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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).
Jen Reese was high scorer for the Buffs with 11 points
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.
Freshman Kyeesha Weston (right) had her best game of the season scoring 8 poinst
“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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Bomb threat, “Hit List” closes Niwot High
Jan 11th
from the Longmont Times-Call via Huffington Post
Niwot High School in Boulder, Colo. is closed Friday as authorities investigate a threat to blow up the school and a 30-name “hit list.”
A threat that the school would “blow on the 11th” was found scrawled on a bathroom Monday and made public Tuesday. Officials decided to close the school when the threat escalated upon Thursday’s discovery of the threatening hit list filled with students’ names, The Longmont Times-Call reports.
Parents were notified of the decision and investigation in a letter Thursday. Deputies are using dogs to comb the school for bombs, and the school is offering a $1,000 reward for anyone with information about the perpetrator.
“We made a recommendation to the school district that they don’t have school on Friday for safety reasons, for the students,” Cmdr. Rick Brough of the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office told KUSA-TV. “It gives us more time to do an investigation and see if we can identify who is responsible, and whether the threat is credible.”
Schools across the country are still on high alert as parents nervously sent their children back to class after the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook school shooting. Districts nationwide have tightened security measures and increased campus patrols, and hypersensitivity to any unusual activity or perceived threats have already resulted in numerous lockdowns.
“Ten years ago this wouldn’t have been a problem, and now it’s a real problem. And my child’s name is on the list, and it’s very concerning,” parent Ellen Ross told TheDenverChannel. “I just really hope that the parents talk to their kids and try to find out what is going on because some child knows. No child does this and doesn’t tell anybody. I really want the parents to talk to their kids and find out who’s doing this.”
Weekend activities, including a girls’ basketball game and wrestling tournament, have also been canceled, KDVR reports.
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Broncos John Elway talks about the upcoming playoff game against the Ravens
Jan 11th
This week, Chris Hall of DenverBroncos.com discussed the Broncos’ upcoming playoff opener against Baltimore with Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway in the latest installment of Elway Access.
The Broncos finished the season on an 11-game winning streak for a 13-3 record and the No. 1 seed in the AFC going into the playoffs. It was a year that ranked among the best regular seasons in franchise history, but those accomplishments will mean little if they are not followed by a strong postseason run. The players’ incentive for all their hard work throughout the year boils down to what happens over the next few weeks.
“Playoff football is exciting, that’s what you play for,” Elway said. “That’s what you start working out in March for and go through training camp to get in the position that we are right now.”
One of the biggest factors in the team’s success has been quarterback Peyton Manning’s record-setting regular season. With that portion of the year complete, Elway said that looking back, he’s been thrilled to see Manning perform so well after missing 2011 due to injury.
“No. 1, I’m happy for Peyton Manning, with the career that he’s had in the NFL and what he’s done for this game, for him to be able to bounce back like he has, I’m happy for him that he’s reached the level that he has again,” Elway said. “He’s pretty close to the Peyton of old. No. 2, I’m thrilled for us, the Broncos, the fact that he’s playing that well because we’re back in that No. 1 seed, back as one of the elite teams in this league. We’re able to go out and start the playoffs this week and compete for a Super Bowl championship. That’s why we play the game and why we work at this game.”
Denver is set for a rematch with the Ravens Saturday at 2:30 p.m. MST at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. In the first meeting of the season between the teams, the Broncos led 31-3 entering the fourth quarter and defeated Baltimore by a final score of 34-17. A key difference going into Saturday’s game is the health of the Ravens defense, which has welcomed back a trio of key contributors who were injured and inactive in Week 15.
Peyton Manning
“They’re a lot healthier now than they were when we played them,” Elway said. “(Linebacker) Ray Lewis was down, (Dannell) Ellerbe, their other inside linebacker, was down. So they were really banged up the last time we played them. They’re going to be at full strength, or close to full strength, this time.”
The return of those players has made one of Baltimore’s strengths throughout the season – the team’s red-zone defense – even more formidable. The Ravens’ playoff-opening win over Indianapolis in the Wild Card Round was highlighted by a bend-but-don’t-break defensive effort that yielded 25 first downs and 419 yards of total offense but only nine points.
“One thing that they are, and you noticed it last week also, was the fact that down in the red zone, they’re as good as anybody in the league,” Elway said. “I think they’re top 5, if not the best red-zone defense in the league. Last week they gave up three field goals to Indianapolis even though Indianapolis had the ball for 37 minutes. That’s why it’s going to be important for us to not only be good between the 20s, but when you get down in the red zone, we have to get it into the end zone.”
Another significant difference between Saturday’s game and the Week 15 matchup in Baltimore is the venue. Denver will have the advantage of playing in front of a home crowd that helped the Broncos win seven of their eight home games during the regular season.
“It will be great that we’re playing at Sports Authority Field at Mile High with the fans behind us,” Elway said. “It will bring back that great playoff atmosphere, which is great for the fans. We’ve played better at home. We did a better job this year, we’re 7-1 at home. We’re comfortable there and the fans have been great the whole year. But this is a different atmosphere and they’re going to be a big part of it, especially when (the Ravens are) on offense.”
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