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CU Men Grind Out Road Win Against Cougars
Jan 20th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
PULLMAN, Wash. – On a night when the Colorado Buffaloes’ offense came and went, their constant was defense – and it carried them to their second Pac-12 Conference victory and first of the season on the road.
CU kept grinding and grinding and finally put away Washington State 58-49 Saturday night at Beasley Coliseum. The Buffs went to 12-6 overall and 2-4 in the Pac-12, while the Cougars dropped to 10-8, 1-4.
Buffs coach Tad Boyle told his team that the “hungrier, tougher team” would win Saturday night – and his team proved to be both. CU survived a cold-shooting final 6:15 of the first half and fell behind by four points early in the second half.
But the Buffs rallied behind their defense and late offense provided by Spencer Dinwiddie, whose three-pointer in the game’s last 6 minutes helped keep the Cougars at bay. That shot restored a five-point lead, and he followed with a pair of free throws at the 4:37 mark for another five-point margin.
“That was an ugly win, we have got to get better offensively. We only put up 44 shots to their 58 and we had some silly turnovers, but again, you take a win on the road,” said CU head coach Tad Boyle on 850 KOA. “I thought that there were a couple key performances tonight; number one: Andre [Roberson] was terrific on [Washington State’s Brock] Motum tonight as he made him work for everything. He is the difference in the game defensively, people are going to look at his stat line and maybe say ‘Oh Andre had an off night’ but he didn’t have an off night on defense. They were obviously boxing him out, they were face guarding him and being physical with him, but he was driven.”
“Number two: Xavier Johnson, really gave us great minutes tonight and got inside and he is a beast down there. And then ‘Ski [Booker] made some shots when he had to make shots. He’s 3-for-11 so his efficiency is not very good but two of his three that he made were big shots in the second half and then he had a great assist to Xavier [Johnson] and that is where we kind of blew it open.”
Dinwiddie led CU with 16 points, with Xavier Johnson contributing 14 and Josh Scott 11. WSU got 13 each from Brock Motum and Mike Ladd.
The Buffs held the Cougars to 34.5 percent from the field – their second straight game of keeping an opponent below 40 percent. CU shot 43.2 percent, including 47.8 in the second half. Freshman Xavier Johnson was effective inside
CU comes home next week to play Stanford (Thursday, 8 p.m.) and California (Sunday, 1:30 p.m.) before traveling to Utah the following Saturday to open February.
The Buffs led 23-19 at halftime, but it took a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Will DiOrio to get the Cougars that close. After a 9-9 tie, CU went ahead by as many as seven point on four occasions during the half’s final 6:15.
Among Boyle’s Saturday night goal for the Buffs was to be more selective in their shot selection and move the ball like they’ve shown they’re capable of in practice. CU was hit-and-miss in both areas, with the offense bogging down at times and the Buffs playing their second consecutive game without a three-pointer in the opening 20 minutes.
In fact, CU finished the half’s final 6:15 without a field goal, getting four of four free throws from Scott and one of two from Xavier Johnson to maintain their seven-point lead until DiOrio’s late trey.
But if the Buffs’ offensive struggles continued, they also continued to play the same brand of rugged defense shown three nights early at Washington. WSU’s 29.6 field goal percentage (8-for-27) was the lowest by a CU opponent this season at halftime, as were the Buffs’ and Cougars’ combined 42 first-half points.
CU’s plan was to go inside to the 6-10 Scott, and it worked in the opening half. For the fifth time in his freshman year, he went to the locker room as the Buffs’ scoring leader, getting nine points on two of five field goals and five of six free throws.
The Cougars outscored the Buffs 7-2 in the second half’s first 31/2 minutes and regained the lead (26-25) for the first time since 9-7. CU took it back (27-26) on a pair of Eli Stalzer free throws but WSU five consecutive points from Royce Woolridge to take its largest advantage (31-27) to that point.
The Buffs desperately needed a field goal – and Johnson provided a pair to pull them within one point (32-31). A fast-break layup by Spencer Dinwiddie pushed CU back ahead by one, setting up what appeared would be a back-and-forth final 10 minutes.
It was – for maybe a minute and a half.
Askia Booker, who had two first-half points on one-for-five shooting, hit a jumper to pull the Buffs into a 37-37 tie, Dinwiddie followed with a traditional three-point play, then Booker buried another jumper for a 42-37 CU advantage.
WSU had 7:21 to make up the five-point deficit, but could get no closer than three in the final 5 minutes. CU increased its lead to 11 (58-47) on two free throws by Roberson Booker with 28.3 seconds to play – and the Buffs finally could feel safe about a rare road win.
