Posts tagged seniors
WBB: Buffs take it to wire, but lose
Mar 2nd
Release: March 02, 2014
By: B.G. Brooks, Contributing Editor
BOULDER – The Colorado women’s basketball team had won its two previous games by going into second-half survival mode, locking down Arizona and UCLA in the last 20 minutes. Twice was nice, but the magic finally fizzled Sunday afternoon against Southern California.
Gritty CU erased a 12-point halftime deficit, even took a one-point lead in the last 2 minutes, but couldn’t close out USC in a 66-59 Pac-12 Conference loss at the Coors Events Center. A 55-45 win in January’s league opener gave the Trojans a series sweep.
Needing a full 40-minute effort to send out seniors Rachel Hargis and the Wilson twins – Ashley and Brittany – on a celebratory note, the Buffaloes’ focus was sporadic in the first half and they couldn’t fully compensate for it in the second.
CU (16-13, 6-12) trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and nine midway through the second before catching USC (18-12, 11-7) at 56-56 and going ahead 59-58 on an “and-one” by Brittany Wilson with 1:22 remaining.
But the Trojans scored the game’s last eight points – six of them by junior guard Ariya Crook, a former high school teammate of the Wilsons. Crook hit a layup and went four-of-four from the free throw line in the final 56 seconds, finishing with a game-high 18 points.
“You would think at this point in the season with every game meaning something, there would be a lot of focus throughout the game,” CU coach Linda Lappe said, noting her team was “all over the place” mentally in the first half. “For us, the free throw line is something you can look at and see really quickly if we’re focused. When we’re focused, we knock down free throws 70-80 percent of the time. When we’re not, we shoot about 30-45 percent from the line.”
That was one of Sunday’s trouble spots for CU. Although they hit eight more field goals than the Trojans (25-17), that advantage was blunted by the Buffs’ dismal 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) from the free throw line. CU also missed all nine of its 3-point attempts, but had decided edges in points in the paint (40-12), second-chance points (10-3) and bench points (24-17).
Yet falling behind by 14 early, catching up, then falling back late by nine took its toll in spent energy. “You can’t spot a good team 12 points,” said Lappe. “Ultimately we ran out of gas at the end as well as time . . . I thought we came out ready, but it lasted about five minutes, and then we kind of sputtered through the rest of the first half. We turned the ball over too much (20 times) and missed some easy shots.”
Brittany Wilson, who scored a team-best 15 points, said playing catch up for most of the afternoon was a grueling exercise for the Buffs: “I felt it. We were tired, but we were going to fight, and that’s one thing that we’ve done all year. It is hard coming back from a 12-point deficit, but we all knew we could do it, so I thought we did a great job believing that and we gave a great fight at the end.”
CU had held its past two opponents to a combined five field goals in the second half of each game, allowing 22 total points to Arizona and UCLA in winning both games. After watching the Trojans shoot 47.6 percent (10-of-21) in Sunday’s first half, the Buffs tightened up their ‘D’ again in the second half, limiting USC to 25.9 percent (7-of-27).
But the talented Trojans were better down the stretch than either the Wildcats or Bruins, even with senior forward Cassie Harberts (14 points) contending with four fouls.
In addition to Brittany Wilson’s 15 points, Ashley Wilson, freshman Zoe Beard-Fails and sophomore Jamee Swan added 10 each. Hargis scored six, including a foul-line jumper that brought the Buffs to within 56-54 with 3:39 to play.
“It’s funny because at the game on Friday, I passed up that same shot, and this time, I just caught it right in rhythm,” Hargis said. “I actually heard Ashley scream my name, but I was already into the shot, so I just took it and it bounced around. I was ready to grab it if it was coming out, but it rolled it in, so I was glad.”
The Buffs were without junior forward Jen Reese on Sunday and will be for this week’s Pac-12 Conference Tournament and any further postseason play. Reese, averaging 12 points and 5.8 rebounds a game, suffered a broken bone in her left shoulder near the conclusion of the first half in Friday night’s 62-42 win against UCLA. The Buffs, seeded No. 9, and the Bruins, seeded No. 8, play again in Thursday’s Pac-12 opening round in Seattle (1 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Network, KKZN AM 760)
CU stayed close for the first 41/2 minutes Sunday, but after a 10-10 tie USC put together an 18-4 run and took a 14-point lead (28-14) that the Buffs could reduce by only two (34-22) at intermission. If the Buffs were to extend their winning streak to three games, another defensive lock down would be needed in the second half. An upturn on offense might help, too.
