Posts tagged UCLA
With Dinwiddie injured, Huskies trounce Buffs
Jan 12th
By Alex Kaufman, CU Sports Information
SEATTLE – The Colorado Buffaloes suffered their first Pac-12 Conference defeat on Sunday afternoon – 71-54 to Washington – but they left for Boulder hoping they hadn’t absorbed a larger loss.
The No. 15 Buffs (14-3, 3-1) appeared to dictate the pace for much of the first half at Alaska Airlines Arena, leading by as many as seven points. But they struggled to find a rhythm after losing junior guard Spencer Dinwiddie to a knee injury with 2:51 left in the half.
Spencer Dinwiddie injured, possibly out for season
Dinwiddie finished with 7 points and 1 assist in 15 minutes. Speaking with reporters after the game, CU coach Tad Boyle expressed concern over the injury to CU’s leading scorer.
“My gut says it’s not good, but we’ll see,” Boyle said. “If he’s out, he’s out. I feel so bad for the kid because he’s worked so hard, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
CU, still off to its best start since the 2005-06 season, had no answer for UW’s C.J. Wilcox. He finished with a game and career-high 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting and was deadly from downtown. The senior guard hit seven three-pointers, including five in the second half, to put the game out of reach.
“Every time he shoots it, you think it’s going in,” Boyle said. “He’s got such a good stroke a good release and he gets it off quickly. A guy who plays without the ball like that is pretty special.”
Colorado committed a season-high 20 turnovers and shot just 1-for-12 (.083) from beyond the arc. Josh Scott, who has now scored in double figures in eight consecutive games, paced the Buffs with 15 points.
“The second half, boy we shot ourselves in the foot. You turn the ball over 20 times against a good team and you’ve got six assists, it’s just a recipe for disaster,” Boyle said. “They’re a good team and they’ve got good players and they’re playing well right now.”
Wesley Gordon, who finished with a season-high 13 rebounds and 11 points, collected 11 boards in the first half en route to posting his first career double-double.
Washington stormed out in the second half with a pair of early three-pointers by Wilcox and Andrew Andrews to erase a four-point halftime deficit, and the Huskies never looked back. They shot a blistering 66.7 percent from the field in the second period (16-of-24), including 70 percent (7-10) from beyond the arc, and capitalized on a number of second-half miscues by the Buffs. CU coughed the ball up 11 times in the second half, which led to 21 Husky points.
Scott’s play was a bright spot for the Buffs in the second half. After a relatively quiet first half, the sophomore forward exploded for 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting and connected on all 7 attempts from the free throw line.
CU returns to the Coors Events Center next week to play UCLA and USC. The Buffaloes tip off against the Bruins Thursday at 6 p.m. before playing the Trojans at noon Saturday.
CU WBB get’s out of California 1-1
Jan 6th
http://www.cubuffs.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=3152882
LOS ANGELES – No. 12/14 Colorado erased a late nine-point second half deficit to edge UCLA, 61-59, Sunday night at Pauley Pavilion.
Jen Reese scored 15 points and Jamee Swanhad nine points and nine rebounds giving the Buffaloes (11-1, 1-1 Pac-12) a conference opening-weekend road split of the Southern California schools.
Trailing 52-43 with 6 minutes, 20 seconds left, the Buffaloes clamped down on defense and held the Bruins scoreless for the next 4:06 as CU embarked on a 10-0 run.
Jenn Reese, who scored 15 points, has become a mainstay in CU’s offense
Reese started the run off with a made free throw. She missed the second but Swan corralled the layup and scored to cut the Bruins lead to six.
UCLA (7-8, 1-2) missed three straight shots and had a couple of turnovers as the Buffaloes whittled the lead down to 52-48 with 4:09 left on a pair of Ashley Wilson free throws.
After two more defensive stops, Arielle Roberson drilled a long two-pointer at the top of the key at the 2:53 mark.
Jamee Swan had nine points and nine rebounds. This photo was taken in high school
On the next possession, Brittany Wilson tied up Thea Lemberger with the arrow in the Buffs favor.
Brittany Wilson was fouled and hit one of two free throws to cut the UCLA lead to one at 52-51. She missed the second one, but the scramble for the ball fell out of bounds in CU’s favor. Wilson then drove the lane and scored on a layup in traffic as CU regained the lead at 53-52 with 2:32 left.
UCLA’s Luliana Livulo hit a couple of free throws at 2:14 as the Bruins briefly retook the lead. But Reese hit a jumper at the top of the key, in the exact same spot as Roberson’s earlier jumper, to give Colorado a 55-54 lead with 1:55 left. After a defensive stop for CU, and both teams swapping turnovers, Swan scored on a layup for a 57-54 lead.
The Buffaloes kept the Bruins out of reach at the free throw line. Lexy Kresl hit a pair to extend the lead to five. UCLA’s Nirra Fields, who led all players with 23 points, countered with a layup. She was fouled and hit the subsequent free-throw to cut the CU lead to 59-57 with 16 seconds left.
Brittany Wilson was fouled immediately and hit one of two from the line to up the CU lead to three. Lemberger attacked the rim and scored with eight ticks left to knock the lead back to one at 60-59.
Wilson again was sent to the line and again hit one of two. With no timeouts left, Lemberger hustled down the floor took a contested runner in the lane. Livulo grabbed the offensive rebound but her put back fell short at the buzzer.
