Posts tagged Rachel Hargis
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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Buffs Storm Past Arizona 55-42
Feb 16th
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
TUCSON, Ariz. – So far this season, the No. 21 Colorado women’s basketball team hasn’t been fazed by road competition. On Friday night at the McKale Center, the Buffaloes showed they can create their own energy wherever they go.
Led by sophomore forward Jen Reese’s 15 points, CU rolled to its fourth consecutive win, 55-42, over the Arizona Wildcats. It was the second meeting this season for the Pac-12 Conference opponents, as the Buffs also defeated the Wildcats 79-36 in Boulder in January.
Sophomore Jen Reese led CU with 15 points
CU improves to 19-5 overall and 8-5 in the conference. Arizona’s loss, meanwhile, was its eighth straight, dropping the Wildcats to 11-13, 3-10.
The Buffs outrebounded their opponents 40-35, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds compared to the Wildcats’ 9. Redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson’s picked up a game-high seven rebounds, while Reese and freshman forward Jamee Swan added six each.
In the game’s first five minutes, Arizona forced five turnovers but failed to capitalize offensively, allowing CU to stay even through the 12:42 mark (11-11). CU sophomore guard Jasmine Sborov then put together an “and-1” play which sparked a 14-0 Colorado run to put the Buffs up 25-13.
“We knew we had to take a run, and we just had to keep going,” Reese said. “Our defense goes into our offense, and after a while we got great shots, everyone was finding gaps in either zone or man – so we just kept knocking those down and playing defense.”
Sophomore guard Lexy Kresl’s trey with 4:33 remaining gave CU its largest lead of the first half at 30-15, but the Wildcats responded with an 8-0 run of their own to end the half down only seven (30-23).
Buffs coach Linda Lappe said that with a comfortable lead, her team lost some of its sense of urgency and started to allow the Wildcats uncontested shots.
“You want to make sure that when you have an opponent down, you keep a foot on the gas pedal and keep going,” Lappe said. “I thought there were times when we let up a little bit.”
But as the Buffs turned up the heat out of the locker room, the Wildcats went cold. CU went on a 10-0 run to start the second half, holding Arizona scoreless for more than six minutes.
Arizona senior guard Davellyn Whyte, the team’s leading scorer, put up her first three points of the game and Arizona’s first of the half at the 13:36 mark. While Whyte would score another three to bring the Wildcats to within nine, the gap would never get closer than that.
Colorado ended the game shooting just 37.3 percent from the field, but held Arizona to 32.6 percent. CU also scored 14 points off of turnovers compared to AU’s nine and got 30 points in the paint compared to AU’s 14.
Lappe said her team was prepared specifically to guard Whyte, a player who averages 16.4 points per game to rank fifth in the Pac-12.
“I thought it was a team defensive effort,” Lappe said. “We rotated a lot of different players on her, and I thought it was great to have somebody fresh on her. We know what she can do offensively.”
Junior guard Brittany Wilson opened guarding the standout, but senior guard Chucky Jeffery and junior center Rachel Hargis took turns on her as well.
“Whyte’s a great player,” Reese said. “Stopping her was big – I mean, they had other players kind of stepped up, but our defense won the game for us.”
CU committed 20 turnovers but also had 11 steals, marking the team’s fifth straight game with 10 or more steals.
Still, Lappe said that despite the strong defense, that 20-turnover total was inexcusable for a Top 25 team.
“I told our team we should never have 20 turnovers in February, and that has to become a part of our program’s culture,” Lappe said. “It hasn’t been in the past, we’ve been OK with it in the past, but this year needs to be different.”
CU seeks its fourth conference road win on Sunday at Arizona State (2 p.m. MST).
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CU Women’s Balance Keys Lopsided Win Against Oregon Ducks
Feb 10th
Story by Caryn Maconi, CUBuffs.com
BOULDER – Four players scored in double figures Sunday afternoon to lead the No. 21/25 Colorado women’s basketball team to an 84-59 Pac-12 Conference romp past Oregon at the Coors Events Center.
