Posts tagged Friday
CU women lose to #7Cal-Berkeley by 3 points
Jan 26th
Winning on the road hasn’t been a problem this season for the Colorado women’s basketball team – until Friday night at Haas Pavilion.
After squandering a 16-point first-half lead, the No. 20/23 Buffs fought back gamely in the second half but came up empty on their final possession and dropped a 59-56 Pac-12 Conference decision to No. 7 California. The loss ended a four-game CU winning streak.
“I’m proud of the way we battled back, but we believed we deserved to win that one,” CU coach Linda Lappe said.
Losing for the first time in five road trips this season, the Buffs dropped to 4-3 in the Pac-12 and 15-3 overall. The Bears improved to 16-2, 6-1 and remained tied with No. 6 Stanford for first place in the Pac-12. CU visits Stanford on Sunday afternoon.
As was the case in their 53-49 win in Boulder earlier this month, the Bears were beasts on the boards Friday night, outrebounding the Buffs 47-39. Included in Cal’s total were 24 offensive boards, which proved to be decisive. CU also committed 19 turnovers, leading to 20 Cal points.
Brittany Wilson led CU with 11 points, while Chucky Jeffery added 10. Cal, which tied the series at five games apiece, was led by Gennifer Brandon and Layshia Clarendon with 13 each. Brandon also had 10 rebounds.
CU’s leading scorer, Arielle Roberson, didn’t score her first points until 11:25 remained in the game. She finished with seven points and two rebounds – all in the second half.
The Buffs took control early, going on a 15-2 run that opened a 14-point lead (24-10) with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half. During that surge, CU hit four of six three attempts – two of them by Brittany Wilson.
The lead went to 16 as the Buffs outscored the Bears 23-8 over a 10-minute span and went up 32-16 with about 4 minutes left before intermission. And that’s where CU ran into trouble.
By dominating the offensive boards and getting to the free throw line, the Bears stayed within striking distance. They outscored the Buffs 8-0 to close the first half, with a late trey from the left corner by senior guard Eliza Pierre cutting CU’s lead in half and drawing Cal to within 32-24 at the break.
The Buffs were able to fashion their double-figure first half leads without a point from Roberson (13.6 ppg) and with No. 2 scorer Jeffery (13.4 ppg) accounting for only four.
Cal made only eight of its first 35 shots and shot 22.3 percent in the first half. The Bears finished shooting 33.8 from the field while the Buffs shot 38.9 – but only 30 percent in the second half.
CU needed its second-half start to duplicate its first, but that didn’t happen. On the Buffs’ first possession, center Rachel Hargis picked up her third foul on a hard screen that negated a three-pointer by Lexy Kresl.
Cal immediately took advantage, getting a basket by Reshanda Gray and cutting CU’s lead to 32-26. That extended the Bears’ run to 10-0, putting pressure on the Buffs to respond – and fast. Jeffery finally got CU’s first second-half points, but Cal answered with an 8-0 run to tie the score at 34-34 on a jumper by Clarendon with 14:43 to play.
Her basket capped an 18-2 Bears run that spanned the final 4 minutes of the first half and the opening 5 minutes of the second.
But the Buffs didn’t go belly up. A Jeffery turnaround in the lane, followed by a Jen Reese trey opened a five-point CU lead (39-34), but Cal rallied with an 8-2 run and took its first lead (42-41) since 3-2 on a basket by Brittany Boyd, who finished with 10 points and was huge for the Bears down the stretch.
Neither team was able to take more than a two-point advantage until Boyd and Clarendon hit back-to-back jumpers to put Cal up 53-50 with 5:35 left. But CU tied the score at 54-54 on two free throws by Roberson and a Jeffery jumper with 3:42 remaining.
A pair of Boyd layups sent the Bears ahead 58-54 with 2 minutes showing. A Reese jumper in the lane pulled the Buffs to 58-56, giving CU possession with 36 seconds remaining. Roberson’s drive to the basket and layup attempt was blocked by Brandon.
The Bears rebounded and Clarendon was fouled. She hit one of two free throws with 14.8 remaining, putting Cal up 59-56 and leaving CU 10.3 seconds to hit a trey and tie.
But the Buffs had trouble getting a clean shot away, and Brittany Wilson’s desperation attempt from the left corner missed.
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Boulder police: Two Boulder police officers resign; internal investigation continues into elk incident
Jan 22nd
The two Boulder Police Department officers involved in the death of an elk on New Year’s Day have resigned their positions, effective immediately.
