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Cal press shakes the Buffs, costs the victory
Jan 12th
By: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor Send Mail Print RSS
BOULDER – California never stopped grinding, Colorado couldn’t step up with a stop. It was the recipe for a gut-wrenching, frustrating Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
Outscoring CU 14-2 in the final 4:08, No. 19 Cal rallied from a 10-point deficit to edge No. 17 CU, 57-55. Since the Buffs joined the Pac-12 Conference in 2011, the Bears are 6-0 against them, and their other Pac-12 nemesis – No. 4 Stanford, owning a 5-0 regular season/conference tournament record against CU – visits the CEC on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m.).
“We have to bounce back, we don’t have a choice,” CU coach Linda Lappe said. “We have to bring it for two games . . . we brought it for 37 minutes (against Cal) and Stanford is even tougher. If you feel sorry for yourself and are not ready to go, Stanford will take advantage of that.”
If the Buffs left their home court Friday night feeling they had been taken advantage of, it was justified. It was also mostly self-inflicted. CU (11-3, 1-2) held a 10-point halftime lead, led by 10 with just over 4 minutes to play and still couldn’t finish what was shaping up to be a milestone Pac-12 win. Cal (11-3, 3-0) wouldn’t allow it.
“We just didn’t play to win necessarily . . . they were the aggressors and we didn’t buck up to that challenge,” said Buffs forward Arielle Roberson, who rebounded from a subpar West Coast trip last weekend with a game-high 21 points on Friday night – including 11 during a 15-6 run that opened a 50-40 CU advantage with 5:55 to play.
But after Jen Reese hit a jumper to put the Buffs up by 10 for a second time, they failed to hit a field goal in the final 4:08. Roberson’s two free throws were CU’s only points in that span.
The Bears, led by Reshanda Gray (15) and Brittany Boyd (13), never considered going away. After CU called a timeout with 25 seconds remaining – 22 on the shot clock – Roberson was fouled and went to the free throw line with 16.2 seconds showing. She hit both, putting the Buffs up 55-54, prompting a Cal timeout with 12.1 seconds to play.
Afure Jemerigbe drove the right baseline and scored to give Cal a 56-55 lead with 6 seconds left. Lappe called timeout to set up a play for Roberson, but Jamee Swan’s side-court inbounds pass was stolen by Courtney Range, who was fouled by Roberson and hit one of two free throws at the 2.9 second mark.
Lexy Kresl’s half-court fling at the buzzer bounded off the back iron and the Buffs’ night of late frustration was complete.
“Give Cal a lot of credit,” a disappointed Lappe said. “They kept playing and didn’t give up. They were tough and aggressive down the stretch . . . they’re well- coached, they executed their offense and they turned us over.”
Employing full-court pressure to begin the second half, the Bears forced the Buffs into nine turnovers in the final 20 minutes and converted CU’s 16 errors into 16 points. Cal also outscored CU 36-34 in the paint, outrebounded the Buffs 40-39 and limited them to 37.5 percent from the field. The Bears shot only 39.7 percent, but they were at 45.5 percent (15-of-33) in the second half when the Buffs needed to clamp down.
“Towards the end when we needed stops, we didn’t step up to that challenge,” said Kresl. “I’d say they beat us in the last three minutes.”
In the final 4:08, Lappe said the Buffs lacked “leadership on the floor . . . you need somebody to step and somebody to recognize that you need a stop and say, ‘Here’s how we’re going to do it.’ We didn’t have that on the floor.”
CU’s biggest lead of the first half – 28-18 – came courtesy of a 10-4 run and a nearly 8-minute lockdown of the Cal offense. With 7:44 left before intermission, Mikayla Lyles hit a 3-pointer to bring the Bears to within 18-17, but that would be Cal’s last field goal of the half. Cal’s 18 first-half points were its lowest of the season.
Roberson led all first-half scorers with eight points – one less than she scored in two West Coast games last weekend.
