Posts tagged Rachel Hargis
“Big Dance” jitters end CU women’s tourney bid
Mar 24th
Chucky Jeffery is one of the best players in CU history and a first round loss won’t diminish the fact.
But scoring the fifth fewest points of the season while allowing the second most was not a formula for success for the Colorado women’s basketball team, as five Kansas players scored in double figures to lead the Jayhawks to a 67-52 upset over the host Buffaloes in an NCAA Women’s Tournament first round game here Saturday.
Seniors Carolyn Davis and Angel Goodrich led the scored 14 points apiece for Kansas (19-13, the 12th seed in the Norfolk Region), which basically limped into the tournament after losing six of its last eight games (and 11 of 18). But the Jayhawks, after falling behind by 10 early, played the like the team that opened the year with seven straight wins on their way to an 11-2 start.
Colorado (25-7, seeded No. 5), was playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade, but had to make a go of it without starting center Rachel Hargis, who suffered a knee injury in practice a week ago Friday. It’s safe to say CU missed the junior’s 6-foot-4 presence inside, not only her rebounding but her ability to alter shots.
Colorado started out 6-of-7 from the field in building an early 14-4 edge, but then went cold the rest of the way in the first half (5-of-27) and missed its first seven shots of the second half before a Brittany Wilson layup at 14:02 ended the drought. Meanwhile, KU shot 50 percent in the first half (15-of-30), closing with 11 makes in 18 tries; the Jayhawks made 5-of-6 to open the second for a 16-of-24 performance while turning a 15-9 deficit into a 49-29 lead, the first of two 20-point advantages it had in the game (the other coming at 56-36).
It all added up to a whopping 45-15 comeback after Colorado recorded that early lead.
If the Buffaloes were going to get back in it, they needed a quick start in the second half. But the Jayhawks were not to be denied, scoring the first six points to extend their 10-point intermission lead to 43-27. The margin hovered between 14 points, the closest the Buffs would get on three different occasions, and 18 the remainder of the game.
Kansas opened the scoring on a Davis layup but then Colorado went on a 14-2 run in just over a two minute span, fueled by eight points, including a pair of 3-point baskets, by junior Brittany Wilson. The Jayhawks slowly worked their way back into the game, pulling to within 15-13 on consecutive scores by Monica Engelman at the 11:19 mark. A three-pointer by Lexy Kresl and a layup from Chuck Jeffery put the Buffs back up by seven, 20-13 with 9:12 left in the half.
KU then matched and actually exceeded CU’s early run with one of its own, using a 17-3 spree over the next five-plus minutes to take a 30-23 lead, with Davis and Chelsea Gardner each contributing six points. Davis had 10 points in the half, which ended with a Charlicia Harper three-point shot to give the Jayhawks a 37-27 lead.
“We came out and it was rainin’ in here, and then after a while we couldn’t hit anything,” Wilson said. “I mean, we had open shots, I just think … I don’t really know what happened. Then there were open shots, and we kept saying, ‘just step into it and take another shot.’ I don’t know if it was nervousness, I don’t know what it was, but after a while we just couldn’t hit anything.”
Colorado finished just 16-of-63 from the field, the 25.4 shooting percentage easily its worst of the season. The Buffs came into the game hitting at 39.9 percent, while Kansas was allowing its opponents to click at just 41.1 percent. The Jayhawks converted 46 percent of its tries; otherwise, the only other decided statistical advantages belong to Kansas in assists (16-8) and to Colorado in steals (13-5) and free throw attempts (25-6).
It was just the ninth time in 32 games that the Buffaloes trailed at halftime, and only Stanford had a larger lead at intermission over CU than the Jayhawks; the Cardinal, ranked fourth at the time, led 31-14 en route to a 57-40 win in Boulder back on January 4. In addition, Kansas tied CU on the boards with 42, just the seventh time this year the Buffs did not hold the edge in rebounding; Colorado was 0-5 when getting outrebounded and 1-1 when matched.
