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Buffs Defeat Aztecs, Win Omni Classic
Nov 25th
by B.G. Brooks. CU associate editor
BOULDER – What started as a struggle ended in a stroll Saturday night for the University of Colorado women’s basketball team.
The Buffaloes found their groove midway through the first half and stayed with it the rest of the way, overrunning San Diego State 67-53 to win the Omni Classic at the Coors Events Center.
Freshman Arielle Roberson was voted tournament MVPCU has won 16 of its 26 in-season tournaments, which for 22 years was called the Coors Classic.
Three CU players reached double figures as the Buffs stayed unbeaten (4-0). Redshirt freshman Arielle Roberson scored 17 points, sophomore Jen Reese 14 and senior Chucky Jeffery 12. Reese also grabbed a game-best nine rebounds.
Roberson was named the tournament’s MVP, an award Jeffery had claimed the past two years. Joining both on the all-tournament team were Auburn’s Tyrese Tanner, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Janae Blount and San Diego State’s Courtney Clements.
The Buffs led 28-23 at halftime, but getting that five-point lead was difficult. When the Aztecs raced ahead 6-0, it doubled the largest deficit the Buffs had faced in their three previous games. And San Diego State (3-2) wasn’t content with that.
Over the next 5 minutes, the Aztecs built a 14-5 advantage and were limiting the Buffs’ looks at the basket. But at the 13:19 mark, CU began to click – mainly because it thumbed up its defensive intensity.
At about the 6 minute mark, the Aztecs were 5-of-17 from the field – and that made field goal number included San Diego State hitting its first two baskets of the game.
On the offensive end and from the free throw line, CU’s efficiency left much to be desired. Still, the Buffs began creeping back into it and fashioned a 13-2 run.
They finally caught the Aztecs at 16-16 on a Roberson follow of her own miss, then passed the visitors at 18-16 on a short Reese jumper.
In the half’s final 2:15, CU outscored San Diego State 7-1 to take its five-point lead to the locker room. During that span, CU got its only two treys of the first 20 minutes, courtesy of Roberson and Meagan Malcolm-Peck.
The Buffs hit only eight of 15 first-half free throw attempts and didn’t get their first offensive rebound until about 6 minutes in. But they finished with 17 boards, seven of them offensive, to match the Aztecs in that department. CU shot 42.9 percent from the field (12-of-28) to San Diego State’s 30.8 (8-of-26) before intermission.
A 5-0 run to open the second half gave the Buffs their largest lead of the game (33-23) – and they kept the pedal down. After the Aztecs closed to within six, a 7-2 CU run opened an 11-point advantage (42-31) with 13:02 to play. Reese was responsible for four of those points, with Jeffery converting a conventional three-point play for the others.
In the final 7 minutes, the Buffs led by as many as 15 – 67-52 with 25.8 to play – and the Aztecs never got closer than eight points.
CU hosts Wyoming Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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Balanced Buffs Take Care of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Nov 24th
BOULDER – Colorado had three players in double-digits and used a late run to pull away from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 75-48, in the second game of the 2012 Omni Hotels Classic at the Coors Events Center.
Colorado improves to 3-0 and will play San Diego State in Saturday’s championship game set for 7:30 p.m. San Diego State defeated Auburn 78-57 in the first game. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (0-5) will play Auburn in Saturday’s consolation game at 5 p.m.
Freshman forward Arielle Roberson scored a game-high 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting. Senior guard Chucky Jeffery nearly missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Jasmine Sborov tied a career-best with 10 points.
““I thought for the second straight game we had great contribution from everybody on our team,” head coach Linda Lappe said. “They all did their job and they played their role. Many of them came in and gave us some great energy, whether it was to start the game, start the half, or when they came in off the bench. But I thought they did a fantastic job of really playing together.”
Seven players had at least five points as the Buffaloes hit 70 for the third straight game to open the season. The Buffaloes also had seven players with three or more rebounds and six players with multiple assists.
“It’s awesome,” Jeffery said on her team’s depth. “To have a number of players that can come off the bench and replace players on the floor without disrupting the flow is great. We know the game isn’t going to change when we sub because we have confidence in getting the ball to our post players.”
The layups in the post weren’t falling like they did in Kansas City last weekend, but the Buffaloes were able to hit the outside shot.