In the first 2 minutes of the second half, it was Cal’s turn to turn up the ‘D.’ Opening with full-court pressure, the Bears disrupted the Buffs offensive rhythm just enough to force three turnovers and outscored them 10-2 to pull to within 30-28 on a conventional three-point play by Gray with 17:08 to play.
Over the next 51/2 minutes, Cal cut CU’s lead to one on two occasions, but after the Bears had closed to 35-34 the Buffs answered with an 8-0 surge on three baskets by Roberson and one by Rachel Hargis to go up 43-34 with 9:40 to play.
And Roberson wasn’t finished. After scoring in the paint, she backed up for a trey that opened a 10-point CU lead (50-40) with just under 6 minutes to play. Roberson said she was “better mentally” this weekend than last. “That was the biggest difference. I just forgot about what happens in the past and I said, ‘This is a new game, this is a new day, so just leave it there.’”
But the Bears wouldn’t roll. They cut the deficit to five (53-48) on a three-point play by Gennifer Brandon with 3:33 left, got a fast break layup by Gray to pull to 53-50, then crept to 53-52 on a jumper by Boyd at the 2:07 mark.
A turnover caused by Cal’s full-court pressure followed a CU timeout, and Courtney Range sank two free throws to give Cal a 54-53 lead – its first since 12-11 – with 1:59 left. Roberson’s pair of free throws gave the Buffs a 55-54 lead and their fans hope, but a stop at the other end was needed – and it didn’t happen.
“We didn’t show up, we didn’t have a sense of urgency when we needed to and really, that was the difference in the game,” said Lappe, knowing the Buffs need to find it before Sunday.
CU: State-of-the-art rec center is online
Jan 10th
The University of Colorado Boulder’s expansion of the Student Recreation Center, a project initiated by students, opens on Friday, Jan. 10, at 9 a.m. The southwest addition, the second and largest phase of the project, is located just north of the Ramaley Biology Building and east of Sewall Hall and will provide an additional 83,000 square feet of indoor recreational space.
The portions opening this month include a three-level weight and cardio area; three new wood floor all-purpose indoor courts for basketball, volleyball and badminton; a climbing wall and bouldering area; three fitness studios; wellness suites; new locker rooms and a spacious entrance and lobby.
“Recreation facilities have always been extremely popular among CU-Boulder students and over the years we found that our current facilities were not keeping up with the demand,” said Chris Schaefbauer , CU Student Government tri-executive. “In surveys of our peers we found CU students participate in recreational activities at a rate higher than the national average, but that our indoor recreation and fitness space per student was lower than the national average.”
The new ice rink opened in November and the Rental and Resource Center, which will rent camping and outdoor equipment, opens in mid-February. The final phase of the project, which consists of an indoor turf field, tennis courts, outdoor pool and the renovation of the existing basketball courts, is on track for completion in April.
The $63.5 million project was funded through the sale of bonds to be repaid through student fees collected over a 25-year period. In April 2011, the CU-Boulder student body voted to support the expansion and renovation of the Recreation Center. Nearly 37 percent of eligible student voters participated in the election, the largest ever student turnout, and over 70 percent voted “yes” to increase student fees in support of the expansion and renovation.
“With this state-of-the-art addition and the significant improvements to the Recreation Center, the students and the campus community will indeed have a remarkable facility at their disposal,” said Gary Chadwick, interim director of recreation facilities. “This is certainly an exciting time for the Recreation Services staff, who are anxious to begin offering the students the numerous opportunities that this center provides.”
Students will have 30,000 square feet of state-of-the-art cardiovascular and strength training equipment, a lower-level strength area, several additional cardiovascular and stretching spaces, and a “cardio equipment green zone” that captures user energy produced during exercises to feed back into the power grid and offset some power consumption within the facility.
A 4,000-square-foot-climbing wall built by Eldorado Designs contains areas for bouldering, lead climbing and top-rope climbing. The lead and top-rope areas reach up to 38 feet. The beginner to advanced bouldering terrain reaches a maximum height of 14 feet. The northeast corner consists of shot rock and is designed as an educational area for anchor building, lead climbing and multi-pitch climbing along with gear anchor building.
