Posts tagged Rachel Hargis
Buffs Hold Off No. 8 Cardinals At The Wire
Dec 15th
BOULDER – The buildup was big, but Colorado’s effort was bigger. The CU women’s basketball team took on – and took down – No. 8 Louisville 70-66 on Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
But it wasn’t easy for the Buffaloes to remain unbeaten (9-0).
CU led by as many as 13 (64-51) in the final 3 minutes before Louisville’s full-court pressure sparked a 10-0 run and allowed the Cardinals to close to 68-66 in the final half-minute.
But Jen Reese scored on a critical put-back after two missed free throws by Brittany Wilson with 11.1 seconds remaining to give the Buffs their first win against a Top Ten opponent since the 2002 CU team defeated No. 5 Stanford in the NCAA’s Sweet 16. Buffs coach Linda Lappe was a junior on that squad.
The Buffs had four players in double figures, topped by Chucky Jeffery’s 22. Arielle Roberson added 13 and Reese and Wilson had 11 each. CU center Rachel Hargis contributed seven points and a career-high seven blocks.
Louisville (9-2) was led by Antonita Slaughter’s 19. Cardinals’ leading scorer Shoni Schimmel was held to four.
The Buffs are off until Saturday, Dec. 22 when they host Utah Valley (1:30 p.m.). They close non-conference play a week later against New Mexico (2:30 p.m., Coors Events Center).
Jeffery scored the game’s first basket to give CU a 2-0 lead, but the Buffs trailed for almost the next 10 minutes. The good news: They never let the Cardinals get more than a five-point lead before they made their move to go ahead on a 11-0 run that put them up 23-16.
Roberson scored five points during that spurt, with Jeffery and Lexy Kresl each adding a three-pointer.
Louisville closed the gap to three (23-20) before CU surged again, this time riding Jeffery’s five points and an inside basket by Rachel Hargis on the way to a 7-2 run that gave the Buffs their biggest early lead – 30-22.
Lappe liberally subbed her posts and it paid off. Hargis contributed her best half of the season, hitting three of four field goals, blocking a season-high three shots, collecting two rebounds and getting one steal.
She was on the receiving end of a Jeffery pass in the half’s closing seconds, scoring a layup that put the Buffs up 36-30 at intermission. Jeffery led all first-half scorers with 13 points and was the only player on either team in double figures.
The Buffs held the Cardinals to 39.1 percent from the field (9-for-23) and shut out Schimmel, who entered the game with a team-best 12.1 points a game. Mostly, the job of defending her fell to Brittany Wilson – and “B-Wil” stayed as close as fuzz on a peach.
Louisville entered the game with a plus-9.1 rebounding edge, but was out-boarded 19-12 in the first 20 minutes. CU forced the visitors into 10 first-half turnovers, but matched that total.
The Buffs started the last half in an offensive stupor, not getting their first points until Roberson hit a pair of free throws (38-34) with 15:36 remaining. She followed those with a basket in the lane to push CU ahead again by six (40-34).
But Monique Reid answered with a pair of quick inside buckets to cut the Buffs’ advantage to two (40-38). The Cardinals then pulled to within 41-40 on a bucket by Shawnta Dyer. But the Buffs temporarily held them at bay.
At the 10-minute mark, CU was up 48-43, but a three-pointer by Slaughter trimmed the lead to 48-46. The Buffs held that two-point advantage until Brittany Wilson hit both ends of a one-and-one to up CU’s lead to 50-46 with 7:18 to play.
The Cardinals weren’t done – and the Buffs weren’t even close. A pair of Slaughter free throws pulled them to 50-48 before Jen Reese banked in a short jumper for a 52-48 CU lead with 5:22 showing.
That started a 10-0 Buffs run that produced their biggest lead of the night — 60-49 – with 3:33 remaining.
Here’s how it happened: Jeffery followed with an acrobatic layup to make it 54-48 with just under 5 minutes left, Reese got another basket, and Kresl and Brittany Wilson scored on fast-break lay-ins. The Buffs were up by 11 points, the Cardinals were staggering and the CEC was rocking.
But Louisville’s 10-0 run and a frantic finish were on the way.
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CU Women Roll Past CSU Rams, Remain Unbeaten
Dec 6th
BOULDER – More challenging times are ahead for the Colorado women’s basketball team, but the Buffaloes appear to be steeling themselves for whatever comes their way.
Unbeaten CU (7-0) rolled past Colorado State 72-46 on Wednesday night in the first game of a women’s/men’s doubleheader at the Coors Events Center.
All things considered, it was a night for fun and frolic – but next week promises to bring the degree of difficulty to a higher level. The Buffs are off until Tuesday (7 p.m.) when they travel to the University of Denver (3-3), then host No. 8 Louisville (8-1) on Friday (7 p.m.) in their most significant challenge to date.
CU took command Wednesday night with an 18-4 first half run, led 37-17 at halftime and cruised past CSU (2-5) in the final 20 minutes. Buffs coach Linda Lappe used 12 players and nine of them scored, topped by Brittany Wilson’s 13. Jen Reese and Jamee Swan contributed 11 each and Arielle Roberson added 10. CU’s bench outscored CSU’s 33-5.
Momentum gained from the Buffs’ 69-62 comeback weekend win at Illinois obviously carried into mid-week. CU outrebounded CSU 59-26, outscored the visitors 30-18 in the paint and had 20 second-chance points to CSU’s two.