Jasmine Sborov had 11 points and eight rebounds for the Buffaloes. Atonye Nyingifa had a double-double for the Bruins with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Colorado returns home to host the Bay Area schools next weekend. The Buffaloes will have their Pac-12 home opener on Friday, Jan. 10, by playing California at 8 p.m. Colorado will then face Stanford on Sunday, Jan. 12, at 3 p.m. Both games are scheduled for the Pac-12 Network.
CU vs USC: The “Wilson Show” was not enough
Jan 4th
LOS ANGELES — Southern California held No. 12 Colorado scoreless over the final four minutes here Friday night, as the Trojans scored the final 13 points of the game to defeat the Buffaloes, 55-45.
USC blocked 10 shots and held Colorado to just 28 percent shooting in holding the Buffs to their season low in points in handing CU its second loss in its last three games, both on the road. It was just CU’s second loss to an unranked team in the last 36 games over the past two seasons.
Colorado overcame a horrific start in which it missed its first dozen shots and 16 of its first 17 to rally from 12 point first-half deficit to take small leads in the second half. The game’s first time came early after intermission, as buckets by Lexy Kresl and Jen Reese knotted the score at 24; a soon after 10-4 run gave Colorado its big lead of the night at 34-30 with 14:06 to play.
But the Buffs would endure nearly a six-and-a-half minute stretch without a field goal, though USC could only muster a 7-1 advantage in that window to take a 37-35 edge with 8:57 left. CU then countered with a 10-5 run to go up 45-42 with 4:01 remaining.
For CU, it was basically the “Wilson Show,” as the twins, senior guards Ashley and Brittany from nearby Long Beach Poly High School, played the first of their last two games in their home area and combined to score 25 of Colorado’s points. Brittany scored CU’s last field goal at the 4:54 mark and finished with 13 points, while Ashley converted two free throws for the last Colorado points with 4:01 on the clock to end with 12.
Brittany Wilson
Cassie Harberts led the Trojans with 19 points, seven coming down the stretch. She made two free throws that put the Trojans ahead for good, 46-45, with 3:08 remaining, and grabbed an offensive rebound and converted a layup for a 48-45 lead with 2:20 to go.
Brianna Barrett’s layup in traffic with 48 seconds left made it a two-score game at 50-45, and 15 seconds later, Harberts sunk another pair of free throws to all but seal the win for USC. Colorado came up empty on its last eight possessions.
Colorado (10-2, 0-1 Pac-12) had trouble on offense in its conference opener for a second straight year, having fallen to Stanford, 57-40, at home last January 4.
Southern California (9-5, 2-0), which opened the week and Pac-12 play with a 56-54 win at rival UCLA on Monday, snapped a 16-game losing streak against ranked teams. Unfortunately, only a sparse crowd of 372 was on hand to witness the defensive battle and USC’s first win over a ranked school since beating No. 24 Gonzaga in December 2011.
“We’ll learn from this, and we’ll be fine,” CU coach Linda Lappe said. “We have a great group of seniors that provides us with great leadership. This was one of those games where we just didn’t play well in numerous spurts, especially the last eight to 10 minutes.”
“The problem was we were out rebounded, they made great stops, and we either fouled or did not make plays,” she continued. “We were tentative, not moving into the right spots on our drives.
“Most of (USC’s) games are won on defense. We became stagnant, and they brought all their players on drives. We had no kick-outs, they’re big and long and blocked plenty of shots inside.”
“It’s time for us to regroup,” Brittany Wilson said. “It was great to play in front of friends and family, but I also do that in Colorado and they give me support as well.”
Colorado didn’t get on the board until there was 13:23 remaining in the first half, when Brittany Wilson’s floater from the lane got a friendly bounce and dropped through. The Buffs missed their first 12 shots before that one fell, but trailed only 9-2 at that point; USC was just 1-of-5 from the field with four turnovers and built the lead converting all six of its early free throw attempts. The Trojans also blocked five of CU’s first dozen field goal tries.
USC built the lead up to 12 on two occasions, the last following a Cassie Harbert layup to make it 17-5 with 9:05 left in the half. Those were CU’s largest deficits of the season, as previously the Buffaloes had yet to trail in double figures, trailing the most at Wyoming when the Cowgirls led at nine at one point.
It was then the Trojan’s turn to get cold; USC failed to score on its next 12 possessions, missing 11 field goals and turning it over three times, and Colorado used the 6:23 scoring drought to climb back into the game. The Buffs reeled off the next 10 points to pull to within 17-15, with Ashley Wilson scoring five of the points in the run.
CU would close the half on a 15-8 spree overall to cut the USC lead to 23-20 at intermission. While CU opened just 1-of-17 from the floor, it made six of its last 16 shots, while the Trojans weren’t clicking any better, finishing the half 7-of-27. Ashley Wilson had seven of CU’s points for the half, topping her season average of 6.1 coming into the game in just the first 20 minutes.
Colorado remains in the Los Angeles area to face UCLA Sunday in an 8:30 p.m. MST tipoff; the game will be televised nationally on the Pac-12 Networks.
Lappe already knows what CU needs to do ahead of that game.
“We’ll work on our overall toughness and rebounding, we need to pass it more efficiently to our scorers,” she said. “Our passes tonight were often low or high and not very crisp. You can’t score 45 on the road and expect to win. We have to make more free throws (CU was 9-of-16) and it’s tough playing from behind almost the entire game.”