Jasmin Sborov contributed all-around skills in the victory
Sborov, making her first start of the season set the tone early for the Buffaloes. She scored all 10 of her points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting, most on smooth looking 12-15 foot jumpers.
“Chucky [Jeffery] did a great job at drawing in the defense and I was just hitting shots off of reversals and kick-outs,” Sborov said. “We worked on that religiously in practice so I think that opened up a lot of our inside game in the second half.”
The Buffaloes built a 35-24 halftime lead by scoring 11 points off turnovers and turning in their best half from the line this year, hitting 8-of-10.
CU shot below its season average of 44 percent, making just 12 of 30 in the first 20 minutes, but Lappe lauded the team’s ability to shake off the early misses and keep hammering away down low.
“I liked how we stayed composed tonight,” Lappe said. “Our inside game wasn’t going well at the beginning, but we were getting great shots. The thing I liked about tonight is that we didn’t shy away from using our posts, our guards kept feeding the ball down there, they kept offensive rebounding, and they kept at it. When you do that, those easy shots are going to eventually fall.”
Jeffery ran a solid point game, contributing four assists and four steals, and notably just one turnover against an aggressive Islanders defense.
Colorado led by double-digits most of the game, but still only led by 10 when Trish Amboree hit three free throws with 9:28 left to make the score 53-43.
Roberson responded with five straight points and Jeffery followed with a transition layup to put CU up 60-43. The Buffaloes ran from there, ending the game on a 22-5 run.
Colorado dominated the boards, by a count of 49-23. Roberson had eight, Sborov had six.
Janae Blount led Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with 13 points and six rebounds. Ashley Darley pitched in 12.
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Balanced Buffs Hold Off Vandals In Opener
Nov 12th
Release: 11/11/2012 Courtesy: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
BOULDER – Linda Lappe knew depth would be among her third Colorado women’s basketball team’s strong suits – and it took only one game into the 2012-13 season for verification.
With returning scoring leader Chucky Jeffery benched for a violation of team rules, CU got contributions of some variety from nearly everyone Lappe used in a 70-65 win over Idaho on Sunday afternoon.
“Everybody gave us good minutes . . . the players off the bench came in and did their jobs,” Lappe said. “Everybody stepped up at different times. No one player dominated the game, and that’s what you want to see.”
CU junior guard Brittany Wilson led all scorers with 18 points, including eight-of-eight from the free throw line. Four of Wilson’s foul shots were clutch, coming in the final 17.9 seconds as the Buffaloes were holding off the hard-to-bury Vandals. Her eight made free throws were a career high, her eight attempts tied a career high.
The Buffs also received a strong debut performance from Arielle Roberson, and if a single player did flirt with dominance at the Coors Events Center, it would be the redshirt freshman from San Antonio.
Roberson, an athletic 6-1 forward, sat out her first season while rehabilitating from hip surgery. CU coaches believed her return would boost the Buffs’ inside play as well as their defense – and they were correct.
In addition to her 16 points, Roberson collected six rebounds and blocked two shots. She also contributed five steals – one in the final minutes when the Vandals were continuing to make the Buffs uncomfortable.
“She did some really good things,” Lappe said. “In the second half, there was one stretch where she came off the bench for the very last time and we really needed her to step up. She did that.”
Of Roberson’s overall contribution, Lappe added, “That’s who Arielle is . . . she can score in a lot of different ways. She’s going to play a lot of different positions for us. She’s probably a little more effective on the block than anywhere else, but she’s going to keep getting better than what we saw today.”
After a year’s absence, Roberson simply was elated to get back onto the court. “I just wanted to go out and play like I know I can and show everybody what I can bring to this team,” she said. “My family was here (the Robersons watched Arielle’s older brother, Andre, open with the CU men’s team on Friday night) and of course it was my first game, so that’s extra motivation as well. I also don’t like to lose, so I think my drive to win was definitely a good push.”
And the Buffs definitely needed it to finally put away the Vandals, who lost their opening game at Wyoming 86-53. Idaho scored Sunday’s first basket, but that 2-0 lead was the visiting team’s last advantage. That doesn’t mean CU went unchallenged the rest of the way; in fact, the Buffs’ first afternoon on the court was a wire-to-wire fight.