Arielle Roberson recorded a double-double for Colorado, scoring 11 points and grabbing 12 rebounds; Wilson tied her for the team scoring lead, also netting 11. Jeffery struggled in her final appearance in a CU uniform, scoring just eight points on 2-of-16 field goal shooting, but did have five rebounds, five assists and two steals.
“It’s very disappointing,” Jeffery said of ending the season this way. “We didn’t want it to end this early. It’s kind of sad being my last game, but I wouldn’t have gone through the season with any other team.”
Jeffery finished her career ranked high on several of CU’s all-time charts, including scoring (1,644 points, sixth), rebounds (921, fifth), assists (481, fourth) and steals (283, fourth). She finished with the fifth most double-doubles (30) and had at least one assist in her last 74 games (and in 123 of 125 for her career).
“No one expected us to be here right now,” Wilson added. “But you know I think that’s a great thing. Chucky has her legacy here, and Megan has her legacy here, and I think we sent them out in a great way. I’m disappointed to lose, and of course no one thought we’d end this early. But we had a great year, and no one expected us to do the things that we’ve done. But when we look back, and once the sting of this is over we’ll be ready to come back.”
Kansas will meet South Carolina Monday night for the right to advance to the Norfolk Regional next weekend; tipoff at the Coors Events Center is 7:30 p.m.
South Carolina Advances With 74-52 Win Over South Dakota State
BOULDER — Seniors Ashley Bruner and Ieasia Walker each scored 15 points to pace four Gamecock players in double figures to lead South Carolina over South Dakota State, 74-52, in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament here Saturday afternoon.
South Carolina, ranked No. 14 in the nation by the coaches and No. 17 by the Associated Press, pulled away from the Jackrabbits midway through the first half. The score was tied six times and there were eight lead changes, with South Dakota State taking its last lead at 14-13 with 12:02 to play; it remained within two, 21-19, at the 9:34 mark but that’s when the Gamecocks found their stride.
Six different South Carolina players contributed in a 21-4 run over the six minutes that broke the game open, with Tiffany Mitchell scoring five and Walker four to give USC a 40-23 lead; the Gamecocks, seeded No. 4 in the Norfolk Regional, led 44-26 at halftime. South Carolina shot 61 percent in the first half, including 7-of-9 shots in the decisive run.
South Dakota State (25-8, the No. 13 seed) made a couple of mini-runs in the second half, but would get no closer than 15. Senior Ashley Eide led the Jackrabbits with 15 points, the only SDSU player in double figures, with sophomore Gabby Boever adding nine.
Bruner had a double-double, as she collected 11 rebounds for the Gamecocks (25-7), who owned a 40-28 advantage on the boards; she also had a game-high four steals. Elem Ibian scored 13 points off the bench and Mitchell had 11, as no South Carolina starter played over 29 minutes.
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CU women fall to Stanford
Mar 10th
Story by B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor, CUBuffs.com
The usual script for the CU women is to struggle in the first half and come back in the second to win. Stanford reversed the script Saturday night.
For just over a half Saturday night, the Colorado Buffaloes showed they could stay with powerful Stanford. Staying with Chiney Ogwumike and remaining in touch with their game proved to be much more difficult for the Buffs.
Behind Ogwumike’s 25 points and 19 rebounds, the top-seeded Cardinal finally pulled away from the fourth-seeded Buffs for a 61-47 win and advanced to Sunday’s Pac-12 Conference Tournament championship game at KeyArena.
The fourth-ranked Cardinal (30-2) plays No. 3 seed UCLA (25-6), which upset No. 5 seed California 70-58 in Saturday night’s first semifinal.
“I’m proud of how we played; we played hard the whole game,” CU coach Linda Lappe said. “I liked how intense we were for about 30 minutes and then I thought our missed shots began to affect our demeanor . . .