The Buffs, who won 64-55 last season in Fort Collins, trailed once in the first half (2-0), but thereafter took control and led by 20 (37-17) at intermission. Following that two-point deficit, CU surged past CSU the 18-4 over the next 7 minutes to take a 16-point advantage (22-6) and never slowed down.
During that spurt, Brittany Wilson scored eight of her 10 first-half points, while Reese added five. At the 11:45 mark, the Buffs were shooting 53.3 percent (8-for-15) from the field while holding the Rams to 21.4 percent (3-for-14).
After CU’s opening run to go ahead by 16, CSU never got closer than 11 points for the rest of the half. And the Buffs kept pouring it on, leading by 20 twice before the halftime buzzer.
Roberson, a three-time recipient of the Pac-12 Conference freshman of the week award in the season’s first four weeks, added eight points to the Buffs’ halftime total. She entered the game with an 18.5 average.
CU’s second-half goal likely was to not lose interest and allow a CSU run. Mission accomplished. A “B-Wil” three-pointer and a Rachel Hargis layup on a nice fast break assist from Chucky Jeffery fashioned a 25-point lead (42-17) before the second half was 2 minutes old.
Less than 8 minutes later, after treys on consecutive possessions by freshman Lauren Huggins, senior Meagan Malcom-Peck and another by Huggins, the Buffs had pushed ahead by 30 (61-31).
The second half was only half done, but it was time for the Rams to say goodnight.
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Colorado Women’s B-ball Team’s Front Court Dominates In 78-55 Win At UMKC
Nov 18th
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – One freshman forward started, one finished. No matter the order of appearance the recipe provided a winning combination for Colorado.
Arielle Roberson and Jamee Swan combined for 37 points on 71 percent shooting as Colorado defeated Missouri-Kansas City, 78-55, Sunday afternoon at the Swinney Recreation Center on the UMKC campus.
Colorado improved to 2-0, claiming its 15th straight win over nonconference regular season opponents dating back to 2010. UMKC drops to 2-2.
Swan, making her first career start, scored 10 of her 14 points in the first half to give the Buffaloes a good start. After picking up her third foul early in the second half, Roberson stepped in scoring 19 of her game-high 23 points in the last 20 minutes.
Roberson was 9-of-12 from the field, hit all five free throw attempts and grabbed six rebounds. Swan was 6-of-9 from the floor had three rebounds and an assist.
The freshman front court duo helped the Buffaloes dominate in the paint, outscoring the Kangaroos 42-14 inside.
“I give all the credit to my teammates,” Roberson said. “We knew coming out of the locker room we needed to push the ball and run more, really turn it up in the second half.
“I knew I had to bring defensive intensity and that led to offensive intensity for everybody.”
Roberson and Swan were the beneficiaries of a Colorado offense that picked apart the UMKC zone; putting on a passing clinic from all five positions. The Buffaloes had 17 assists on 32 made shots and overall shot 47 percent for the game.
That offense ran through forward Jen Reese and center Rachel Hargis. Playing in the high post, Reese and Hargis continually made the right pass, either finding Roberson and Swan on the low block or dishing out to continue through the guards.
Officially the two combined for six assists, but their initial reads led to plenty of good looks for the Buffaloes all afternoon.
Reese also had 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting with eight rebounds. Hargis made 3-of-4 field goals finishing with eight points.
“Our four post players, Arielle, Rachel, Jamee and Jen really dominated the game,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said. “They really understood what we were trying to do in our zone offense. I thought they did a fantastic job of being a presence on the inside.”
After Lauren Dudding put UMKC up with a 3-pointer on its initial possession, Colorado scored nine straight including two buckets from Swan.
UMKC briefly retook the lead with a 7-0 run of its own for a 10-9 advantage six minutes in. Roberson and Swan had back-to-back scores to put CU up for good.
The Kangaroos kept CU close early. Eilise O’Connor scored eight of her 10 points in the first half as UMKC pulled to within two at 18-16, but then the Buffaloes went to work. Colorado scored on five of its next six possessions during an 11-0 run to take a 29-16 lead. Hargis had a three point play and Roberson and Reese each scored on put-backs off CU misses.
“The start was important, we really needed that to kick-start our momentum,” Swan said. “Starting off great helps us finish great.”
Offensive rebounding was key for the Buffaloes, grabbing 19 which led to 22 second chance points. Overall Colorado enjoyed a 44-29 advantage on the boards.
“Offensive rebounding was a huge improvement (from the season opener),” Lappe said. “We crashed the glass against the zone and got a lot of put-backs. The effort on the offensive glass was fantastic.
Colorado led by nine at the half (36-27). UMKC’s Kim Nezianya quickly converted conventional 3-point play to cut the CU lead to six, and also gave Swan her third foul. From there Roberson shined.
The San Antonio native scored 14 points in the first six minutes of the half as the Buffaloes began to pull away. She scored six in a row as CU rebuilt a double-digit lead at 46-35. After a pair of Hailey Houser free throws, CU put the game away with a 13-0 run. Following a Reese jumper and a transition layup from Lexy Kresl, Roberson scored the next seven as the Buffaloes won their fifth straight nonconference regular season game away from Boulder.
Nezianya led UMKC with 17 points and eight rebounds.
Colorado returns home to host the 26th annual Omni Hotels Classic Nov. 23-24 at the Coors Events Center. The tournament starts with Auburn vs. San Diego State on Friday, Nov. 23, at 5 p.m. followed by Colorado and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday the consolation game will be played at 5 p.m. followed by the championship at 7:30 p.m.
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