“It was definitely tighter than we thought it was going to be,” Brittany Wilson said. “I think you see what we’re saying about this team being so special now . . . you never think your first game is going to be so close, but it was. We were about to come together as a team; we fought until the end and ended up coming out on top.”
Lappe credited Idaho: “They came out and fought and kept coming at us, which was great. It was a great game for us to be in.”
Of the ten players Lappe used, nine scored; and nine of those ten players’ minutes were in double figures. Lappe cited off-the-bench contributions by Lexy Kresl, who drained three-pointers on two of CU’s first three second-half possessions, and Jen Reese, who scored six of her eight points during the first 10 minutes of the second half. Roberson also got half of her total during that span.
Lappe said Jeffery could be reinstated for CU’s trip to Missouri-Kansas City on Sunday, Nov. 18. Had Jeffery not been in the lineup last season against Idaho, the Buffs would have been in trouble. With the Vandals up 59-58 with just over 2 minutes remaining in that meeting, Jeffery went on a tear, scoring seven of her career-best 30 points to rescue the Buffs, 68-59.
But CU would have to do without Jeffery this time around – and her teammates coped well. Idaho’s Ali Forde scored the game’s first points, but the Vandals’ 2-0 lead – the last of the afternoon – was quickly erased by a Meagan Malcolm-Peck three-pointer. Roberson took over from there, scoring CU’s next six points. Malcolm-Peck and Brittany Wilson combined for 10 of the next 15 points as the Buffs built an 11-point (25-14) cushion.
The Vandals wouldn’t go away then or later. They used an 11-2 run to pull to 27-25, before baskets by Jasmine Sborov and Rachel Hargis gave the Buffs a 31-26 halftime lead.
CU ended the first half with 11 turnovers, a number that didn’t please Lappe. But in the second half, especially coming out of time outs, she said her team’s overall execution was better: “We did a much better job . . . of scoring or at least getting a shot out of a timeout and being a little bit more careful with the ball, which you could see in our turnovers.” CU cut its second-half turnovers to seven, finishing with 18.
Behind Kresl’s three-point shooting and Roberson’s inside work, the Buffs built a pair of eight-point leads in the first 6 minutes of the second half. Kresl pair of treys during that span marked her 19th career game with two or more three-pointers.
But the Vandals weren’t lacking for long-distance shooters. They got treys from Connie Ballestero, Christina Salvatore and Stacey Barr to creep to within four (43-39) with 14 minutes to play.
“We have seen it; we saw it last year a little bit,” Lappe said of Idaho’s long balls. “They have quick releases and get off shots fast.”
Thanks to Roberson, CU was able to temporarily pull away before Idaho could fashion its next run. She scored consecutive baskets to restore a double-digit Buffs lead (54-44), but the Vandals weren’t folding.
They closed to 56-50 on a conventional three-point play by Alyssa Charlston (team-best 16 points) and a trey by Krissy Karr, then to 56-52 on another basket by Charlston with just over 5:30 remaining. Another three-pointer by Karr less than 2 minutes later pulled Idaho to three back (58-55), but CU answered with one of two free throws by Roberson and an Ashley Wilson layup to go ahead 61-55.
The Vandals answered on three of four free throws by Charlston to cut their deficit to 61-60 with 3:04 remaining. Ashley Wilson responded with another layup for a 63-60 CU lead. After an Idaho miss and a CU rebound, Reese hit a pair of clutch foul shots to put the Buffs up 65-60 with 51.6 seconds to play, and Roberson followed by hitting one of two free throws 11 seconds later for a 66-60 CU advantage.
Idaho called timeout with 37.2 seconds remaining, then another with 22.5 showing after the Vandals couldn’t get off a shot. When they did, they missed, but a double foul was called. Brittany Wilson and Charlston each made their free throws (68-62), then Barr hit a long trey to draw the Vandals to within 68-65.
With 13.8 seconds left, Brittany Wilson’s pair of foul shots gave the Buffs their final five-point advantage.
“Win No. 1 is good to get; it feels good,” Lappe said. “It was great to play somebody else other than ourselves. We have a lot of things to work on but we’re happy where we’re at . . . we had a lot of different players step up in crucial situations, which was good to see.”
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