Posts tagged Coors Events Center
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.
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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Colorado Women’s Basketball Team Moves Up Two Spots To No. 21 In AP Poll
Jan 14th
Colorado, 13-2 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-12 Conference, received 232 votes, its highest vote total of the season. The Buffaloes have resided in the AP poll for the last five weeks, reaching as high as No. 20 on Dec. 31. CU’s five week run in the AP poll is its longest since appearing in all 19 polls of the 2003-04 season.
The Buffaloes have a long history of rankings in the AP poll, dating back to the 1980-81 season. This week’s ranking marks the 163rd time Colorado has appeared in the AP poll, trailing only Stanford, USC and UCLA among Pac-12 schools.
The USA Today Sports Coaches poll is scheduled to be released on Tuesday. Colorado spent one week at No. 25 in that poll (Jan. 1) and was the second team in the “receiving votes” category last week.
Colorado will continue Pac-12 play by hosting the Arizona schools this week. Arizona State visits Boulder for a 7 p.m. game on Friday, Jan. 18, while the Buffaloes host Arizona on Sunday, Jan. 20, at 2 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
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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).
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.
“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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