Posts tagged Buffaloes
Runner-up national champs Louisville beat CU women
Dec 22nd
Release: December 21, 2013
By: Troy Andre, Assistant SID
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Lexy Kresl had 17 points and Jen Reese corralled her second career double-double, but Louisville had a little bit more Saturday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center as the No. 7 ranked Cardinals outlasted No. 11 Colorado 69-62.
Louisville All-American candidate Shoni Schimmel had a game-high 30 points, including 13-of-16 from the line as Cardinals improved to 12-1.
Reese had 14 points despite an off-day from the floor (4-of-14), and pulled down a team-season-high 14 rebounds for the Buffaloes (9-1) who saw their 33-game nonconference regular season win streak end.
It was a tough, physical battle, the kind one would expect from a game between two of the nation’s top teams. But that aggressiveness cost both teams at times; and Colorado a little more in the end. A total of 56 fouls were called, 32 on Colorado. The teams combined for 70 free throw attempts, Louisville hitting 24-of-40 while the Buffaloes were 17-of-30.
Colorado held a potent Louisville offense well below its average. The Cardinals entered the game averaging over 90 points per game, and over 100 in their last four. The Buffaloes were able to slow Louisville down and force the 2013 NCAA runner-ups to score in the half court.
“They get a lot of their points in transition,” Kresl said. “One of our goals was to slow them down and make them execute their plays and that worked to our advantage.”
But Colorado gave the Cardinals more opportunities than they hoped. The Buffaloes were outrebounded for the first time this year, 52-47. Louisville crashed the offensive glass, pulling down 21 on that side of the court. Even though second-chance points were even (11-11), it was the missed opportunities for stops that hurt the Buffs.
“Defensive rebounding is something that we pride ourselves on, but it let us down,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said. “I knew offensive rebounding was something they were good at. At the end of the game it came down to if we could make stops, but overall proud of our effort; how hard we played.”
“Just not boxing out, they got a few too many opportunities on the offensive boards,” Kresl added.
Despite the rebounding struggles, Colorado was in the game the whole way as neither team led by more than seven points and featured nine lead changes.
Kresl gave Colorado an early 8-5 lead with a 3-pointer, but
LEXY KRESYL scored 17-points in the game.
Bria Smith hit back-to-back jumpers to even the game at 10-10.
The Cardinals pushed their lead to 24-18 on a Sara Hammond layup with 8:01 left in the first half, but Colorado answered with its biggest run.
Kresl, who scored 15 of her 17 points in the first half, answered Hammond with a jumper that set off a 13-0 run. Arielle Roberson put back a Reese miss and a pair of Kresl free throws tied the game at 24-24.
Lauren Huggins broke the tie with a long 3-pointer to give the Buffaloes a 27-24 lead, forcing a Louisville timeout. At the beginning of the timeout Louisville’s bench received a technical foul giving the Buffaloes an opportunity to extend the lead.
Kresl hit the two technical free throws coming out of the timeout to give the Buffaloes their largest lead at 29-24. Unfortunately that was it for Colorado in the first half and the Cardinals came storming back.
Schimmel finally ended Colorado’s run with a runner in the lane, drew a foul and completed the 3-point play. Younger sister Jude Schimmel then connected on a pair of fast break layups in the closing minutes as a 9-0 run gave the Cardinals a 33-29 lead at the half.
Colorado quickly erased the Louisville halftime lead as a Sborov 3-pointer ended a 7-2 CU run out of the break for a 36-35 Buffs lead.
However, shortly after that the fouls started to catch up with Colorado. Sborov picked up her third moments after her 3-pointer. Brittany Wilson then picked up No. 4 with nearly 13 minutes left with Ashley Wilson and Roberson matching that total moments later.
Still the Buffaloes continued to stay close. Sborov hit a bucket to tie the game at 46-46 with 9:44 remaining, but the Cardinals reeled off seven straight behind the Schimmel sisters.
Louisville then kept Colorado just out of reach, mainly from the foul line. The Cardinals, who entered the game hitting 51 percent from the floor on the season, made just 34 percent for the game, and only 29 percent (9-of-31) in the final 20 minutes.
The trouble was Colorado wasn’t much better. A 46-percent shooting team for the season, CU connected on just 37 percent, although the Buffaloes were closer to their average in the second half (45 percent).
“(Louisville) helped us get ready for (Pac-12) conference,” Kresl said. “We grew as a team throughout the game.”
In the end, the game was put away at the line. Louisville hit 18-of-24 from the line in the second half compared to just 10-of-18 for Colorado.