CU got both, holding USC without a field goal in the first 6:00 and outscoring the Trojans 14-2 to tie the score at 36-36 on a put-back by Beard-Fails. Brittany Wilson contributed six of the 14 points in CU’s early second-half run.
USC quickly went back in front by nine (47-38) but CU cut into that deficit with two Brittany Wilson free throws, a layup by Swan on a nice feed from Arielle Roberson, then two Swan foul shots, pulling to 49-44 with 8:48 remaining. But a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Desiree Bradley gave USC a 52-44 lead.
The Trojans maintained an eight- or six-point edge until Ashley Wilson hit a layup and Hargis added her foul-line jumper after Wilson’s missed free throw, cutting USC’s lead to 56-54. Swan’s up-and-under layup tied the score at 56-56 with 2:38 left.
Harberts broke the tie (58-56) with two free throws, but Brittany Wilson converted a conventional three-point play with a layup and a foul shot, giving CU a 59-58 lead with 1:21 to play. Unfortunately for the Buffs, the three points by “B-Wil” would be their last of the regular season.
Although CU closed the regular season by winning two of its last three, Lappe said defeating USC would have generated even more momentum for the Pac-12 Tournament. “I thought we had great momentum after the second half against Arizona, and we took that into UCLA, but then tonight we just didn’t have enough,” she said. “Are we getting better? Yes, we’re still getting better. Are we there yet? No. The good thing about this time of the year, and why they call it March Madness, is that anything can happen.”
Still, Hargis said the wins against Arizona and UCLA and Sunday’s refusal to roll over created “some more positive energy going into the tournament. Before, we were kind of down and didn’t know what we could do. We know now that we can be a great team. We just have to buckle down, focus and play the whole 40 minutes, not start off so badly and we just really have to work hard in practice this week to be ready to go Thursday.”
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Thousands of Boulder Social Security seniors are discriminated by rich
Feb 27th
http://youtu.be/vs1XwRkka_E
The rich in Boulder secretly despise the poor. They hate the old. They hate the disabled. They don’t want them to survive nor eat. The old and the poor just don’t fit into Boulder. When you see the Walmart protesters they are always white privileged educated and rich.
Walmart serves a need in Boulder. It sells groceries at 1/3 of Whole foods prices. Walmart serves the poor.
CU’s moment in the spotlight wasn’t very bright
Feb 23rd
Coach Boyle: “We deserved what we got.”
BOULDER – Arizona started fast and finished faster Saturday night at the Coors Events Center, spoiling Colorado’s Senior Night and a day of ESPN College GameDay hoopla with an 88-61 romp past the Buffaloes.
It was CU’s worst home loss of the four-year Tad Boyle era, surpassing a 74-50 defeat by Stanford in 2012, and only the second Buffs loss in 18 games this season at the CEC.
It also was a night of firsts for the No. 4 Wildcats, who won for the first time in Boulder since 1973 and swept CU for the first time since the Buffs became members of the Pac-12 Conference in 2011. Arizona (25-2, 12-2) now is 3-0 in its last three meetings with CU (20-8, 9-6).
“It was a disappointing performance by our team and I have to look square in the mirror on that,” Boyle said. “As their coach, I didn’t do a very good job tonight.”
The Buffs go on the road for their final three regular-season games, traveling to Utah on Saturday, then wrapping up at Stanford (Wednesday, March 5) and California (Saturday, March 8). The Pac-12 Tournament is March 12-15 in Las Vegas, and Boyle might need that long to digest this weekend’s letdown.
After crediting Arizona for its performance, he reflected on the magnitude of the night and the depth of the disappointment. The Wildcats, he said, “whipped us in every which way you can whip a team . . . our fans were so ready for this game, this win; we gave them nothing. That’s a sick feeling to go home and live with. I don’t know what to say.
“I haven’t been embarrassed many times as a coach, but I was embarrassed by the way my team played . . . we have to own it and accept it. The pit in my stomach has more to do with our fans and seniors. They deserve more (but) we deserve what we got tonight.”
CU has but two seniors – center Ben Mills and guard Beau Gamble. Mills made his first career start, played 7 minutes total and closed out the Buffs’ scoring with the first trey of his career. Gamble made his first appearance of the night in the final 3 minutes, entering the game with the Wildcats leading 78-53.
After trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half, CU cut Arizona’s lead to 31-26 at the half and to 37-33 early in the second half. But the talented Wildcats answered with a 14-6 run that put them ahead 51-39 and effectively put the game away with just over 12 minutes remaining..
Arizona came to Boulder as the Pac-12’s top defensive team, allowing just 57.6 points a game. But the Wildcats put on an offensive clinic in Saturday night’s second half, shooting an uncanny 84.6 percent (22-for-26) to end any thought of a Buffs comeback on an eagerly awaited day and night for them and their fans.