Sam Carter and Brent Curnow both turned in letters of resignation to Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner. Chief Beckner has accepted their resignations.
Although both officers are no longer members of the police department, the internal personnel investigation into the circumstances and their behavior on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, 2013 will continue.
Both officers faced termination for their actions on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, 2013.
“The Boulder Police Department does not tolerate this kind of behavior,” said Chief Mark Beckner. “Police officers and other members of this department will be held accountable for their actions and behavior, and we want the community to know how seriously we take this breach of trust,” said Beckner.
The department hopes to complete its internal investigation quickly. In a separate criminal investigation, the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office charged Carter and Curnow with multiple crimes last Friday.
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CU Women Bury Wildcats For Fourth Straight Pac-12 Win
Jan 20th
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
BOULDER – The Colorado women’s basketball team executed its game plan in every category Sunday afternoon to earn a decisive 79-36 win over Arizona at the Coors Events Center.
It was the Buffs’ fourth straight Pac-12 Conference win, with the 43-point margin of victory the eighth-largest in CU history in conference play.
“Obviously I’m really happy with how that game turned out,” said CU head coach Linda Lappe. “We had very few mental or physical errors, which was fun to see. It’s very rare that you see both of those things happen on the same night.”
Senior guard Chucky Jeffery’s performance (11 points, five rebounds and six assists) made her the first player in school history to earn 1,400 points, 800 rebounds and 400 assists in her career.
The Buffs started strong over the Wildcats, going on a 7-0 run to start the game and building that lead for the rest of the half. CU shot 56.7 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from beyond the arc in the first half and held Arizona to 23.3 from the field and 14.3 from three-point range.
By intermission, Colorado was up 43-15, its largest halftime lead in conference play since leading Kansas 42-14 in February 2003. Hitting a jumper with nine seconds remaining in the half, freshman guard Kyleesha Weston became the ninth player to score for CU in the first 20 minutes.
CU held onto that momentum for the rest of the game, going up by 46, the largest lead of the game, on a Weston basket with four minutes to go.
But even with such a decisive lead, the Buffs never lost energy or focus.
“When you’re on a roll, you just continue staying on a roll,” said redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson, who scored a game-high 12 points on her 20th birthday. “You’ve got to continue to stay focused. In the timeouts, coach would say, ‘Stay focused, stay solid,’ and I think that helped.”
By the final buzzer, CU had a 43-point lead over the Wildcats and had played nearly its entire bench, including walk-on guard Alexus Atchley in the final minutes. Weston, who was recruited to the team as a true point guard, gained a valuable 17 minutes of playing time at that position.
Four CU players – Roberson, Jeffery, sophomore guard Lexy Kresl and freshman forward Jamee Swan – scored in double figures, while five other CU players added at least six points.
“We have a lot of players that can score, and you could see that (Sunday),” Lappe said. “I thought our bench played great. From the very first second when the first one came in, we didn’t slow down at all. In fact, we pushed the tempo . . . I think everybody that came off the bench was ready, brought a lot of energy, and there was no disruption of flow, so you have to credit our players for that.”
All-conference guard Davellyn Whyte led the Wildcats in scoring with 11, nine of which were in the first half. Lappe said junior guard Brittany Wilson stepped up her defense on Whyte to shut her down in the second half.
“I thought Brittany did a really good job on her, staying down on her face,” Lappe said. “Davellyn Whyte is a very talented player, has some great offensive skills, and I thought Brittany stepped up to the challenge.”
Overall, CU shot 50 percent from the field and held Arizona to just 25 percent. The Buffs also out-rebounded the visitors 51-26, with Swan and junior guard Ashley Wilson recoding eight boards each.
Swan, who also added two blocks and two assists, said that while the margin of victory was unexpected, the level of play the Buffs showed was not.
“I don’t think it was a surprise,” Swan said. “I think we expect ourselves to do the best we can 100 percent of the time.”
And while the Buffs’ combined 51 rebounds, 21 assists and 79 points are something to be proud of, Kresl said Sunday afternoon wasn’t about the stats.
“We all played together,” Kresl said. “It was definitely a team effort and not one person was trying to get their points or steals or anything. It wasn’t about statistics, it was all about the win and trying to play together.”
Colorado improves to 15-2 overall and 4-2 in Pac-12 play, its best start since the 2003-04 NCAA Tournament team began its season 18-2. With the loss, Arizona falls to 11-6, 3-3.
Starting next week, the Buffs head to California for four straight away games. The first, at No. 7 California, is set for Friday at 9 p.m. MST.
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