The Buffs did get a few stops, a pair of free throws by Kresl and one each from Roberson and Reese cut the Louisville lead to 63-59 with 1:10 left. The defense came up big when Jude Schimmel missed a jumper with under a minute left, and Roberson grabbed the rebound. Rachel Hargis eventually ended up at the line, hitting 1-of-2 to make it a one possession game at 63-60.
But that was it as Shoni Schimmel clamped down hitting four free throws down the stretch, and scored the final points on a breakaway basket in the closing seconds.
“I like how our team fought throughout the game,” Lappe said. “You want to be in a position to have a chance to win at the end of the game; we had that, but just didn’t make enough plays down the stretch. We learned a lot about this game. You want nonconference to prepare you for conference, and we felt this did that today.”
Colorado will return to action on Sunday, Dec. 29, by hosting Southern Utah at 2 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
Colorado Buffaloes Women’s Basketball
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Askia (Big Shot) Booker named Pac-12 P.of the W.
Dec 10th
BOULDER – University of Colorado junior guard Askia Booker was named Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday.
Booker’s second career conference player of the week nomination comes on the heels of the Buffaloes making the Associated Press Top-25 poll for the first time this season as the No. 21 ranked team. The men also received 42 votes in the Coaches’ Poll and are slotted at the No. 27 team overall.
Booker helped CU upset then-No. 6/6 Kansas, 75-72 last Saturday, launching the game-winner with a 30-footer as time expired to keep the Buffaloes unbeaten at home (7-0). The victory also matched their longest winning streak since the 2005-06 season with nine wins in a row.
The junior guard from Los Angeles, tied for team-high honors against KU with 15 points, three rebounds and a steal. In addition to his game-winner, Booker also made pair of three-pointers to keep pace with the sixth ranked team in the country. With 3:39 remaining in the game, Booker gave the home team a six-point lead, then when the first half ended, hit his first trey of the game pushing CU to a 33-30 lead at the break. It’s the third time that Booker has made three treys in a game this season.
Earlier in the week, the Buffs won at Colorado State for the first time since 2007 with a 67-62 victory. Booker iced the game with 3 seconds remaining with a pair of free throws (12 points overall). It is Colorado’s fourth player of the week honor all-time since joining the Pac-12.
As team, it’s the first time the Buffaloes are ranked nationally since last season when they were the No. 19 ranked team in both polls on Nov. 26. They made their initial Top-25 breakthrough as the No. 23 ranked team on Nov. 19 when they started the season 6-0 en route to the Charleston Classic championship last November.
It’s also marks the first time since the end of the 1996-97 season that both CU men’s and women’s basketball programs are ranked at the same time. The men were ranked in the final AP Top-25 at No. 24, while the women ended that season No. 15 in the Coaches’ and No. 18 in the AP.
This season, the CU women are No. 11 in the latest AP poll for the second consecutive week.
“It’s nice for our University, the program and players that we are recognized as one of the elite teams in the country,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “But we aren’t going to get carried away with it. Just like we won’t be disappointed if we’re not in it. College basketball is different than college football in that polls don’t matter at the end of the day. I put more stock in RPI because the RPI doesn’t care who you are, it’s based on who you’ve played, strength of schedule, to me that’s more of a true indication, it’s less arbitrary.”
Ironically, it’s the second time in as many seasons the Buffaloes have entered the Top-25 when Booker was named the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week. Last season, Booker was named the MVP of the Charleston Classic after averaging 19.3 points, 3.0 assists, 2.7 steals and 2.3 rebounds per game, helping the Buffs knock off Dayton, No. 16 Baylor and Murray State in four days.
Prior to last season, the CU men were last ranked in the Coaches’ Poll during the 2005-2006 campaign as the No. 25 team in back-to-back weeks (Jan. 30-Feb. 5; Feb. 6-12).
It’s only the second time the Buffs have been ranked before the start of conference play in 44 years, since a showing on the Dec. 30, 1969 poll, coming in at No. 20. Overall, it is the 34th time the Buffs have appeared in the AP rankings. CU’s highest ranking came on Dec. 18, 1963, coming in at No. 6.
Colorado (9-1) looks for its 10th straight win this Friday, Dec. 13 against Elon at the Coors Events Center beginning at 6:30 p.m. (MST). The Phoenix won 21 games last season and finished first in the Southern Conference Northern Division. This season, Elon (5-4) returns all five starters from a year ago and have won three-straight games.