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Jeffery, Defense Lead Buffaloes To Pac-12 Win Over Arizona State
Jan 19th
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
Thanks to a strong second-half surge, the Colorado women’s basketball team secured a 57-43 Pac-12 Conference win over Arizona State Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
Senior guard Chucky Jeffery earned her 24th career double-double and her fourth of the season with 19 points and 16 rebounds. Her rebound total was also a team season-high.
Senior guard Chucky Jeffery was high scorer once again
Redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson earned a career-high 11 rebounds and contributed seven points of her own. Overall, Colorado out-rebounded Arizona State 47-31.
“Like any Pac-12 game, it was very physical down there,” Roberson said. “It’s always a war, it’s always a battle … But we knew we had to box out and then go get the rebounds, not just let them try to come to us.”
Forward Jen Reese and guard Lexy Kresl, both sophomores, added eight points each.
Strong defense from both teams kept the score and shooting percentages low, as Colorado shot just 37.8 percent from the field but held the Sun Devils to 23.6 percent.
One of the goals for Colorado was to keep ASU players from scoring around the rim. The Buffs executed that game plan well, forcing the Sun Devils to shoot 8-for-26 from beyond the arc.
“It was a very solid night defensively for us,” said Colorado head coach Linda Lappe. “Knowing how Arizona State likes to score, they score a lot of baskets and layups at the rim, so one of our goals was to give up less than 10 layups. I think we gave them only a couple of wide-open layups.”
The Buffs and the Sun Devils looked evenly matched in the first half as the lead changed seven lead times, but two three-pointers by Arizona State’s Jada Blackwell and Haley Videckis put the Sun Devils up 26-22 at the half. Neither team shot particularly well in the first half, as CU was 32.1 percent from the field and ASU was 36.0.
After intermission, though, the Buffs found the energy they had been lacking. With 14:30 remaining, Colorado went on a 13-0 run capped by a Lexy Kresl three-pointer to go up 12 (44-32).
“We have to start fast and finish strong, that’s our motto. We say that before every game,” Jeffery said. “We just kept going. Once you attack them, you keep them on their heels a little bit.”
The Buffs held onto the momentum from that point on, gaining their largest lead of the game, 17, on a Jeffery free throw with less than a minute remaining.
“Even when they started hitting some outside shots, we stayed steady,” Lappe said. “We didn’t panic, and I thought that allowed us to pull away in the second half.”
Jeffery said part of what allowed the Buffs to pull away in the second half was recognizing ASU’s key scorers and guarding them with more intensity. Videckis, who was the Sun Devils’ leading scorer in the first half with 11 points, was shut out in the second half.
“I thought we did a much better job on (Videckis) in the second half, she hurt us a lot in the first half,” Lappe said. “We barred down and knew where she was. Arielle (Roberson) got the assignment on her for a large part, Jen (Reese) guarded her for a little while, and our guards understood where she was in the second half as well.”
The Buffs also showed their strength off the bench once again, as three non-starters — Reese, sophomore Jasmine Sborov and junior Ashley Wilson — scored a combined 14 points on the night.
With the win, Colorado improves to 14-2 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-12. The Sun Devils fall to 10-7 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
On Sunday, the Buffs return to the Coors Events Center to take on Arizona at 2 p.m.
“As far as I know, (Arizona) is going to bring a lot of the same pressure that ASU does,” Lappe said. “They have a really good All-Conference player in (guard) Davellyn White, and they have a lot of good players around her. I think they’re much, much improved over last year, and we’re just going to have to be ready on Sunday.”
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Huskies Put The Bite On Frigid Buffs
Jan 17th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
SEATTLE – The Colorado Buffaloes dug themselves a hole with frigid shooting here Wednesday night and left Alaska Airlines Arena in a deeper Pac-12 Conference hole.
But despite their 64-54 loss to streaking Washington, which won for the tenth time in 12 games, Buffs coach Tad Boyle and his players believe positive steps were taken – particularly on defense. Boyle said his team’s defense “was good enough to win . . . our guys played great (defense). We played with pride and some toughness. We lost to a good basketball team.”
The Huskies, playing their first home game since Dec. 22, remained unbeaten (4-0) in conference play and went to 12-5 overall while the Buffs slipped to 1-4, 11-6. If CU’s ‘D’ was exemplary, its ‘O’ was of the OMG variety. Credit the Huskies for some of that misfiring; they’ve now held four Pac-12 teams to under 40 percent from the field.
