COLORADO DEFEATS MANHATTAN 73-61 TO CLOSE OUT ITS NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Sunday, January 2

Boulder, Colo.

12 p.m.

Colorado

7-4

Manhattan

6-5

Team	1	2	F
Manhattan	29	32	61
Colorado	28	45	73

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

COLORADO DEFEATS MANHATTAN 73-61 TO CLOSE OUT ITS NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

January 02, 2005 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Aaron Lopez, Denver Nuggets

A career-high 24 points from freshman Kara Richards and a 30-9 run over nine minutes in the second half allowed the Colorado Buffaloes to overcome a one point halftime deficit and defeat the Manhattan Jaspers 73-61, Sunday afternoon at the Coors Events Conference Center.

With 13:32 remaining in the game Richards completed a three-point play that gave the Colorado (7-4) the lead for good.

“My confidence is way up now,” Richards said, “My teammates have been helping me out a lot on deciding when to take it up and when to pass it up.”

The Buffs used a decided height advantage to take control of the game with post players scoring 48 of the team's 73 points. In addition to Richards' 24 points, sophomore Jasmina Ilic had a career-high 14 and freshman Jackie McFarland contributed 10 and had a personal-best 11 rebounds for her first career double-double.

“I felt like we could get the ball down on the block. (Ilic) has versatility on the inside and I feel like it is something she will continue to improve on. At the 15 minute mark of the second half, we decided to throw the ball in there and let Kara go one-on-one,” said Head Coach Ceal Barry

Manhattan (6-5) had three players score in double digits and converted 21 Colorado turnovers into 31 points to put a scare into the Buffs.

The Buffs committed only two fouls in the first half and eight for the game, with the first coming more than 10 minutes into the game. Colorado was up by as many as eight points early in the first half and held the lead until the final minute.

The Buffaloes begin Big 12 Conference play on Wednesday, Jan. 5, when they visit Nebraska at 6:05 p.m. MST in Lincoln, Neb. The game will be aired live on Fox Sports Net-Rocky Mountain.