The 84-point total ties the highest point total of the season for the Buffs, as they scored 84 against New Mexico in non-conference play. It is the fourth time the Buffs have scored more than 80 this season and the first so far in Pac-12 play.
With the win, Colorado improves to 18-5 overall and 7-5 in the Pac-12. CU’s seven conference wins to date are more than the team recorded in total last season (6-12). The Buffs had not won seven or more conference matchups in a season since finishing the 2004 Big 12 schedule at 11-5.
Junior guard Brittany Wilson led CU with 16 points, while senior guard Chucky Jeffery added 15 points and 15 rebounds. Jeffery’s totals marked her 27th career double-double and just the fourth time she has recorded 15 of each.
“To be able to score just as much as you rebound, that’s pretty amazing,” sophomore guard Lexy Kresl said of Jeffery’s performance. Kresl and junior center Rachel Hargis added 12 points and 10, respectively, while four other players scored at least six.
Hargis said her team prepared specifically to face Oregon’s zone defense, something the Buffs haven’t seen much of from opponents this season.
“Coach talked to us about moving the ball well, just keeping it moving and not holding the ball as much,” Hargis said. “Playing a zone you don’t really expect to score that much inside, but coach kept talking to us about attacking and cutting to open areas, and that’s what I focused on.”
Colorado started the first half slow, allowing Oregon to go on a 10-3 run in the first 3:15 and record three blocks in the first five minutes.
“B-Will” played her best game against a PAC- 12 team
“I didn’t think we were being very aggressive, we were letting them score however they wanted to score with not very many passes,” said CU head coach Linda Lappe. “We didn’t look like we were ready for what they were bringing, so we just needed to take a deep breath and get back out there.”
Once the Buffs had regrouped and gotten a chance to assess Oregon’s top scorers, they made the necessary adjustments on defense to stop the Ducks’ streak.
“We recognized who was going to be scoring and who was going to be shooting,” Kresl said. “We definitely tried to pick up the pressure on them more and play them a little bit closer.”
Rachel Hargis played one of her best games this season–with 12 points and 10 rebounds
And with a more efficient defense came a ramped-up offense, as Jeffery and Wilson hit three consecutive three-pointers to regain a four-point lead with 13:40 left in the half.
Oregon didn’t give in easily and even briefly took the lead again with 7:45 on the clock. CU’s offense responded with force, though, outscoring Oregon 20-6 in the final 7:20 to enter intermission with a 43-31 advantage.
That momentum more than carried through halftime, as the Buffs went on an immediate 10-0 run to go up 20 (53-33). The Ducks were unable to recover, and with three minutes remaining a Hargis basket put the Buffs up 27 (80-53).
Colorado would maintain that energy until the final buzzer.
“It was a good game, we shared the ball a lot as a team, had 17 assists,” Wilson said. “We hit open shots, played great defense, so I think it was a team effort … I don’t think you could ask for anything more.”
Eleven Colorado players saw time on the court at some point Sunday, including freshman guard Kyleesha Weston and walk-on freshman guard Alexus Atchley. Atchley scored her first two career points in the last minute of the game.
“Anytime you can get players experience is important, especially young players,” Lappe said. “Especially when you play that tempo, you have to play ten players to stay fresh. We knew it was going to be a fast-paced game today, and everybody who came in just kept that pace going.”
CU shot 44.9 percent from the field, recording 17 assists and just 12 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Ducks were held to 38.6 percent from the field and recorded 21 turnovers.
Another highlight for the Colorado defense its steals, recording 16 compared to Oregon’s six. The Buffs have recorded 54 combined steals in the last four games, something Lappe credits to an increasing toughness on the defensive end.
“It is a lot of steals. It’s aggressiveness, it’s positioning, it’s understanding where you are supposed to be defensively and helping each other out,” Lappe said. “Defense is the bread and butter, and if we continue to do that we will be a really good team.”
The CU women hit the road once again next week, playing at Arizona on Friday (7 p.m., MST) and at Arizona State on Sunday (2 p.m., MST).
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