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CU women in the biggest comeback of the season, down Oregon State by 3 points in overtime
Mar 3rd
CORVALLIS, Ore. –
It was a wild ride: 18 points down in in the first half, three points up with seconds to play in the game, with Oregon State’s half court shot at the buzzer forcing the game into overtime. The Buffs got ahead and O-State caught up, again and again, but Colorado held on for the victory.
It was a wild ride: 18 points down in in the first half, three points up with seconds to play in the game, with Oregon State’s half court shot at the buzzer forcing the game into overtime. The Buffs got ahead and O-State caught up, again and again, but Colorado held on for the victory.
CU shot just 33.8 percent from the field but out rebounded the Beavers 49-36. Senior guard Chucky Jeffery scored a game-high 25 points, while redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson earned her second career double-double Sunday with 10 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. Eight of those were on the offensive end, a number just two off from the program record.
Chucky Jeffery scored 25 points to lead the BuffsThe victory brought the Buffs’ record to 24-5 overall, equaling the program record for number of regular-season wins.The victory brought the Buffs’ record to 24-5 overall, equaling the program record for number of regular-season wins
The victory brought the Buffs’ record to 24-5 overall, equaling the program record for number of regular-season wins.
“We knew how we wanted to end the regular season, but now it’s one-and-done from here on out,” said Jeffery, who also contributed seven rebounds. “We had a heck of a regular season, but now it’s Pac-12 tournament time, and anybody can win.”
With a win over Oregon on Friday, the Buffs secured a No. 4 seed and first-round bye at the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament, set for March 7-10 at the Key Arena in Seattle.
But even with a first-round bye already locked down, the Buffs had no easy go of Sunday’s matchup against the Beavers.
“Coach said this was probably how the game was probably going to go,” Jeffery said of OSU’s aggressiveness. “They weren’t going to come out and give it to us, we were going to have to earn it, and that’s what they did. I think it was a good game for us to end our regular season on, it was very competitive.”
It was senior day for the Beavers at Gill Coliseum, and the strength of the OSU upperclassmen showed early. Four OSU seniors hit the court at some point in the first nine minutes of the game, helping the Beavers to a 22-9 lead with 11:05 left in the half.
OSU seniors Mollee Schwegler, Quortni Fambro and Patricia Bright put up a combined 15 points in the half, including two Schwegler three-pointers in the first four minutes. The Beavers built their largest lead, 18, at the 6:50 mark, but CU responded with a 14-2 run to head into the locker room trailing by just five (28-33).
“We don’t give up,” Jeffery said. “They were hitting shot after shot, and it was kind of draining us, but we just had to keep plugging . . . we started cutting the lead, and we started getting settled, getting stops on defense and making baskets.”
Jeffery opened the second half with a layup and made two free throws to bring the Buffs back within one (33-32), but a strong OSU defense held CU to just four points over the next six minutes.
But then it was OSU’s turn for a scoring drought, as CU turned up the energy on both ends of the court with a 15-4 run. Junior center Rachel Hargis gave the Buffs their first lead of the game with a jumper at the 7:09 mark, and while CU would build a five-point lead with 2:12 on the clock, the Beavers weren’t done yet. With nine seconds remaining, OSU freshman guard Jamie Weisner hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 56-56 send the game into overtime.
The Buffs went on a 7-1 run to gain a six-point overtime lead, but OSU would fight to the finish as Weisner hit another three with 30 seconds on the clock. Jeffery then hit one of two free throws, but OSU guard Ali Gibson responded with a deep, nearly half-court trey to close CU’s lead to one (64-63) with 6.3 seconds remaining.
Roberson was fouled on the next possession and made two crucial free throws, and OSU missed its buzzer-beater shot to give the Buffs the 66-63 win.
“You can’t ever think that it’s not your day,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said of the Buffs’ comeback. “You’ve just got to find different ways to get things done . . . you’ve got to make sure that little things don’t affect you. We could have even let that half-court shot affect us, but we didn’t, and I really liked our resolve.”
Lappe said OSU’s competitiveness down the stretch was critical for the Buffs to experience before postseason play.
“I think it was so great for us to get a win like this,” Lappe said. “Now every game is win and you move forward, lose and you go home. It’s a different kind of pressure, but it’s also a lot more fun . . . I feel like Oregon State prepared us to play at a high level game in and game out and possibly multiple days in a row.”
Postgame Notes:
Colorado improves to 24-5 overall, 13-5 in Pac-12 play. The Buffaloes finish the regular season in sole possession of fourth place in final league standings and will be the No. 4 seed and have a first round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament played in Seattle, March 7-10. CU will play the winner of No. 5 Oregon and No. 12 Washington on Friday, March. 8, at 9:30 p.m. MST.
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CU women’s tennis loses another close one as PAC-12 play begins
Mar 3rd
Recent close game losses haven’t dimmed the coaches enthusiasm for her team. Colorado tennis team fell 4-3 to Princeton on Saturday.
“After seven hours, we lost a close one 4-3 to Princeton,” CU head coach Nicole Kenneally said after the match. “It came down to the wire. I couldn’t be more proud of our players. They really left it out there, and I think if you look at the scores, you’re going to see that we really gave it our best effort as a team today. I believe that in matches like this, obviously we’ve had a lot of close 4-3 losses, this team is going to grow stronger, and they’re going to get better from it. We’re going to get the better side of it at some point. As long as we keep going and keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep putting ourselves in position to take one. I believe this group will do that, and it’s just a matter of time.”