Elon tickets start at $10. There’s also a Three-Game Holiday Plan available for Georgia (Dec. 28), Oregon State (Jan. 2) and Oregon (Jan. 5) starting at $30 for youth and seniors, $45 for adults.
CU All-Time in AP Polls
• CU has been ranked in 34 polls all-time.
• A top 10 ranking nine times.
• Highest ranking was No. 6, Dec. 18, 1963, the third poll of that season.
• Consecutive weeks ranked: 10 – last 7 polls of 1969, first three of 1970; in one season – 8; last 8 polls of the 1997 season.
• Most times ranked in one season – 8 in 1997; 7 in 1969; 6 in 1963.
• The AP poll was 20 teams from 1949-60, 10 teams from 1961-68 and back to 20 from 1969-1989, then 25 since 1990.
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It wasn’t pretty but #11 CU women stay undefeated
Dec 8th
And a strange afternoon of hoops in Boulder, but strange was good. The No. 11 Colorado women remained unbeaten with a 79-56 win over Illinois, but it was anything but business as usual in the Coors Events Center.
For starters, the Buffs (8-0) and Illini (5-5) had their pregame warm-up time shortened due to the aftermath of the CU’s men’s last-second upset of No. 6 Kansas. That game started at 1:20 p.m., with the women’s contest scheduled to begin just after 5 p.m. But it took longer than anticipated to clear the CEC court after it was stormed by CU students and fans following the electrifying 75-72 win.
Then, with 8:30 left in the first half of the women’s contest and the Buffs up 27-20, alarms sounded in the CEC. Play continued, but after a couple of possessions, the court and stands were cleared. A sprinkler head had burst in the loading dock area of the Events Center, triggering the alarms and stopping play for 20 minutes. Players went to their locker rooms, fans went to the building’s upper concourses.
Meanwhile, second-year Illinois coach Matt Bollant might not have known what he was missing. He was ill and remained at his Boulder hotel, which made associate head coach Mike Divilbiss the head man for the afternoon.
“There’s not much you can say in that situation,” Divilbiss said of the delay. “We’re a young team and it’s just one of those things – you just have to learn to get past the environment.”
Once back on the court, Illinois guard Amber Moore got a quick score but the Buffaloes quickly went up by double-digits for the first time on a three-pointer by Jen Reese (16 points) and a jumper byRachel Hargis (12) for a 32-22 lead.
Forward Jacqui Grant (game-high 20) helped keep Illinois close. When the Illini cooled off from the outside, they started going in and the 6-3 freshman scored four of her 15-first half points on a run that cut Colorado’s lead to 40-35.
But Lauren Huggins hit another 3-pointer and Hargis matched an Illinois score with a layup of her own to give the Buffaloes a 45-37 halftime advantage.
Reese hit her first three field goals of the second half as the Buffs built their lead to 20. A Jasmine Sborov trey and a soft Hargis layup pushed CU in front 62-42. But Illinois increased its press, contributing to the Buffs’ 20 turnovers, and crept to within 14 (62-48).
CU finally settled down as Sborov (10) hit a three-pointer at the 7:56 mark to push the lead back to 17 and the Illini were done.
“I thought it was a great win for our team,” CU coach Linda Lappe said, acknowledging Illinois’ athleticism, quickness and different defensive looks. “There were a lot of different obstacles and adversities through the game – not having the normal warm up time, having a fire alarm . . . I liked how we came out of being in the locker room for 15 minutes and got back into it. So, there were a lot of positives to take out of it.”
Once again, the Buffs’ balance was apparent. Four players, topped by Arielle Roberson’s 17, reached double figures and 10 of the players used by coach Linda Lappe scored. The Buffs outrebounded the Illini 51-30 and held the visitors to 30.8 percent shooting from the field (20-of-65).
In addition to her seven points, senior guard Brittany Wilson set career highs in assists (eight) and rebounds (13) and tied a career-best with three blocked shots.
“The ball just kept falling in my hands I guess and I just jumped up for rebounds and pushed the ball down the floor,” Wilson said. “I found open teammates – one being Jen Reese.”
CU committed 21 turnovers to Illinois’ 14, but Wilson said given the Illini’s average of forcing 26, the Buffs will take their 21 and move on. “You don’t want to have 21 turnovers a game,” she said, “but we won, so hey.”
Reese, who sat out the Wyoming game on Wednesday night with concussion symptoms a broken nose, said her fast start “was good to get the confidence up. Even if I did miss it, it’s short memory. But it was good to come back and it felt good.”
The Buffs are off until Thursday, when they host the University of Denver (7 p.m.).