Posts tagged CU
WBB: CU women continue free fall
Feb 9th
Buffs Can’t Overcome Stagnant Second Half, Lose 75-63 CORVALLIS, Ore. –
The Colorado Buffaloes cut a 10-point second-half Oregon State lead to three on two occasions but couldn’t complete their comeback, losing 75-63 here Saturday afternoon at Gill Coliseum. The Buffs (13-9 overall, 3-8 Pac-12) stayed with the Beavers for most of the first half but couldn’t keep up with the home team to start the final 20 minutes. OSU (14-9, 6-5) outscored CU 10-5 to open the second half and the Buffs never caught up when their offense went stagnant in the final 6 minutes.
Nonetheless, CU coach Linda Lappe said her team could have salvaged the afternoon had its defense stayed as solid as it was for most of the opening half. The Beavers hit 60 percent from the field (15-of-25) in the second half. “We were on pace to hold them under 60 points, which would have won us the game,” Lappe said. “I’m not impressed with our defense right now. It’s what we should be all about . . . we have to be more defensive minded so we can grind out games and win.”
Saturday’s game was originally scheduled to played Friday night, but it was pushed back a day because of a winter storm in the area. Then Saturday’s tip time also was pushed back an hour. With the exception of trips to the free throw line and free throws made, the statistics showed an even contest. Both teams made 25 field goals, collected 38 rebounds and hit four 3-pointers.
But OSU made 21-of-28 free throws – including 14-of-16 in the first half – while CU went 9-for-16 from the foul line. Four Beavers players reached double figures in scoring, topped by freshman point guard Sydney Wiese’s 20. Forward Deven Hunter added 18 points and nine rebounds, while guard Ali Gibson added 12 points and center Ruth Hamblin 11 points. “Give Deven Hunter a lot of credit; she was a monster in there,” Lappe said. And the 6-6 Hamblin also made life inside the lane treacherous for CU, blocking four shots and forcing the Buffs to alter several other attempts. Lappe said her team “went around Hamblin in first half, but we tried to go through her in the second (and) you’re not going to do it . . . she’s so big. I didn’t like a lot of our shots in the second half – they were by the wrong people and they were the wrong shots. We have to do a better job of executing our offense.”
The Buffs, who have lost seven of their past nine games, had three players in double figures, led by Arielle Roberson (12), Jen Reese and Brittany Wilson contributed 10 each, but OSU held Reese scoreless in the second half. The Beavers hit five of six free throws in the first half’s final 48.3 seconds to take a 36-13 lead at the break. Wiese, who led all first-half scorers with 12 points, hit three of her four foul shots to give OSU its five-point advantage – the largest for either team in the first 20 minutes.
The Buffs were competent at the foul line, but they simply didn’t get there enough in the first half. And when they reached the stripe in the second half, they had trouble converting. Roberson hit only one of her seven free throw attempts. Reese led CU with 10 first-half points, going four of five from the field. But she missed all six of her second-half field goal attempts. The score was tied four times in the first half – the last at 31-31 – with 13 lead changes.
CU’s last lead was 29-28 on Reese’s pair of free throws. Oregon State, which had been averaging 80-plus points a game at home and 73.1 overall (fourth in the Pac-12), opened the second half with a 10-5 run and took its largest lead – 46-36 – only 4 minutes into the final 20. CU kept chiseling away at OSU’s lead, and when Ashley Wilson hit a 3-pointer from the left wing near the 11-minute mark the Buffs were only back by three points – 55-52.
A Lexy Kresl layup kept CU’s deficit at three – 57-54 – with 6:50 to play but the Buffs could come no closer. A quick 5-0 run courtesy of a layup by Hunter and a Gabriella Hanson triple pushed the Beavers’ lead to 62-54. But empty possession after empty possession awaited the Buffs; they didn’t get their next basket until Ashley Wilson hit a jumper in the lane with 2:20 remaining – a span of 4:27 without a field goal.
