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CU Men Beat California-Berkeley Bears, Reach .500 In Pac-12
Jan 27th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – It was a steep climb out and the trail only gets steeper, but the Colorado Buffaloes finally surfaced on Sunday at the Coors Events Center. Opening with another stellar defensive performance then staying above ground with a season-best effort from the free throw line, CU beat California 81-71 to even its Pac-12 Conference record at 4-4.
The Buffs began conference play 1-4, and in that nowhere-to-go-but-up context, reaching .500 “is really a positive sign,” said CU coach Tad Boyle. “But when we were 1-4, we wanted to get to 2-4 . . . we worried about the next game. But we’re not happy being 4-4; we have to win the next game and keep scratching and clawing and move our way up.”
Did we mention the trail only gets steeper?
Three consecutive road games await, beginning Saturday at Utah, followed by trips to first-place Oregon (Thursday, Feb. 7) and struggling Oregon State (Sunday, Feb. 10). The Buffs don’t return to the CEC until Feb. 14, when Arizona visits.
But with January waning, CU appears to be shaping up, even though at times Sunday it was hard to tell. Said Boyle: “The game was one of those deals where our shooting (59.6 percent) overcame a lot of other ills and some deficiencies we know we have to get better at.”
Topping his list were the 20 CU turnovers that led to 22 Cal points. There also were the Bears’ 53 second-half points – 33 of them attributable to guards Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs, who finally got untracked after nearly silent first halves and helped whittle an 18-point Buffs lead to eight in the final minute.
“We let them get closer than we should have,” Boyle said.
But in the final 60 seconds, Spencer Dinwiddie hit eight consecutive free throws to keep the Buffs afloat. For the afternoon, he hit 9-of-10, leading CU to its best foul-shooting performance of the season – 18-of-22 (81.8 percent).
Finishing with 16 points, Dinwiddie was one of four CU players in double figures. Askia Booker scored 20, Xavier Johnson added 18 and Andre Roberson 15. Johnson, a 6-6 freshman, also collected 12 rebounds for his first career double.
Roberson played only 2 first-half minutes due to foul problems and was limited to five rebounds after his 20-board performance against Stanford on Thursday. He led the nation in rebounding (11.9) entering the game.
But despite his first-half foul problems and those of Josh Scott, who missed the half’s last 7:53 after picking up his second foul, the Buffs prospered before intermission. That was mainly due to Johnson, who stepped up Roberson’s absence and got 10 of his points and eight of his rebounds before Askia Booker
the break.
“You could make a legitimate argument that he was the game’s offensive MVP,” Boyle said. “He was terrific . . . he’s really grown up.”
When Roberson went to the bench, Johnson said he “felt like I needed to help in rebounding . . . Andre is a big part (of that).”
Cal (11-8, 3-4) was led by Cobbs with 22 points – 16 in the second half, and Crabbe added 21 – 17 of those in the second half. But in combining for their 43 points, they needed almost that many shots between them – and Boyle said he could live with that: “They made some tough shots . . . if they’re going to get 43 points you want them to take 41 shots to get them.”
CU’s lock-down defense in the first half – Cal was limited to 20.6 percent from the field – and the Buffs’ overall strong board work – a 35-30 rebound advantage – created enough of a cushion before Cobbs and Crabbe began finding their groove in the final 20 minutes.
The Buffs led 34-18 at halftime and shot 50 percent from the field (13-for-26). But that percentage at times belied their offensive efficiency. After taking a nine-point lead (14-5) on consecutive treys by Booker, CU went nearly 7 minutes without scoring again.
That drought wasn’t fatal, though, because the Buffs defense nearly had the Bears clamped shut. Cal’s 18 first-half points were its lowest this season. But with Crabbe and Cobbs heating up, the Bears finished the game at 41.7 percent from the field – slightly above Boyle’s defensive goal.
