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Buffs Crush Lobos, Await Date With Stanford
Dec 30th
CU women’s basketball team 11-0 going into PAC 12 competition
Story by B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor, CUBuffs.com
BOULDER – The University of Colorado women’s basketball team easily disposed of New Mexico 84-39 Saturday at the Coors Events Center, finishing non-conference play unbeaten and presenting coach Linda Lappe with her 100th career win.
With a date against No. 1 Stanford looming next week in their Pac-12 Conference opener, the No. 23 Buffaloes improved to 11-0 for the second consecutive season. Lappe, meanwhile, won for the 50th time as CU’s coach. She is 100-66 overall and 50-30 in her third season in Boulder.
Methodically taking care of business before the top-ranked Cardinal visits Friday (8 p.m.), the Buffs rolled to a 39-21 halftime lead and outscored the Lobos (8-5) 17-2 to open the second half.
CU sophomore guard Lexy Kresl tied a career-high with 20 points, hitting all five of her three-point attempts and tying a school record. Also in double figures for the Buffs were redshirt freshman Arielle Roberson (18), senior Chucky Jeffery (11) and sophomore Jen Reese (10).
Jeffery flirted with the third triple-double of her career. Despite sitting sat out the final 6 minutes, she finished with eight assists and eight rebounds to go with her 11 points.
In rolling to their 18-point halftime lead, the Buffs never trailed. They jumped ahead 3-0 on a three-pointer by Brittany Wilson and kept on cruising. Kresl led all first-half scorers, hitting all three of her three-point attempts on the way to 12 points and surpassing her previous high this season.
The Buffs shot 51.7 percent (15-for-29) from the field in the first half and hit five of their nine long-range attempts (55.6 percent). And they demons on defense, posting a season-high 11 steals, forcing 14 turnovers and limiting the Lobos to 34.8 percent shooting from the field (8-of-23).
The Buffs shot 50.8 percent for the game (32-of-63) and held the Lobos to 30.2 percent (16-of-53). CU outrebounded the visitors 42-31, owned a 40-16 advantage in the paint and converted 23 UNM turnovers into 28 points. The Buffs committed 13 turnovers, but the Lobos got only nine points from those errors.
CU – and Kresl – didn’t slow down to open the second half. With Kresl scoring eight points, the Buffs opened with a 17-2 run and quickly went up 56-23 – their largest lead of the afternoon to that point.
They kept on pushing, cruising toward their unbeaten start and their coach’s milestone win. With 6:44 to play, Roberson’s pair of free throws opened a 72-30 advantage.
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With their largest lead reaching 47 in the final minute, it was almost time for the Buffs to begin thinking about the Cardinal.
Buffs Win Big, Get In The Spirit Of Giving
Dec 22nd
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER – ‘Tis the season . . .
On a name-your-score night for the Colorado Buffaloes, coach Tad Boyle was more impressed by his team’s willingness to share than its point total.
Oh, CU’s points – 98 of them – were impressive, especially considering overmatched Northern Arizona managed only 51 on Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
But by halftime, Boyle’s Buffaloes had dished out 13 assists, tying their full-game season high. Sharing the ball more effectively has been on Boyle’s mind for a couple of months, and Friday night his team offered him an early Christmas present – 24 assists.
“We played unselfish . . . we made the extra pass it was contagious on our team,” a beaming Boyle said. “It’s a great way to go into Christmas break . . . a great team victory.”
CU men played the the best team ball of the season so far
On the switches-and-ashes side, the Buffs also committed 16 turnovers. Yet at halftime, when they were up 57-21, their assist-to-turnover ratio was a sparkling 13-to-5, so Boyle couldn’t leave the building overwrought about second-half ball handling that he termed “just a little careless.”
He used all 12 of his players and 11 of them scored – five reaching double figures. Askia Booker and Xavier Johnson each had 17, with Spencer Dinwiddie adding 15, Josh Scott 11 and Andre Roberson 10. Reserves Ben Mills and Beau Gamble got in the game late and scored their first points of the season.
Said Boyle: “To give them some time and minutes was something everybody felt good about.”
Added Dinwiddie: “Everybody is happy. We had people getting off the bench. We are each other’s biggest supporters. Most of the time you see the guys on the bench supporting us (starters) and it was just a great opportunity we had to be able to support them.”
CU, improving to 9-2, has one non-league game remaining before beginning Pac-12 Conference play on Jan. 3 at No. 4 Arizona. The Buffs play Hartford on Saturday, Dec. 29. It is part of a men’s-women’s doubleheader at the Events Center, with the CU women taking on New Mexico. The men’s tip time is noon.
NAU came to Boulder with a 4-6 record, a pair of losses coming against Pac-12 opponents. The Lumberjacks lost November games at Oregon (83-73) and at Arizona (93-50), and NAU coach Jack Murphy left the CEC believing CU can compete with the upper tier Pac-12 teams.
“When they shoot the ball like they did tonight, they’ll compete with anybody in the league,” Murphy said. “I think that those three teams, and I obviously haven’t seen the other nine, but those three I’ve seen are very, very good. I know right now as it stands they have the three best records in the conference and they all are well coached.
“I think Arizona’s size will present problems for a lot of teams in the league but Colorado, they have great guard play . . . and with Roberson and Scott and the high-low action in the front court, they can be really tough to beat.”
In the run-up to Friday’s game, Boyle promised that his bench would be utilized more in the Buffs’ final two non-conference games. He held true to his promise, using 10 players in Friday’s first half as CU cruised to its 36-point lead at intermission. CU’s bench wound up outscoring NAU’s 39-11.
“We really need to get those (bench) guys going,” Boyle said. “Those guys are going to be important to us throughout the season. We know pretty much what we’re going to get from our starters.”