The Buffaloes take a 5-5 record into Pac-12 Conference play. CU is 1-1 all-time against Princeton and 1-1 against ranked teams this spring. Princeton holds a 5-2 record, with each of its losses coming against ranked opponents.
In what was a true marathon of a day, four singles matches were pushed to three sets, with two Buffs coming out victorious. Freshmen Dhany Quevedo and Mazy Watrous both fought off first set deficits to claim victories. After Quevedo dropped her first set against Katherine Flanigan 6-4, she lost only four games total for the remainder of the match to claim the win. Quevedo now has a 2-0 record when dropping the first set. Watrous shined against Emily Hahn for her second career win and her first victory in three sets. After falling 6-3 in the opening set, she dominated the rest of the match, 6-2, 6-1.
Julyette Steur stands out in the No. 1 singles position, defeating Lindsay Graff 6-4, 6-3. Steur leads the Buffs with 13 wins this season. She is on a four-match winning streak and has dropped just two matches this spring. All but one of her eight wins in the spring have been in straight sets.
The Buffs continue their home-stand by starting conference play. CU takes on Arizona in the conference opener at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 8 and Arizona State at 10 a.m. on Sunday, March 10. Stay tuned to CUBuffs.com for location updates.
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CU women beat Oregon, gain a first round bye in PAC-12 tournament
Mar 2nd
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
EUGENE, Ore. – It wasn’t pretty but it was a win. The Buffs women’s basketball team earned its eighth straight win and 23rd of the season with a 60-49 victory over the Oregon Ducks here Friday night. It wasn’t pretty but it was deja vu coach Linda Lappe; the last time CU won 23 games she was a senior playing fror legendary coach Ceal Barry and CU made it to the Sweat 16.
With the win, the Buffs clinched a first-round bye for the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament next weekend in Seattle. CU plays at 3:30 p.m. MST on Friday at Key Arena, meeting the winner of Thursday’s game matching the No. 5 and No. 12 seeds.
Arielle Roberson was high scorer with 16 points
“I think (the bye) gives us more confidence going in,” said redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson, who led CU in scoring Friday night with 16 points. “We’ll be rested more than other players will, and we’ll have more time to prepare, so it’s definitely a great thing.”
Colorado head coach Linda Lappe said the bye was well-earned, but that she’s setting her sights on more than just that accomplishment.
“We’ve worked really hard for that bye, and eight in a row is something you don’t see all the time,” Lappe said. “It hasn’t always been pretty, but we’ve come together when we’ve needed to, we’ve been tough when we’ve needed to be tough . . . we have bigger goals than just the four-seed.”
The 2012-12 Buffs may be headed for a similar destiny at 23-5 overall and 12-5 in the Pac-12. First, though, they’re taking care of business in the final weekend of the regular season, starting with Friday’s rout in Eugene.
It was a messy win for CU, but a win nonetheless. The Buffs forced 21 Oregon turnovers and committed seven, but shot just 34.8 percent from the field compared to the Ducks’ 37.5.
“We never really got into a flow offensively,” Lappe said. “We couldn’t convert those turnovers into baskets very often, which hurt us, and we just didn’t get the shot that we wanted to . . . when you shoot 34 percent that’s not very good. So to be able to win, that’s good.”
CU struggled offensively without guard Lexy Kresl, a force from beyond the arc. The sophomore is out with a separated right shoulder suffered in a Feb. 17 win over Arizona State.
Lappe said Kresl’s absence made the Oregon zone defense harder to handle.
“We did miss Lexy in this game,” Lappe said. “You want her against the University of Oregon, they play 40 minutes of 2-3 zone. Lexy obviously does a really nice job of for one, passing, and extending the defense out there. It was really, really hard not to put her in tonight.”
While Colorado’s defense came to play from the start, its offense occasionally struggled to capitalize off of Oregon turnovers. However, it did convert the Ducks’ 21 errors into 20 points. Though the Buffs committed just five turnovers compared to the Ducks’ 13 in the first half, CU only had a three-point advantage at intermission.
The game remained tight in the second half until the 12:25 mark, when freshman guard Kyleesha Weston lit the spark that would ignite CU’s offense.
Weston hit a three-pointer, then grabbed a steal on the next possession. Roberson then continued the run with another three at 12:07 to put the Buffs up 36-29.
“It looked a little dead out there,” Weston said. “I was told that I needed to pick up the energy. That’s when I’m at my best, when I have a lot of energy, so I felt like I could spark the team.”
Lappe said Weston’s determination off the bench was a sign of maturity for such a young player.
“That stretch there was huge, and even for (Kyleesha) to come in and knock down that three when we hadn’t hit that many, that shows a lot of guts and resiliency as a freshman,” Lappe said. “For her to step up and knock down shots when nobody else was shows a lot of toughness. That fired everyone else up.”
The Ducks would not pull closer than five for the remainder of the game, as the Buffs built their largest lead, 16, on a Jasmine Sborov three with 4:05 remaining.
In addition to her game-high 16 points, Roberson had four rebounds, a block and a steal. Senior guard Chucky Jeffery recorded 12 points and 10 rebounds, earning her 30th career double-double.
Colorado also held an opponent to under 50 points for the 12th time in 28 games; the Buffs are undefeated in all 12 of those games.
CU finishes its final regular-season weekend with a matchup Sunday at Oregon State (1 p.m., MST).
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