“I thought we got tired,” he said. “’XJ’ was exhausted; he’s not used to playing 18 minutes in the first half. But they were tired, too . . . then when Cobbs and Crabbe started making shots, it’s amazing how that energizes you.”
Xavier Johnson
Booker (13) and Johnson (10) were CU’s only two players in double figures in the first half, while Cal had no one totaling more than six points. Crabbe (19.6 ppg) and Cobbs (14.3 ppg) were held to four and six points, respectively.
Roberson and Scott were back in the Buffs lineup to open the second half, but their return didn’t prevent the Bears from a 7-0 start to pull Cal to 34-25 in the first 1:34. Crabbe scored five of those seven points, prompting a timeout from Boyle.
On that possession, the Buffs got a layup from Johnson, then one of two free throws by Roberson to restore their double-digit lead (37-27). Three minutes later, Booker’s fourth trey of the game pushed CU ahead by 14 (46-32), and if Cal felt this one slipping away, that feeling was justified.
By the 9:05 mark, the Buffs had gone up 58-40 – matching their big lead of the afternoon – on a layup by Johnson. But with Crabbe hitting back-to-back treys, the Bears crept to within 65-54 with 4:06 to play.
Then it was Cobbs’ turn. Scoring nine consecutive points, he pulled the Bears to within nine (73-64) in the final 1:05. A trey by Tyrone Wallace got them to 75-67, but Dinwiddie was perfect on eight free throw attempts in the last minute to keep the Buffs safe.
Cal’s hot second-half shooting (60.5 percent) and closing to within eight points late, said Dinwiddie, were the result of “mental lapses. As much as you preach playing the possession, I think all of us as a team look at the scoreboard and say, ‘Look, we’re up 12, then we hit a three and we’re up 15.’
“When that starts to roll downhill a little bit and you’re only up eight, then you have to tighten the screws a little bit. Sometimes you can’t.”
Nonetheless, the win put CU in fifth place in the Pac-12, trailing Washington (4-3), the two Arizona schools (5-2), UCLA (6-2) and Oregon (7-0). Dinwiddie called the win “very important. To say you don’t look at the standings would be a lie. You don’t focus on them, but you look at them.
“We knew that people on top of us were playing each other . . . these (Stanford and Cal) are two very big wins. We’re going to look to go to Utah and just continue to win the next game.”
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Jeffery, Defense Lead Buffaloes To Pac-12 Win Over Arizona State
Jan 19th
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
Thanks to a strong second-half surge, the Colorado women’s basketball team secured a 57-43 Pac-12 Conference win over Arizona State Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
Senior guard Chucky Jeffery earned her 24th career double-double and her fourth of the season with 19 points and 16 rebounds. Her rebound total was also a team season-high.
Senior guard Chucky Jeffery was high scorer once again
Redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson earned a career-high 11 rebounds and contributed seven points of her own. Overall, Colorado out-rebounded Arizona State 47-31.
“Like any Pac-12 game, it was very physical down there,” Roberson said. “It’s always a war, it’s always a battle … But we knew we had to box out and then go get the rebounds, not just let them try to come to us.”
Forward Jen Reese and guard Lexy Kresl, both sophomores, added eight points each.
Strong defense from both teams kept the score and shooting percentages low, as Colorado shot just 37.8 percent from the field but held the Sun Devils to 23.6 percent.
One of the goals for Colorado was to keep ASU players from scoring around the rim. The Buffs executed that game plan well, forcing the Sun Devils to shoot 8-for-26 from beyond the arc.
“It was a very solid night defensively for us,” said Colorado head coach Linda Lappe. “Knowing how Arizona State likes to score, they score a lot of baskets and layups at the rim, so one of our goals was to give up less than 10 layups. I think we gave them only a couple of wide-open layups.”
The Buffs and the Sun Devils looked evenly matched in the first half as the lead changed seven lead times, but two three-pointers by Arizona State’s Jada Blackwell and Haley Videckis put the Sun Devils up 26-22 at the half. Neither team shot particularly well in the first half, as CU was 32.1 percent from the field and ASU was 36.0.
