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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.
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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CU’s MBB Overcome Themselves (And Elon) In 80-63 Win
Dec 14th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Colorado coach Tad Boyle seriously doubted that a post-Kansas hangover reared its head on Friday night and his junior point guard, Spencer Dinwiddie, was even more emphatic.
“Not at all,” said Dinwiddie after No. 21 Colorado had finally disposed of Elon University 80-63 at the Coors Events Center. “It’s a credit to our team – we move on fast after wins and losses . . . I just don’t think we gave (Elon) the respect they deserved and we didn’t guard them at the three-point line.”
Yet as erratic and simply puzzling as the Buffaloes (10-1) were in several areas – shooting free throws, protecting the ball and defending the long ball to name three – they still won their tenth consecutive game, which hasn’t been done in CU basketball in 52 years.
Said Boyle: “It gives you an idea of where our program is when we win by 17 at home and people are kind of disappointed and frustrated. So I guess that’s a good sign.”
Such is progress, particularly when it follows six days after one of the benchmarks in program history – a 75-72 buzzer-beating victory over then-No. 6 KU. In the wild aftermath of that game, Boyle’s message to his team had been: “Don’t get drunk on your own wine.”
According to Dinwiddie at least, the Buffs took it to heart and head. But on Friday night, CU stumbled around just enough and Elon hit more than enough treys to make Boyle and the CEC crowd of 8,831 occasionally uneasy. The Phoenix’ 13 made treys (32 attempts) was an opponent high this season against the Buffs.
Boyle called the Phoenix (5-5) “a good team” that will win its share of games in the Southern Conference. But he also said his team won “a take-care-of-business-game” with a “workmanlike effort” – hardly superlatives after a superlative Saturday against the Jayhawks.
“Some nights it’s not going to be as pretty . . . there’s still a lot of improvement to be made,” Boyle said. “But I thought the cream rose in the second half.”
CU’s cream on this night: Dinwiddie, Xavier Johnson, Josh Scott and freshman George King. Dinwiddie finished with 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds, while Johnson and Scott each contributed 12 points and had double-doubles. King scored 10 off the bench, helping CU roll to a 31-6 edge in that area, and had a second-half tip-dunk that perked up his team and the crowd.
“Like coach Boyle said, I’m just trying to get my number called,” said King, who played 14 minutes (he had 15 against Arkansas State). “I didn’t know I was going to get this much time, but I had success on the boards (four rebounds) and attacking their defense. I got more time and I took advantage of it.”
Johnson, said Boyle, was a first-half “beast,” getting 11 of his 15 rebounds in the opening 20 minutes. Scott added 13 rebounds as CU bashed Elon 54-27 on the boards.
“To Colorado’s credit, first of all they are very good, they are very talented,” said Elon coach Matt Matheny. “But they out-rebounded us in the first half by 22 . . . we cannot expect to hang around with a top 25 team (like that). They really just abused us on the glass.”
But the Phoenix – specifically 6-8 senior Sebastian Koch – returned the abuse from beyond the arc. After opening the scoring with a trey, Koch drained another eight for the night, finishing nine of 14 from long range for a game-best 27 points.
“They shot threes very well,” Dinwiddie understated. “The open looks we gave them in the first half – that we shouldn’t have, that they missed – went in the second half. That, along with them slowing us down in the zone, really made it close.”
Also keeping the Phoenix in touch was the Buffs’ misfiring at the free throw line. CU finished the night 27-of-46, which certainly has Boyle’s attention but doesn’t panic him. “We chart every free throw in practice,” he said. “Our worst shooter in practice is shooting 75 percent . . . free throw shooting is a very individualistic thing; you get in the gym and do what you have to do. I have confidence they can do it in a game.”
Maybe more puzzling to him than the clanked foul shots were the Buffs’ 12 first-half turnovers – four more than they committed all game against the Jayhawks. Fortunately, CU’s second-half total (four) didn’t match the first half, but in comparing the 16 turnovers against Elon to the eight against KU, Boyle said, “As a coach, you scratch your head over that one.”
The Buffs didn’t score for nearly 4 minutes, missed their first five shots and committed five of their dozen first-half turnovers during that span. Elon surged to a 13-6 lead on Koch’s three-pointer with 12:25 left before halftime.
A couple of minutes before that, Boyle had seen enough. He pulled his five starters and replaced them with senior Ben Mills, sophomore Xavier Talton and freshmen Dustin Thomas, Tre’Shaun Fletcher and King.
A change did the Buffs good – or at least refocused them.
They caught and passed the Phoenix on a trey by Johnson from the left wing, grabbing their first lead at 17-16 with 10:10 left in the half. They outscored the Phoenix 21-5 to go up 27-18, with Dinwiddie hitting back-to-back treys at the run’s conclusion. In the half’s last 12 minutes, CU outscored Elon 35-13 and took a 41-26 lead to their locker room, matching their biggest advantage to that point.
CU pushed its lead to 19 (49-30) in the first 31/2 minutes of the second half, but Elon answered with five consecutive 3-pointers to pull to 52-45. Koch drained three of the five triples, with Tanner Sampson (12 points) accounting for the other pair.
The Buffs countered with a triple and a shorter jumper from Xavier Talton (nine points, six rebounds) and a layup and free throw from Scott to build another double-digit lead – 60-47. The Phoenix closed to 69-60 on a layup by Ryan Winters with 6:20 to play, but a conventional three-point play and a subsequent layup by Dinwiddie pushed CU ahead 74-60 with just over 3 minutes remaining.
The trey-happy Koch wasn’t done. He reached 27 points with his ninth triple of the night, bringing Elon to within 74-63 at the 2:59 mark. But when “XJ” responded with consecutive layups, pushing CU ahead by 15 (78-63), Elon was finally done.
For a second consecutive game, CU redshirt freshman Wesley Gordon remained sidelined due to illness/injury. He was on the bench in street clothes, but Boyle said Gordon would be ready to play on Saturday, Dec. 21 against No. 7 Oklahoma State in the MGM Grand Showcase in Las Vegas.
The Buffs’ 10-game winning streak – something that hasn’t been done in CU hoops since the 1944-45 season – “is another milestone,” Boyle said. “I haven’t talked to this team a lot – because we’re so darn young – about what their legacy is going to be. But as we move into conference play I think those are things we need to talk about and celebrate. It’s a great thing; 52 years is a long time.”
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