defense), but we’re going to see a lot of the zone. It’s just the way college basketball is being played now, and people trying to stay out of foul trouble.”
Scott wasn’t the only Buff player who triumphantly returned to his hometown on Saturday. Gordon, who also hails from the Colorado Springs area, scored six points, pulled down three rebounds and had two blocks in his own successful return to the city.
“It was a big game for them, in front of their friends and family,” said Boyle. “Colorado Springs, and this community, means a lot to both those young men and their families – their families are obviously both still here and part of this community. So, it was big for them, and I was happy that they both played well. So, it was a good, good feel-good victory for both those young guys.”
The game began under a barrage of Askia Booker jump shots as the trigger-happy junior hit his four shots, two of them from three-point range, and scored eight of the team’s first 10 points. Booker’s success from the field came as the rest of the team combined for just four field goals in the game’s first 12 minutes.
Booker’s hot early shooting helped the team weather the initial struggles of the other go-to players on offense and gave them each time to find their own rhythm in a slow-paced first half. Booker then scored just three points after the game’s first four minutes, but by end of his hot streak the rest of the CU offense had gained their footing and was more than happy to take the weight off Booker’s shoulders.
“It was nice to see (Booker) come out and hit some shots and get us kind of going, and then we kind of took it from there,” said Boyle. “We came out first part of the second half and made some buckets and extended that thing and never let them get back in the game.”
After a season-opening loss to the Baylor Bears, the Buffs have now won seven straight for the first time since January 2011 as they now head into the gauntlet of their non-conference schedule.
The Buffs will travel to Fort Collins to play a solid Colorado State team on Tuesday at Moby Arena, where they haven’t won since 2007. CU will then play two of the following three games against teams currently ranked in the top five in the country – hosting No. 2 Kansas on Saturday, Dec. 7, then taking on No. 5 Oklahoma State in Las Vegas on Dec. 21.
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CU WBB: Sborov and Kresl finish off Rice to win OMNI tourney
Dec 1st
Release: November 30, 2013
By: Troy Andre, Assistant SID
By: Troy Andre, Assistant SID
BOULDER – No. 14/19 ranked Colorado used a late 14-0 rally to pull away from Rice and claim the 2013 Omni Hotels Classic championship, 75-58, Saturday night at the Coors Events Center.
Junior guard Lexy Kresl scored 19 points and recorded five rebounds, four assists and three steals to earn Classic MVP honors. Classmate Jen Reese was also named to the All-Tournament team after scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds.
Lexy Kresl was named tournament MVP
Rice guard Megan Shafer hit a 3-pointer with 12:06 remaining in the game to pull Rice within four at 49-45.
But Colorado, 6-0, reeled off the next 14 points. Kresl made a nice pass to Reese in traffic on a fast break to put Colorado back up by double-digits at 56-45. Lauren Huggins then put back a Reese miss the next time down the floor to add to the rally.
The Wilson twins capped off the run. Brittany Wilson hit her second 3-pointer of the game and her sister Ashley Wilson caught the Owls defense sleeping for an open drive to the basket and layup to give the Buffaloes a 63-45 advantage.
“I like the way that our team bared down and got a certain level of toughness at about the eleven-minute mark in the second half,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said. “That was really where the game changed. We started defending, we started rebounding and that allowed us to run and transition to score.”
Rice guard Jessica Kuster, scored eight of her game-high 30 points to close the Colorado lead to 64-56 with 3:56 left. But the Buffaloes held off the Owls by staying aggressive. Arielle Roberson scored on a layup and Kresl scored four straight points to put the game away.
“That was a really fun game for our team and for our staff,” Lappe said. “We did not play our best, and we still found a way to win.”
Kuster, who struggled from the field against Samford in Friday’s opener, hitting only 1-of-9, couldn’t miss early on Saturday. She scored Rice’s first seven points and a traditional 3-point play tied the game at 7-7.
Colorado responded with 10 straight including 3-pointers from Brittany Wilson and Huggins and took a 17-7 lead on a Kresl layup.
Turnovers hurt the Buffaloes early and Rice cashed in. Colorado gave it up 10 times in the first 20 minutes which accounted for 11 Rice points.
But the Buffaloes shot 45 percent in the first half, allowing them to stay just ahead of the Owls. Reese hit a layup with 4:57 remaining to give Colorado a 27-17 advantage.