After intermission, though, the Buffs found the energy they had been lacking. With 14:30 remaining, Colorado went on a 13-0 run capped by a Lexy Kresl three-pointer to go up 12 (44-32).
“We have to start fast and finish strong, that’s our motto. We say that before every game,” Jeffery said. “We just kept going. Once you attack them, you keep them on their heels a little bit.”
The Buffs held onto the momentum from that point on, gaining their largest lead of the game, 17, on a Jeffery free throw with less than a minute remaining.
“Even when they started hitting some outside shots, we stayed steady,” Lappe said. “We didn’t panic, and I thought that allowed us to pull away in the second half.”
Jeffery said part of what allowed the Buffs to pull away in the second half was recognizing ASU’s key scorers and guarding them with more intensity. Videckis, who was the Sun Devils’ leading scorer in the first half with 11 points, was shut out in the second half.
“I thought we did a much better job on (Videckis) in the second half, she hurt us a lot in the first half,” Lappe said. “We barred down and knew where she was. Arielle (Roberson) got the assignment on her for a large part, Jen (Reese) guarded her for a little while, and our guards understood where she was in the second half as well.”
The Buffs also showed their strength off the bench once again, as three non-starters — Reese, sophomore Jasmine Sborov and junior Ashley Wilson — scored a combined 14 points on the night.
With the win, Colorado improves to 14-2 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-12. The Sun Devils fall to 10-7 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
On Sunday, the Buffs return to the Coors Events Center to take on Arizona at 2 p.m.
“As far as I know, (Arizona) is going to bring a lot of the same pressure that ASU does,” Lappe said. “They have a really good All-Conference player in (guard) Davellyn White, and they have a lot of good players around her. I think they’re much, much improved over last year, and we’re just going to have to be ready on Sunday.”
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Buffs’ Rally Comes Up Short Against Bruins
Jan 13th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Protecting a second-half lead wasn’t a problem on Saturday for the Colorado Buffaloes. Their dilemma this time was overcoming a 13-point second-half deficit – and they nearly did it.
Deep and talented UCLA led by a point at halftime, revved it up in the second half, then had to desperately hold on to beat CU 78-75 and deal the Buffs their first loss of the season at the Coors Events Center.
CU closed to within a point (76-75) on Spencer Dinwiddie’s layup, but UCLA’s Jordan Adams sank a pair of free throws with 7.9 seconds to play to give the Bruins their final lead. A three-point attempt from the left corner by Askia Booker bounced off the rim at the buzzer.
CU coach Tad Boyle said his team got the shot it wanted: “We drew that play up and got ‘Ski’ a wide-open three in the corner . . . we got the shots we wanted offensively, we really did what we set out to do in the last two or three minutes. But we didn’t get a stop when we needed to.”
When Booker’s shot didn’t go in, it left the Buffs 8-1 this season at the CEC and 39-5 at home in 21/2 seasons under Boyle. CU fell to 11-5 overall and 1-3 in the Pac-12 Conference while UCLA, winning its ninth straight game, improved to 14-3 and stayed unbeaten (4-0) in conference play.
Dinwiddie led CU with 23 points – 15 in the second half – while Booker and Josh Scott added 18 each. Scott also had nine rebounds. UCLA’s Travis Wear matched Dinwiddie’s point total and stepped up with clutch baskets when the Buffs were making their comeback. Adams added 18 points, with Shabazz Muhammad contributing 14 and Kyle Anderson 12 for UCLA.
Boyle called the loss “very disappointing, frustrating for our team and program . . . the margin for error is so thin in those games (and) our team is not where we need to be. It’s frustrating when you know opportunities are there and we don’t take advantage.”
But the Bruins played a large part in Saturday’s loss, and Boyle credited them for “making plays and free throws down the stretch.” Specifically, they hit eight of 11 in the final 61 seconds. And a pair of clutch field goals by Travis Wear also helped keep the Buffs at bay.
