Colorado
5-13, 15-15
Utah
8-10, 17-13
Buffs Top Utes In Pac-12 Tournament Opener
March 01, 2018 | Women's Basketball, Neill Woelk
SEATTLE – JR Payne's Colorado Buffaloes left nothing to chance in their third matchup with Utah this year.
After splitting their regular-season series with the Utes — both close games — the ninth-seeded Buffs raced to a 66-56 win over No. 8 Utah on Thursday in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament at Key Arena.
The win, which pushed the Buffs to 15-15 on the season, lifted Colorado into a Friday quarterfinal matchup with top seed Oregon, set to tip off at 12:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Networks).
"There's nothing to lose," said Payne, who earned her first Pac-12 tournament victory. "We're going to play hard, we're going to have fun and we're just going to get after it."
STAT LEADERS: Kennedy Leonard led the Buffs with 15 points, eight rebounds, five steals and four assists. Annika Jank chipped in 12 points to go with eight rebounds, Quinessa Caylao-Do added 11 points, three assists and three rebounds and Zoe Correal had 10 points and four rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED: Colorado's defense made the difference in the rubber match with the Utes. The Buffs forced 19 Utah turnovers and reaped 25 points off those miscues. Colorado also dominated Utah inside, producing a 38-18 edge in points in the paint.
"We played hard and played with toughness," Payne said. "It started with our guard play and it ended with our posts rebounding the basketball."
The Buffs trailed throughout the first quarter, but took the lead early in the second quarter on the heels of a 12-0 run and never trailed again.
Colorado led by as much as eight in the second quarter and by nine early in the third, but the Utes managed to stay close, pulling to within five with 3:18 left in the third period.
But the Buffs then put the game away with their second 12-0 run of the game to take a 52-35 lead with 8:23 left in the game. Jank started the run with a short jumper, Leonard had two steals and baskets in the surge and Zoe Correal added a pair of buckets off of offensive rebounds as Colorado took control for good.
The Buffs then led by as much as 21 before finally settling for the final margin of victory.
The Buffs shot 44.6 percent from the field (25-for-56) while holding Utah to just 37.5 percent shooting (18-for-48).
After trailing for much of the first quarter, the Buffs used a 12-0 run — the final three points of the first quarter and the first nine of the second — to turn a 14-10 deficit into 22-14 lead with 8:08 left before halftime.
Annika Jank fueled the run with a pair of 3-pointers and Mya Hollingshed added one trey in the surge. Utah cut the gap to three, but the Buffs then built the lead back up to seven, taking 28-21 edge into the locker room at halftime.
Jank had nine points in the first half on 3-for-5 shooting from 3-point range to go with four rebounds while Leonard had seven points, five rebounds and a pair of assists in the opening half.
KEY STATISTICS: The Buffs dominated Utah in the paint, outscoring them 38-18. … CU also outscored Utah 25-15 in points off turnovers, as Colorado forced 19 Utah miscues. … Colorado also held a 12-2 edge in steals.
NOTEWORTHY: The Buffs are now 3-0 in the first round as the No. 9 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament. … It was CU's first Pac-12 tourney win since 2015. … Colorado has now won three of its last five games.
UP NEXT: The Buffs face top-seed Oregon on Friday in a 12:30 p.m. quarterfinal game at Key Arena.
POSTGAME QUOTES: "Honestly I don't know what it means. I've never had the experience before. I hate just sitting there watching it. Having the chance to come out here and play a top-seeded team means the world to us." — CU junior Kennedy Leonard on getting her first Pac-12 tournament win
"We played hard and we played together. We got down a little, up a little — we knew it would be sort of up and down. But our effort was tremendous. Our defense created offense and I'm really proud of our team today." — CU coach JR Payne
"We'd played them twice this year and were separated by three or four points.I think we were just coming out here, putting our foot on their throat and not letting up when we got a little lead." — Leonard on CU's mentality
"Towards the end of the second quarter things started opening up for us. Then we knew we just needed to be more aggressive. We knew Utah would come out aggressive so we knew we needed to punch first. We just went on that run." — CU's Quinessa Caylao-Do
