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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