The Buffs’ 98 points were the second most in the Boyle era, as was their 47-point margin of victory. Their 57 first-half points were the third highest for a first half since the 1954-55 season.
Booker got CU rolling early by hitting five of his first six shots. When NAU pulled to 8-6 on an inside basket by 6-8 Max Jacobsen, Booker answered with a jumper and a layup to open a 23-2 Buffs run that effectively finished the Lumberjacks.
Boyle said it was “key for ‘Ski’ to come off . . . I was hoping he could get out of his funk.” Taking extra shots has never been an issue for Booker, said Boyle: “He’ll spend time in the gym. When he gets his mojo going, he’s pretty darn good.”
Booker said his hot start “felt pretty good,” adding that the Lumberjacks defenders were “forcing me to the baseline a lot . . . their big guys are a little slower, which allowed me to get a few more open shots.”
At the 9:18 mark, CU led 31-8 and was just getting untracked. With just over 2 minutes left before intermission, the Buffs’ lead had ballooned to 40 (55-15). Consecutive layups by Sabatino Chen got CU to 55, and along the way there were plenty of highlights, including the 6-10 freshman Scott’s first three-pointer of the season. He drained his trey from the top of the key and followed with the Buffs’ next two baskets.
CU finished the half with an eye-popping 71.4 percent from the field (25-for-35) and 60 percent from three-point range (6-for-10). The Buffs shot 66.7 percent (40-for-60) for the game – the best shooting percentage by a CU team in 23 seasons – and were at 55 percent (11-for-20 from beyond the arc.
The only area that found the Buffs lacking was their free throw shooting. They made only one of seven first-half attempts, with three of the misses spoiling opportunities for three-point plays. They finished 7-of-15 from the line.
But with all else CU was doing right, misfiring from the foul stripe was forgivable. The Buffs’ defense was stifling and their board work overwhelming; they held the Lumberjacks to 31.1 percent from the field (19-of-61) and outrebounded them 45-22.
The Buffs opened the second half with as much effort and efficiency as they did to begin the night. At the 12-minute mark, they were up by 50 (78-28) and showing no signs of easing up.
About 4 minutes later, with CU ahead 83-35, Mills – the 7-foot junior center – left the bench for only the second time this season, much to the delight of the CEC crowd. He scored his first points of the season on a layup with 4:32 to play, sending CU up 90-39.
Boyle completed the emptying of his bench by inserting Gamble, a sophomore guard who attended Fairview High School, with 5:33 remaining. Gamble got in the scoring column with a three-pointer in the final 90 seconds.
The Buffs missed an opportunity to reach 100 points for the first time this season, but really didn’t care. They dribbled out the final 16 seconds without taking a shot. The crowd wasn’t overly pleased – but the displeasure passed quickly.
CU now has a four-day Christmas break, which Boyle called “an eternity” compared to previous holiday off periods he has experienced. “The most I’ve ever had was maybe three days,” he said. “These guys will have to do some cardio work at home; they can’t sit on the couch and eat ham and turkey. I trust our guys.”
CU Women Put Away Pioneers, Eye No. 8 Cardinals
Dec 12th
Story by B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor, CUBuffs.com
DENVER – The unbeaten University of Colorado women’s basketball team shook off a lethargic start, took control with an 8-0 run and never looked back in dispatching the University of Denver 83-63 here Tuesday night.
Now the Buffaloes (8-0) can look ahead. Finally, they can focus on their biggest non-conference game – a Friday night date with No. 8 Louisville at the Coors Events Center. The Cardinals are 9-1, with their lone loss by one point (48-47) to archrival Kentucky.
In winning for only the second time in Denver against the Pioneers, the Buffs got a season-high 19 points from Brittany Wilson and 14 points and 11 rebounds from Chucky Jeffery. Leading scorer Arielle Roberson, who entered the game with a 17.3-point average, added 11.
DU defeated CU 70-69 in their most recent Magness Arena matchup on Nov. 16, 2010. The Buffs lead the series 6-2 and won for the third time this season against a Front Range opponent. Before making the trip down I-25 South, CU had beaten Wyoming (68-59) and Colorado State (72-46) in Boulder.
Tuesday’s first half produced 11 lead changes, but they all occurred in the first 10 minutes. DU (4-5) took advantage of CU’s sluggish start to go ahead by as many as five points (13-8) before the visitors roused themselves.
Finally focused, the Buffs made an 18-17 deficit their last of the game. They went on an 8-0 run, getting baskets from Jamee Swan, Roberson (her first of the game), Jeffery and Brittany Wilson on a fast-break assist from Jeffery to go up 25-18 with 6:22 before intermission.
From there until the halftime buzzer, CU increased its lead to 10 on two occasions and led 37-27 at the break. The Buffs got 12 first-half points from Brittany Wilson and nine from Jeffery. Morgan Van Riper-Rose kept the Pioneers close with 13, while none of her teammates managed more than four first-half points. She finished with a career-high 28.
CU shot 41.7 percent (15-for-36) from the field in the opening half to DU’s 37.5 percent (9-for-24). The Buffs owned the boards (25-13) and forced 10 Pioneer turnovers that resulted in seven CU points.
CU outscored DU 9-1 to open the second half and surge ahead 46-28. The Buffs didn’t allow the Pioneers their first field goal of the last 20 minutes until the 14:07 mark. A minute later, CU went up by 23 and wouldn’t allow DU within 15 points the rest of the night.
With 7:55 remaining, Roberson was assessed CU’s first technical foul of the season. The reason: Roberson apparently touched the ball before a Pioneer player was about to throw it in bounds after a made Buffs basket. CU was up 67-44 at the time and led by as many as 26 points in the final 4 minutes.
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