During that span, the Buffs went 3-of-15 from the field. In the meantime, with CU also having problems getting stops, OSU built its biggest lead – 11 points twice – until Hanson hit one of two free throws in the final 10 seconds to put the Beavers up by their final 12-point margin. “You always give your opponent credit,” Lappe said. “They made more plays and just drove it at us.” Because of the winter storm in the Pacific Northwest, CU’s scheduled Sunday game at Oregon has been pushed back to Monday (6 p.m.).
Buff golfers moving up in tourney
Feb 7th
BUFF GOLFERS MOVE INTO 15tH AT AMER ARI INVITATIONAL
WAIKOLOA, Hawai’i — The University of Colorado men’s golf team improved two spots here Friday into 15th place as the first rounds of the 24th annual Amer Ari Hawaii-Hilo Invitational are now in the books.
No. 3 Oklahoma State remained atop the leaderboard, owning a 28-under par team score of 548; the Cowbuys extened their lead to two strokes, but with No. 60 Oregon moving from sixth into second with a 26-under 550. No. 13 Washington also moved into the top five, jumping from 10th into third (16-under 272 on the day for a 26-under 552), with No. 25 Southern California and No. 26 Auburn tied for fourth (553); No. 17 UCLA had the best round of the day (17-under 271) and is alone in sixth with a 554.
Colorado, No. 83 in the final Golfweek fall rankings, moved from 17th to 15th with a two-round score of 568, or 8-under par. The Buffaloes turned in their second best single round score of the season, a 7-under 281, bested only by a 13-under 275 they scored in the first round of the last fall tournament at Texas-El Paso.
CU at one point was 14-under par as a team and in 10th place a little over midway through Friday’s round, with 17 birdies and only three bogeys collectively through either 10 or 11 holes, depending on where the players were on the course. But in the shotgun format, where the Buffs started on Friday positioned them to close with many of the more challenging holes.
“This will probably be one of if not the toughest tournament this spring in college golf, and we have an opportunity to keep moving up with a good final round tomorrow,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “I think we’re ahead of where we normally would be, we’re doing well and we don’t seem to have a lot of rust. More than anything, it took us a while to get used to the Bermuda greens. We just have to keep seeing a little more success with each round and continue building on that.”
The always tough field here has 10 of the nation’s top 50 competing, including three in the top 10; seven of CU’s Pac-12 rivals are among the group.
Jeremy Paul led CU for the second straight round
Freshman Jeremy Paul recorded CU’s best round for the second straight day, turning in a 4-under par 68, as he improved to 7-under 137 for 36 holes which has him tied for 12th overall. His round included seven birdies and eight pars against three bogeys, and he closed strong with two of those birds coming in his last four holes, including his final hole of the day (No. 12). He has an eagle, nine birdies and 22 pars through two rounds, with just four holes worse than par (all bogeys).
“Today was much better for sure, even though we played fairly similar to how we did on Thursday, we just made more putts,” Edwards said. “Jeremy played another solid round, though he really played better than he scored; he gave away a couple of shots on the par-5s. He usually plays those a few strokes under par and today he was even.”
Junior David Oraee also went sub-70 on Friday, carding a 3-under 69, scoring four birdies and 13 pars against a single bogey; he is in at even-par 144 with one round remaining, as he is tied for 63rd individually. He birdied three straight holes (Nos. 18, 1 and 2) at one point and had all four of his on the day in a six-hole span.
Sophomore Philip Juel-Berg is also tied for 63rd after fashioning a 2-over par 74, giving him an even-par 144 through two rounds. He had 14 pars for the second straight day, flipping his birdie-to-bogey count from three-to-one to one-to-three. He was even through his first 10 holes, but bogeys Nos. 6 and 8 jumped him to 2-over, where he remained for his final five holes.
Freshman Andrew Bonner played more consistently in the second round as he turned in a 1-under 71 for an even-par 144, also tying him for 63rd. He had three birdies and 13 pars against two bogeys Friday, cutting down his holes over par for the round from five to just two. He birdied his second hole of the day (No. 17) and remained under par from that point on for the entire round.