“He was terrific down the stretch,” Boyle said of the 6-10 Wear, who was 11-of-17 from the field. Added Dinwiddie: “(Wear) was the best player on the floor. He shot over 50 percent . . . give him a lot of credit. Some of our guys are not used to guarding a big guy outside like that.”
The Buffs, said Boyle, “played hard and competed, but we have to be more consistent from start to finish against good teams.” He drew on a quote from his former college coach at Kansas, Larry Brown: “Coming back is easy; coming back and winning is hard.”
For matchup purposes with the bigger Bruins, Boyle started freshman forward Xavier Johnson in place of senior Sabatino Chen for the second time this season. The 6-6 Johnson finished with eight points – seven in the first half – in 22 minutes.
The Buffs led by as many four points in the first half, but trailed by one (35-34) at intermission. It was only the second time this season that CU has trailed at halftime – the first being in early December at Kansas. And that trip didn’t turn out so well for the Buffs.
The Bruins’ biggest first-half lead was three on three occasions, with those meager advantages telling the story of an opening 20 minutes played at a controlled pace by both teams. When running was to be done, it was usually UCLA doing it; the Bruins had 10 fast break points to the Buffs’ four.
Neither team had a player in double figures in the opening half, and CU’s Andre Roberson didn’t get his first field goal until nearly 15 minutes in. He finished the half with four points and got one more in the second half. But he collected a game-high 12 rebounds.
CU fell well short of holding UCLA to 40 percent from the field. The Bruins hit 31 of their 60 field goal attempts (51.7 percent) while the Buffs finished at 25-for-57 (43.9 percent). CU won the board battle 34-32 and was better at the free throw line, hitting 20-of-27 – an upgrade from their 14-of-26 in the previous win against USC.
“But if we make three more, it might be a tie game,” Booker said. “We have to get better there.”
Booker said his futile trey at the buzzer “felt good” when it left his hand. After releasing the shot, he wound up flat on his back. Did he think he was fouled? “It doesn’t matter now, the game’s over,” he said.
UCLA scored the second half’s first five points on a layup by Travis Wear and a three-pointer by Muhammad, opening a six-point (40-34) lead and prompting a timeout by Boyle with 18:39 to play.
The Buffs had an answer – two of them. Treys by Booker and Dinwiddie tied the score at 42-42 with 16:09 remaining. But over the next 3 minutes, the Bruins outscored the Buffs 8-1 to go up by 50-43 – UCLA’s largest lead to that point.
It grew to 13 (58-45) just over 3 minutes later as the Buffs were held without a field goal during that nearly 6-minute span, getting only a pair of free throws from Dinwiddie. Meanwhile, Jordan capped the Bruins’ 14-3 run with a four-point play to make it 58-45 with 9:49 left.
CU got as close as 61-55 on a pair of free throws by Scott with 5:25 remaining, then crept to within five on two occasions in the final 2:15 on baskets by Dinwiddie and Scott. And possession by possession, the Buffs kept coming, giving themselves the chance to tie on Booker’s near-miss at the buzzer.
“’Ski’ is one of our best clutch shooters,” said Dinwiddie. “We’re not at all disappointed in getting that shot.”
Added Booker: “We shouldn’t have let it get to that point . . . I’m happy with way fought, that gave us a chance to tie and go to overtime.”
In its three previous Pac-12 games, CU squandered double-digit leads and lost two of the three games. On Saturday, Dinwiddie said he didn’t believe the Buffs lacked a sense of urgency, “We just hit these lulls on the offensive and defensive ends. Even if it happens on the offensive end, we can’t let it happen on the defensive end . . . we have to stay on pace and execute our plan.”
Doing it only becomes tougher. If the Buffs are to climb to .500 in the Pac-12, they must do it on the road. They travel to Washington (Thursday, 9:30 p.m. MST) and Washington State (Saturday, 8 p.m. MST) next week.
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