Three additional multipurpose fitness studios and a mind-body studio will provide members many opportunities to participate in fitness, mind-body, martial arts, Pilates reformer and dance classes.
The Wellness Suite will provide fitness assessments, nutrition clinics, personal training consultations, and the muscular skeletal clinic. The Wellness Suite also will serve to support student success in living a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
The campus community is invited to attend “Reconnect with the Rec” Jan. 21-24. CU-Boulder faculty and staff members are invited to use the facility for free during this time. The event will provide the opportunity to experience and learn more about the southwest addition. Festivities at this free event will include personal trainers and equipment vendors on site, group exercise demonstrations, facility tours, climbing wall competitions, giveaways, snacks and more. For a full schedule of events go to www.colorado.edu/recreation.
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CU: Gas-fired plants help clean the air
Jan 10th
Power plants that use natural gas and a new technology to squeeze more energy from the fuel release far less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide than coal-fired power plants do, according to a new analysis accepted for publication Jan. 8 in Earth’s Future, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The so-called “combined cycle” natural gas power plants also release significantly less nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, which can worsen air quality.
“Since more and more of our electricity is coming from these cleaner power plants, emissions from the power sector are lower by 20, 30 even 40 percent for some gases since 1997,” said lead author Joost de Gouw, an atmospheric scientist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder. NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
De Gouw, who works at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), and his NOAA and CIRES colleagues analyzed data from systems that continuously monitor emissions at power plant stacks around the country. Previous aircraft-based studies have shown these stack measurements are accurate for carbon dioxide (CO2) and for nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide can react in the atmosphere to form tiny particles and ozone, which can cause respiratory disease.
To compare pollutant emissions from different types of power plants, the scientists calculated emissions per unit of energy produced, for all data available between 1997 and 2012. During that period of time, on average:
- Coal-based power plants emitted 915 grams (32 ounces) of CO2 per kilowatt hour of energy produced;
- Natural gas power plants emitted 549 grams (19 ounces) CO2 per kilowatt hour; and
- Combined cycle natural gas plants emitted 436 grams (15 ounces) CO2 per kilowatt hour.
In combined cycle natural gas plants, operators use two heat engines in tandem to convert a higher fraction of heat into electrical energy. For context, U.S. households consumed 11,280 kilowatt hours of energy, on average, in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. This amounts to 11.4 metric tons per year of CO2 per household, if all of that electricity were generated by a coal power plant, or 5.4 metric tons if it all came from a natural gas power plant with combined cycle technology.
The researchers reported that between 1997 and 2012, the fraction of electric energy in the United States produced from coal gradually decreased from 83 percent to 59, and the fraction of energy from combined cycle natural gas plants rose from none to 34 percent.
That shift in the energy industry meant that power plants, overall, sent 23 percent less CO2 into the atmosphere last year than they would have, had coal been providing about the same fraction of electric power as in 1997, de Gouw said. The switch led to even greater reductions in the power sector’s emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, which dropped by 40 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
The new findings are consistent with recent reports from the Energy Information Agency that substituting natural gas for coal in power generation helped lower power-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2012.
The authors noted that the new analysis is limited to pollutants emitted during energy production and measured at stacks. The paper did not address levels of greenhouse gases and other pollutants that leak into the atmosphere during fuel extraction, for example. To investigate the total atmospheric consequences of shifting energy use, scientists need to continue collecting data from all aspects of energy exploration, production and use, the authors concluded.
Authors of the new paper, “Reduced Emissions of CO2, NOx and SO2 from U.S. Power Plants Due to the Switch from Coal to Natural Gas with Combined Cycle Technology,” are de Gouw (CIRES), David Parrish (NOAA ESRL), Greg Frost (CIRES) and Michael Trainer (NOAA).
CIRES is a joint institute of NOAA and CU-Boulder.
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