Freshman Yannik Paul opened up on fire, and after five birdies within a seven-hole span, stood at 5-under through10 holes, but he cooled off and came back down to Earth, playing his last eight holes at six-over to finish with a 1-over 73. His 36-hole total of 148 has him tied for 99th,
Senior Johnny Hayes is competing here individually, meaning his score doesn’t count toward CU’s team total; he shot a 3-over 75 for the second straight round, with his 6-over 150 total tying him for 107th. For the second straight day, he had one birdie, 14 pars, two bogeys and a double, except on Friday, he was even-par with two holes to go and finished up bogey-double.
“David played really solid today, anything under 70 is a good round here,” Edwards said. “There are a lot of those (rounds in the 60s) here because of the quality of the field, but breaking 70 is a quality score. He wasn’t himself yesterday but came back and showed what kind of player he has been and is for us. Yannik was on fire early on, but then had a couple of loose swings on just the wrong holes. Had those been on some holes where you could hit it a bit off line, you could still come back and make par. He just had a couple of bad breaks after a terrific start.”
Stanford’s Cameron Wilson used a 7-under 65 to take over the individual lead, as he is with a 12-under 132; three players are one stroke behind him, as 17 players are within five shots of the lead, all at 7-under or better.
The third and final round of the tournament is Saturday, with a shotgun start set for at 10:30 a.m. mountain time.
BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS (*—competing individually)
T12. Jeremy Paul…………………………. 69-68—137
T63. Philip Juel-Berg…………………….. 70-74—144
T63. David Oraee…………………………. 75-69—144
T63. Andrew Bonner…………………….. 73-71—144
T99. Yannik Paul…………………………… 75-73—148
T107. *Johnny Hayes……………………… 75-75—150
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
1. Cameron Wilson, Stanford………… 67-65—132
T2. Thomas Lim, Oregon……………….. 64-69—133
T2. Lorens Chan, UCLA………………….. 68-65—133
T2. Jeffrey Kang, USC…………………… 66-67—133
T5. Rico Hoey, USC………………………. 65-69—134
T5. Chelso Barrett, TCU………………… 66-68—134
TEAM SCORES
1. Oklahoma State…………………. 271-277—548
2. Oregon…………………………….. 276-274—550
3. Washington………………………. 280-272—552
T4. Southern California……………… 273-280—553
T4. Auburn…………………………….. 274-279—553
6. UCLA……………………………….. 283-271—554
T7. Georgia Tech…………………….. 286-270—556
T7. TCU…………………………………. 272-284—556
T7. Texas………………………………. 274-282—556
T10. Arizona State…………………….. 280-277—557
T10. Stanford…………………………… 281-276—557
12. Texas Tech……………………….. 278-282—560
13. Hawai’i-Hilo……………………….. 279-286—565
14. Oregon State…………………….. 285-281—566
15. COLORADO……………………… 287-281—568
16. Hawai’i…………………………….. 279-291—570
17. San Jose State………………….. 290-287—577
18. UC-Davis………………………….. 290-289—579
19. Osaka Gakuin…………………….. 286-295—581
20. CSU-Monterey Bay…………….. 295-287—582
DAVID PLATI | ASSOCIATE AD/SPORTS INFORMATION
New point-guard steers Buffs to win, barely
Feb 6th
Written By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes and junior guard Askia Booker opened the second half on the run and appeared ready to race past Washington State on Wednesday night. Not so fast, said the Cougars’ DaVonte Lacy.
The Buffs held on – far from tightly – for a 68-63 Pac-12 Conference win that was secured – but barely – at the foul line in the final 1:05. CU hit only 8 of 14 free throws during that span, but Booker’s 6 of 8 – including a pair with 2 seconds remaining – kept the Buffs afloat.
Xavier Talton is the new Buffalo point guard
“A win’s a win,” said CU coach Tad Boyle, “especially in conference play. But it was not pretty, especially at the end. Obviously we have to finish better and that puts a bit of a damper on this win.”
With Lacy hitting 21 of his game-high and career-high 34 points in the second half – including five of his eight 3-pointers – WSU cut a 19-point CU lead to three (66-63) before Booker’s final pair of foul shots.
