B-ball honors rolling in for Jeffery and Roberson
Mar 4th
Additionally, Roberson was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the fifth time and for the second consecutive week.
Jeffery, a 5-foot-10-inch guard from Colorado Springs, Colo., earns All-Pac-12 Media honors for the second straight season. She 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).
Roberson, a 6-1 forward from San Antonio, 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.
She scored her fifth Pac-12 Freshman of the week honor after averaging 13 points and 7.5 rebounds as the Buffaloes extended their winning streak to nine with road wins at the Oregon schools. She had a game-high 16 points on 6-of-11 from the field against Oregon, including a perfect 2-of-2 from 3-point range which gave her 9 on just 15 attempts over a four-game span. She also recorded four rebounds, one block and one steal.
Roberson recorded her second career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in the come-from-behind win at Oregon State. Roberson had eight offensive rebounds alone, matching her personal best, and which ties for the eighth best single-game performance in team history. She hit 6-of-7 from the free throw line, including a pair of free throws with six seconds left in overtime that provided the final winning margin (66-63).
Roberson earned the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award three times during the nonconference schedule, and was the inaugural recipient of that honor on Nov. 12 after scoring 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting with six rebounds, five steals, two assists and two blocks in her collegiate debut – a 70-65 win over Idaho on Nov. 11.
The Pac-12 added Freshman of the Week to its weekly honors for the first time this season, joining the standard Player of the Week honor which this week went to Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike. Roberson has won Freshman of the Week more than any other player (three others have three: Jillian Alleyne, Oregon; Lia Galdeira, Washington State; Talia Walton, Washington).
Roberson’s honor is CU’s eighth weekly award in the Pac-12 since the Buffaloes joined the conference in 2011, and seventh this season alone. Jeffery has earned two Pac-12 Player of the Week honors this season. Roberson’s five weekly conference awards in one season are the most by any Buffalo in the Big-12, Pac-12 era (since 1996-97).
The Pac-12 coaches’ awards will be announced later this week.
2013 Pac-12 Media All-Pac-12:
Brittany Boyd, CAL; Gennifer Brandon, CAL; Alyssia Brewer, UCLA; Michelle Plouffe, UTAH; Layshia Clarendon, CAL; Jazmine Davis, WASH; Lia Galdeira, WSU; Cassie Harberts, USC; Chucky Jeffery, COLO; Kristi Kingma, WASH; Atonye Nyingifa, UCLA; Chiney Ogwumike, STAN; Joslyn Tinkle, STAN; Markel Walker, UCLA; Davellyn Whyte, ARIZ.
2013 Media All-Defensive Team:
Brittany Boyd, CAL; Lia Galdeira, WSU; Chiney Ogwumike, STAN; Eliza Pierre, CAL; Joslyn Tinkle, STAN; Markel Walker, UCLA.
2013 Pac-12 Media All-Freshman Team:
Jillian Alleyne, ORE; Lia Galdeira, WSU; Arielle Roberson, COLO; Talia Walton, WASH; Jamie Weisner, OSU.
Player of the Year: Chiney Ogwumike, STAN
Freshman of the Year: Jillian Alleyne, ORE
Defensive Player of the Year: Chiney Ogwumike, STAN
Coach of the Year: Lindsay Gottlieb, CAL
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CU women’s b-ball team hits highest ranking in a decade–18th
Mar 4th
Colorado, 24-5 overall and 13-5 in the Pac-12 Conference, received a season-high 354 points, up from 288 last week. All five of Colorado’s losses have been to ranked teams, including two each to Stanford and California ranked No. 7 or better at the time. Stanford remained at No. 4, California moved up one to No. 5 and UCLA jumped up three to No. 14.
The Buffaloes do have one top 10 win on their resume, a 70-66 win over then-No. 8 Louisville on Dec. 14. The Cardinals are currently ranked No. 13.
The Buffaloes have a long history of rankings in the AP poll, dating back to the 1980-81 season. This week’s ranking marks the 170th time Colorado has appeared in the AP poll, trailing only Stanford, USC and UCLA among Pac-12 schools.
The USA Today Sports Coaches poll is scheduled to be released on Tuesday. Colorado was No. 19 in last week’s coaches’ poll.
Colorado is the No. 4 seed in the 2013 Pacific Life Pac-12 Tournament, March 7-10, at KeyArena in Seattle. The Buffaloes will have a first round bye and play the winner of No. 5 Washington and No. 12 Oregon on Friday, March 8, at 9:30 p.m. MST.
2012-13 Associated Press
Top 25 Poll – Mar. 4
Rk Team Rec Pts Last
1 Baylor (40) 28-1 1,000 1
2 Notre Dame 27-1 957 2
3 Connecticut 27-2 916 3
4 Stanford 28-2 881 4
5 California 27-2 840 6
6 Duke 27-2 797 5
7 Kentucky 25-4 742 10
8 Penn State 24-4 709 7
9 Tennessee 23-6 673 8
10 Maryland 23-6 622 9
11 Dayton 26-1 565 12
12 Georgia 24-5 499 11
13 Louisville 23-6 490 16
14 UCLA 23-6 484 17
15 North Carolina 26-5 436 15
16 Delaware 26-3 380 18
17 South Carolina 23-6 376 14
18 COLORADO 24-5 354 19
19 Texas A&M 21-9 305 13
20 Green Bay 24-2 223 21
21 Nebraska 22-7 213 20
22 LSU 19-10 122 NR
23 Florida State 21-8 93 24
24 Syracuse 22-6 70 22
25 Toledo 26-2 64 NR
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CU women in the biggest comeback of the season, down Oregon State by 3 points in overtime
Mar 3rd
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.
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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