“Stanford is a good team for a reason; they execute when they need to execute. We’ve got to understand that teams that are good are going to make runs and not beat themselves. We have to go get it. As you get in the NCAA Tournament you understand it’s one-and-done . . . I have no doubt we’ll be ready to go.”
Losing for the first time in 11 games, the No. 18 Buffs (25-6) now will wait until Selection Sunday to see their NCAA future – and it should be bright. CU hosts first- and second-round NCAA Women’s Tournament games at the Coors Events Center on March 23-25. Chances appear good that the Buffs will open the tournament on their home court.
The Buffs held a 28-27 halftime lead Saturday night, with their defense to thank. The Cardinal shot just 28.1 percent (9-for-32) in the first 20 minutes, and had it not been for Ogwumike, Stanford would have been deep in the woods with no way out.
The 6-4 junior was scoreless for the game’s first nine minutes, but once she got going, the Buffs had a hard time handling her.
“She’s good . . . a tough load in there,” Lappe said. “She plays a lot of minutes, she’s fit, strong and has a good skill set. I thought we made her work for everything she got – that was one of our goals. I thought in the end her rebounding hurt more than anything else.”
Lappe was right about the Buffs making Ogwumike work for her points. In her 39 minutes, Ogwumike hit just nine of her 24 field goal attempts but was 7-for-10 from the free throw line. The Cardinal attempted 29 free throws, making 22, while the Buffs only attempted four, making three of those.
Over the first half’s last 11 minutes Ogwumike scored 14 of the Cardinal’s 18 points. And by halftime she had a double-double, collecting 10 of Stanford’s 21 first-half rebounds. The Cardinal won the board battle 43-37. Stanford also outscored CU 26-16 in the paint and got 18 points off of the Buffs’ 15 turnovers. The Cardinal committed 10, resulting in 13 Buffs points.
Stanford, said CU senior Chucky Jeffery, “started getting the ball into Chiney and started knocking down shots . . . we weren’t making shots and that got us in a little slump. We couldn’t sustain anything and couldn’t get on a run to answer. Bottom line is we couldn’t knock down our shots.”
CU junior post Rachel Hargis opened on Ogwumike and was doing a credible job until picking up her second foul. The defensive chore then went to, among others, redshirt freshman Arielle Roberson and true freshman Jamee Swan.
“She’s a really good player, very strong, physical and active,” Roberson said. “We managed and held our own for a time.”
During that time, the Buffs needed to be more efficient offensively, but couldn’t. “Defensively we were outstanding,” Lappe said. “Without the last few minutes there we held them to about 55 points (it was 55-42 with about six minutes remaining). And when you hold Stanford to 55 points you have to win. We missed a lot of good shots, we took good shots, but we didn’t knock them down. You can only hold them for so long before they start to build that gap.”
With a team-high 19 points, Jeffery moved into sixth place on the school’s career scoring list. Roberson added 10 points and eight rebounds, and junior Brittany Wilson added contributed six points, three of them on the 100th three-pointer of her career.
If the Buffs were leading by only a point at halftime, they believed they were sending a larger message. At halftime of their first meeting in Boulder, CU trailed by 17. Three weeks later at Stanford, the Buffs trailed by nine at the break.
The Buffs went on to lose both games by double figures, so Saturday night they measured major progress at halftime with a single digit. Lappe liked her team’s first-half effort, but added, “We’re not into moral victories; we’re not happy that we were ahead at halftime. We wanted to win the game.”
CU got a three-pointer by Lexy Kresl to open the second half and took a 31-27 lead. But Stanford caught up quickly at 36-36 and just kept going. The Cardinal got a conventional three-point play from Amber Orrange, a Sara James trey and two free throws by Ogwumike to take a 41-36 lead with 13:05 to play.
It was the largest lead of the night by either team and in a bump-and-grind game like this it looked even larger. And it grew.