“We had a 19-point lead and gave it up,” said Booker, whose 26 points Wednesday night was one off his career high. “We took it down to the last second. We can’t let it get to that point. It seemed like we didn’t have enough energy towards the end and we can’t do that Sunday because that team is a lot better and will come in and finish us off.”
“That team” is Washington, which defeated CU 71-54 in Seattle last month and visits the Coors Events Center Sunday at 6 p.m.
Booker scored 15 of his total as the Buffs (17-6, 6-4) increased a three-point halftime lead to 50-33 with 8:25 to play, then to 54-35 less than 2 minutes later. But Lacy, who didn’t play in CU’s 71-70 overtime win in Spokane on Jan. 8, and the Cougars (9-13, 2-8) roared back with their shooting behind the arc.
They attempted 15 treys in the second half, hitting nine of them (60 percent) and finishing 13-of-27 for the game (48.1 percent). The Cougars’ 13 made 3-pointers tied their total in the first meeting and Elon’s output for the most by a CU opponent this season.
Boyle said the Buffs defended Que Johnson well (he made 2 of 11 field goals and finished with eight points) but faltered on Lacy. “Not so much on him,” Boyle said. “When you’re eight for 13 on threes, that’s not good enough (defense).”
CU’s Xavier Johnson backed up Booker with 20 points – they were the only two Buffs in double figures – and Johnson’s nine rebounds and Wesley Gordon’s 10 picked up the slack for a sub-par Josh Scott. CU’s leading scorer (14.4 ppg) and rebounder (9.1 rpg) didn’t get his first point or board until the game’s final half minute.
“Ski” Booker scored 26 points in Buff win
“Give Washington State credit,” said Boyle, “their game plan was double him every time he touched the ball. They did and they were on him quickly.”
The Buffs improved their home record to 14-1 this season and 58-8 at the CEC under Boyle. The 14 ‘W’s this season tie for the fourth-most home wins in program history.
The Buffs led 23-20 at halftime, but it was a weird, disjointed journey to that meager advantage.
Neither team sizzled from the field in the first 20 minutes; CU shot 39 percent, WSU 40. At one point, the Buffs went 6:32 between field goals. And at 13-13, there wasn’t a first-half rebounding edge – forever a point of contention for Boyle. CU wound up winning the board battle 32-28 and shot 48.1 percent in the second to finish at 44 percent (22-of-50). The Buffs committed what Boyle called a “manageable” 12 turnovers while turning 17 Cougars errors into 14 points.
After the Cougars took a 7-6 lead, the Buffs appeared to take control with a 9-0 run that opened their largest margin of the half – 15-7.
Jaron Hopkins opened the run with a trey from the left corner and George King closed it with a short pull-up jumper. Then the Buffs went stagnant offensively, not getting their next field goal for just over 61/2 minutes.
For the first time in five games, Hopkins didn’t start. He was replaced by Xavier Talton, but the sophomore from Sterling picked up two quick fouls and went to the bench only 2:28 into his first career start.
While CU was muddling through its offense, WSU capitalized, mainly on the shooting of Lacy. The 6-4 junior brought the Cougars back by scoring eight of his 13 first-half points in the final 5:47.
The Buffs outscored the Cougars 11-3 to open the second half, with Booker going to the rim and getting 10 of those points. CU opened its first double-digit lead of the game – 34-23 – with 16:01 remaining.
“Coach just told me to be aggressive,” Booker said. “I had to pick and choose my spots . . . I got to the basket and got some easy buckets in transition.”
Three consecutive 3-pointers by Talton, Booker and Dustin Thomas opened a 50-33 lead 8 1/2 minutes to play, but the Cougars kept shooting treys and hitting them.
“Lacy got open way too many times,” Booker said. “It came down to a three-point game and whether it be one man or three people that’s hot on their team, we have to find a way to win the game. And thank God we made those free throws at the end to hold them off.
“But at the same time you can’t let an individual come in here, especially on the road, and let him take over and keep his team in the game.”
The Buffs have until Sunday to figure out how to do that. UW’s C.J. Wilcox scored 31 on the Buffs, hitting seven treys, in the meeting in Seattle.