Rice then closed the half on a flurry behind Kuster. The All-Conference USA guard led the Owls on a 12-6 run, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer off a mad scramble in the final minutes. Kresl missed a layup with eight seconds left which sent players sprawling for the rebound. Jasmine Goodwine eventually controlled it, shot it over to Christal Porter who got the ball to Kuster in time for her 3-pointer from the top of the key sent CU to the locker room with just a 33-29 lead.
“They were tough, and (Kuster) is a great player,” Lappe said. “We tried everybody on her in terms of guarding her, and she found a way to make things happen for them.”
Kuster scored her team’s first three points of the second half and cut CU’s lead to its smallest margin at 35-32 at the 19:02 mark. The Buffaloes countered with a 10-4 run capped off by four straight points by Kresl for a 47-36 lead.
Then all of a sudden Rice couldn’t miss from downtown. After making just 1-of-3 from deep in the first half, the Owls hit 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions for a 9-2 run that ended with Shafer’s 3-pointer and the four-point margin before Colorado’s big second half run.
Kuster, who set a tournament record for free-throws made and attempted over the two-games (23-of-29) joined South Alabama’s Jennifer Johnson and Samford’s Keke Fletcher on the all-tournament team. Samford defeated South Alabama 70-49 in Saturday’s consolation game.
Colorado returns to action by traveling to play Wyoming on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 7 p.m. at the Arena Auditorium in Laramie.
2013 Omni Hotels Classic – Boulder, Colo.
Colorado WBB Team Sprints Past South Alabama 94-61
Nov 30th
Buffs face Rice in tournament championship Saturday
BOULDER – Colorado’s offense continued to click as the No. 14/19 ranked Buffaloes sprinted past South Alabama, 94-61 in the first round of the Omni Hotels Classic Friday evening at the Coors Events Center.
Colorado (5-0) will play Rice (4-4) in Saturday’s championship game, set for 7:30 p.m. at the Coors Events Center. Rice squeaked by Samford 57-52 in the opener. South Alabama (0-5) will play Samford (1-4) in Saturday’s consolation at 5 p.m.
Swan scored a career high 16 points in the game.
Colorado had five players score in double-digits for the third straight game and hit at least 80 points for the fourth consecutive contest, and 90 for the second time this year.
Jen Reese and Jamee Swan tied for lead scoring honors with 16 points apiece. Lexy Kresl had 12 points, seven rebounds and a career-high six assists. Rachel Hargis had 11 and Lauren Huggins had 10.
“It was another night with really good balance,” head coach Linda Lappe said. “Offensively, we moved the ball well. We had a lot of different players contribute; we scored on the inside, we scored on the outside. I really like the flow of some of the things we’re doing offensively.”
Colorado’s balanced shined once again as all 10 players that played scored, in fact that was achieved less than 10 minutes into the contest. Kresl scored 11 of her 12 points in the first half and keyed the Buffaloes fast start, drilling a 3-pointer that gave Colorado an early 11-2 lead.
South Alabama stayed close early on the heels of Rachel Cumbo, who hit two early 3-pointers, the second pulling the Jaguars to within six at 22-16 at the 11:10 mark of the first half.
But Kresl countered with a 3-pointer which sparked a 10-0 run. Ashley Wilson scored on a put back of a Brittany Wilson miss to double-up the Jaguars at 32-16.
From there the Buffaloes continued to roll. Colorado hit 57 percent in the first half alone en route to a 53-27 lead at the break, its most halftime points since putting up 53 against Southern Utah in 2009.
The Buffaloes dominated in the paint outscoring the Jaguars 40-14. The trio of Reese, Hargis and Swan were a combined 15-of-24 from the field. They also got it done at the foul line, making 12-of-13 combined, including a career-best 7-of-8 from Hargis.
Swan’s 16 points were a career high and came in a variety of ways, she had put back on offensive rebounds, mid-range jumpers and even a steal and coast-to-coast lay-in. She finished 7-of-10 from the field and grabbed eight boards, leading the Buffaloes in rebounding for the second straight contest.
“It was pretty even, it just came down to who wanted it more,” Swan said. “They were good on the inside and strong, but again, it came down to who wanted it more.”
Colorado as a team was outstanding from the line sinking 83 percent (20-of-24).
”We keep working on that every day,” Hargis said. “It was nice to get some fouls and get to the line.”
Reese was 6-of-8 from the field and pulled down seven rebounds. Ashley Wilson finished with six points, six rebounds and tied a personal best with four assists.
Colorado ended up at 52 percent for the game (34-of-65) and dished out 19 assists. The Buffaloes also enjoyed a 42-28 edge on the boards.
Cumbo had a game-high 19 points for South Alabama while Jennifer Johnson scored 18 off the bench.
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