After two empty Buffs possessions, a pair of baskets by Mikaela Ruef completed a 9-0 run and opened a nine-point (45-36) Stanford lead. With 10:38 remaining, CU needed a timeout, and if the Buffs weren’t fully on the ropes, reaching out to them was no problem.
Stanford took its first double-figure lead (49-38) on a pair of Ogwumike free throws, then she added two more points with a steal and layup with just over nine minutes to play. The Cardinal increased its advantage to as many as 15 in the final three minutes.
“We competed well for a huge portion of the game,” Lappe said. “We stopped defending a little and that’s when they went on their run. We have to learn how to score and step up against good teams when they make a run.”
Jeffery said the first half and the early portion of the second 20 minutes showed the Buffs that, “We’ve got a lot of fight in us, we showed a lot of resilience in that first half. To hold the No. 4 team in the nation to that type of half was good for our team. We know what it takes and we know we have to take that extra step and put a 40-minute game together.”
The 14-point loss, she added, “doesn’t take away from our confidence . . . we’re not down. We just have to regroup for the NCAA Tournament.”
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Roberson Named Freshman of the Year in Pac-12
Mar 5th
Chucky Jeffery, Jen Reese, Brittany Wilson, Rachel Hargis also earned all-league honors
Senior guard Chucky Jeffery earned All-Pac-12 honors for the second consecutive season while junior guard Brittany Wilson was named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team. Roberson was also named to the five-member All-Freshman team.
Sophomore forward Jen Reese and Roberson earned honorable mention to the All-Pac-12 team. Contributing to one of the top defenses in the Pac-12, Jeffery, Roberson and junior center Rachel Hargis all received honorable mention to the All-Defensive Team.
Roberson, a 6-foot-1-inch forward from San Antonio, is a five-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week this season, winning that award more than any other peer in the league. She is second on the team and ranks 15th in the Pac-12 in scoring at 12.4 points per game. She tops the Buffaloes in free-throws made and attempted (92-of-136) and is second in rebounding at 5.8 per outing. Roberson is one of the league’s better offensive rebounders with a team-best 86, ranking seventh on the league charts.
Roberson’s Freshman of the Year honor is the first of its kind for the Buffaloes in any conference. However, CU had four Big Eight Conference Newcomer of the Year winners, two of which were upperclassmen and two freshmen (Bridget Turner, 1986; Shelley Sheetz, 1992).
Jeffery, a 5-10 guard from Colorado Springs, Colo., leads Colorado in scoring (13.6 ppg), assists (4.0 apg), rebounds (8.6 rpg) and steals (2.3 spg). Jeffery has 10 double-doubles on the season, eight of which have come during conference play. She is prominent on the Pac-12 leaderboard ranking fifth in steals, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio (1.3), overall rebounding and defensive rebounds (6.6 drpg), 10th in scoring and 13th in free-throw percentage (.707).
Jeffery is the fifth Colorado player to win multiple all-conference first-team honors. Lisa Van Goor (Intermountain and Big Eight) and Shelley Sheetz (Big Eight) each won three while Tera Bjorklund and Jackie McFarland both won two (Big 12). She is also a two-time Media All-Pac-12 pick.
Wilson, a 5-7 guard from Long Beach, Calif., anchors one of the Pac-12’s best defenses, which is on pace to smash team records for scoring and field-goal percentage defense. She consistently draws the other team’s best back court player and has repeatedly held her opponent well below their season averages. Wilson has 42 steals on the season, helping a CU defense that averages 10 per game, ranking second in the Pac-12. The Buffaloes also rank second in the Pac-12 in scoring defense (53.7 ppg) and third in field-goal percentage defense (.348).
Reese, a 6-2 sophomore, from Clackamas, Ore., is one of the Pac-12’s top bench players averaging 8.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, both figures ranking third on the team. She was an honorable mention to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team in 2012. Hargis, a 6-4 junior from Robinson, Texas, tops Colorado and ranks 12th in the Pac-12 in blocked shots at 1.1 per contest. She also has a career season-best 25 steals.
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