“Colorado’s a good team,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “We knew we weren’t going to run away with it that early, our offense really kicked into another gear in the second half.”
But, said Boyle, the Wildcats “were struggling to score coming in here.” And when the Buffs cut the deficit to four early in the second half, “You have to have a mindset to dig in and get stops. We didn’t do that.”
The Buffs also had their offensive problems, but the nasty Wildcats’ defense was to blame for many of those. “I can’t emphasize how good they are defensively; there are 11 other teams in the Pac-12 and then there’s Arizona,” Boyle said. “It’s not even close (on the defensive end). Our frustrations on offense led to a dunk-fest.”
Boyle said his team lacked patience offensively, pointing to a manageable nine turnovers as evidence that the Buffs rushed their shots: “We shot the ball so darn quick that we didn’t have a chance to turn it over. We took such bad shots and quickly, that it was like a turnover and they were able to get out in transition.”
Josh Scott (18 points) and Askia Booker (10) were the only two CU players in double figures while three Arizona players – led by freshman Aaron Gordon’s 23 – reached double digits. Nick Johnson added 20 and Kaleb Tarczewski had 13.
The Pac-12’s top defensive and rebounding team held CU to a season-low 32 percent shooting from the field (17-of-52) and out-boarded the Buffs 38-30. The Wildcats, meanwhile, finished at 60 percent from the field (35-of-58), including their incredible four-miss second half.
After falling behind 18-4 in their 69-57 loss at Arizona last month, the Buffs wanted no part of a sluggish beginning Saturday night. It happened anyway. There weren’t many ways the Buffs’ start could have been any worse.
Missing its first 15 field goal attempts and four of its first seven free throw attempts, CU fell behind 22-5 before freshman Jaron Hopkins hit a 3-pointer with 9:49 left before intermission for the Buffs’ first field goal. It was CU second-longest field goal drought of the season, following a 14:36 span last month in – where else? – Tucson.
But Hopkins’ trey from the left wing launched a 13-4 run that brought CU to within five points (26-21) with 4:39 left in the half. The Wildcats responded with four straight points and went ahead 30-21 before Booker got his first points of the night on a 12-foot jumper 2 seconds before the break.
That brought CU to within 31-25 – and given the way most of the half unfolded, a six-point deficit might have been a blessing.
Booker, who had averaged 19.6 points in his last five games, said the Buffs “got ourselves back into the game – we were down six at half, and that’s not a bad spot to be . . . but we just gave it away in the second half.”
Booker finished the half 1-for-8, Xavier Johnson 0-for-4. The Buffs’ 22.2 percent first-half shooting was their second worst of the season. For the night, Booker was 4-for-14 and Johnson 1-for-10 with five points.
“I think we got a little jump shot happy but I think that’s a credit to (Arizona),” Scott said. “I think we turned over the ball a couple times at some key points in the game and it’s mainly because they pack the paint, so that you’re pretty much there to take those shots. We should have attacked that more.”
Obviously needing a more efficient second-half start, the Buffs got it on a baseline jumper by Scott to pull to 31-27 – the closest they’d been since trailing 5-1. CU and Arizona traded baskets until Gordon hit back-to-back baskets – one a 3-pointer – to push the Wildcats ahead 42-33.
When Gordon hit his trey from the left corner, “I said here we go,” noted Boyle. “That’s not his game.”
But Arizona was about to find its trey touch – and more. Consecutive long balls by Johnson and Gabe York push the Wildcats back to a double-digit lead – 49-39 – then to 51-39 on a shorter Johnson jumper half a minute later. The Wildcats were 6-for-9 (66.7 percent) from beyond the arc in the second half and 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) for the game.
Getting stops was becoming a CU problem, and it was beginning to be compounded by the clock. If the Buffs had another rally in them, it needed to happen – and fast. It was nowhere to be found.
A 13-4 run, capped by a Tarczewski dunk, produced a 21-point Arizona lead (64-43) with 9:16 to play that went to 23 points (66-43) on a pair of Johnson free throws at the 7:50 mark. The Wildcats led by as many as 30 before the final buzzer, the Buffs never led.
Booker said the Buffs “didn’t have the most energy,” but didn’t blame that on any possible distraction from ESPN’s basketball GameDay crew being in Boulder for the first time.
“We’re used to all the cameras being here and all these people setting up their stuff,” he said. “It’s not like we’re doing interviews at half time or right before the game. We barely knew they were here, and yeah, we knew they were preparing but it has nothing to do once we step on the court and the ball goes up. It’s not an excuse.”