The Buffs shot a season-low 29.2 percent in the first half and finished at 36.2 percent (21-for-58) for the game – the team’s second-lowest mark this season. CU also tied a season low in assists with six and made only one of 10 three-point attempts. But the Buffs held the Huskies to 33.9 percent (20-for-59) from the field and outrebounded them by one (38-37). It wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing game for either team, but UW coach Lorenzo Romar didn’t care.
Asked about “winning ugly,” Romar said, “You can color it any want to color it. I just know that when you go out and you play two games in a row and you have single digit turnovers (UW had 9, CU 12), you hold four teams to under 40 percent from the field, you outrebound three out of the four, you’re beginning to do things right. The only ‘ugly’ thing, if you want to call it that, is that we haven’t been making shots. Two out of the last four games we haven’t made shots. Other than that, I think we’re doing everything else OK.”
Boyle said the Huskies’ 15 offensive rebounds “really killed us in the second half. We had some stops and couldn’t finish the possession with getting the rebound. That hurt us. And then we put them on the foul line in the second half. For some reason we don’t get to the foul line on the road; I don’t know why.”
Sophomore Spencer Dinwiddie, who led CU with 15 points, said the Buffs played with more overall intensity than in previous conference losses to Arizona, Arizona State and UCLA.
“For sure,” Dinwiddie said. “That’s one thing we talked about. We talked our positives; we finally started playing with our principles – we rebounded the ball decently. There were a couple of possessions where they got three or four offensive rebounds. If we cut that out and they don’t make a run, the game’s different.”
The only other CU player in double figures was junior Andre Roberson with 10 points, marking the first time this season only two Buffs reached double digits. Roberson also had 11 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season and the 32nd of his career.
Roberson said the Buffs “stepped it up big time on the defensive end . . . we just didn’t get the rebounds when it mattered and we didn’t make the tough stops. Our offense has to get better; our motion is terrible right now. That’s one thing we have to improve on big time. Just executing on the offense end is a main thing. That’s why we struggled with this team.”
Sophomore guard Askia Booker fouled out with 34.4 seconds to play after scoring nine points, while freshman forwards Xavier Johnson and Josh Scott had nine and eight, respectively. Scott got all of his points in the second half.
The Huskies’ C.J. Wilcox, the conference’s leading scorer (21.3 ppg), finished with 25, while teammate Scott Suggs added 13. UW had no other double-figure scorers, but Desmond Simmons (12) and Aziz N’Diaye (11) accounted for 23 rebounds.
CU scored a season-low 20 points in the first half and trailed by eight at intermission. The Huskies opened 10-point leads three times in the game’s final 8 minutes, an 11-point advantage in the last 3 minutes, and never allowed their visitors closer than seven points during that span. Trailing 28-20 at intermission, the Buffs might have gone to their locker room thankful for that deficit. When they caught the Huskies at 17-17 on a layup by Johnson – he started against in place of Sabatino Chen – they appeared to have corrected their early problems.
CU committed four of its seven first-half turnovers – a high for a half in league play – in the game’s first 6 minutes and fell behind by seven points. Then the Buffs strung together an 8-2 run – their most productive offensive stretch of the opening half – and pulled even.
But things went south from there. After Johnson’s layup produced the tie at 17 with 8:56 left before the break, CU scored only three more points to finish with its lowest first-half total of the season.
The Buffs opened the second half with three points from Roberson and pulled to within 28-23. But the Huskies trumped that with a four-point play from Scott Suggs to take their largest lead of the night – 32-23 – to that point. The nine-point advantage became 10 (37-27) on a trey by Wilcox. But taking advantage of the 7-foot N’Diaye taking a rest, the 6-10 Scott hit back-to-back baskets to draw the Buffs to within five (39-34) with just over 11 minutes to play.
CU’s threat ended there. A 5-0 run restored U-Dub’s 10-point lead (48-38), leaving the Buffs just over 7 minutes to retaliate. Boyle called a timeout at the 7:12 mark, but the closest his team could get was 52-45 on a three-point play by Dinwiddie with 3:52 to play.
“With our defense tonight and our pride, I’m proud of our guys for the way they hung in there,” Boyle said. “It got away from us at the end there and you look at a 10-point loss on the road and we couldn’t shrink the lead because we couldn’t score. But it wasn’t because of our defense.”
The Buffs’ road trip continues with a Saturday game (8 p.m. MST) at Washington State. The team will fly via charter on Thursday morning from Seattle to Spokane, have Thursday and Friday practices at Gonzaga, then fly to Pullman on Saturday morning.
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