Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-TCU Notes
March 30, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Semifinals Set. The semifinals are set after today's earlier action: CU-Marquette; Michigan State-North Carolina State. The Buffaloes will host Marquette this Wednesday (April 2) at 7:00 p.m. at the Coors Events Center. Earlier scores (home team in caps): N.C. STATE 63, St. John's 61; MICHIGAN STATE 45, Michigan 40(OT); Marquette 69, KENTUCKY 64.
Quickly... The win enables CU to play its first game in April in program history when it tips off for the WNIT semifinal... Depending on the outcome Texas A&M-Duke later today/tonight, Colorado will be one of either two or three Big 12 teams remaining alive in the postseason (with the Kansas men)... Colorado won three in a row, its second longest winning streak of the year (the Buffs won 11 from Nov. 24 through Jan. 9)... If CU advances to the WNIT final game with a win, it would be the 18th time in school history the Buffs will have won 20 games in a season... The 96 points was CU's most this season, eclipsing the previous high in a 91-64 win over Jacksonville State... TCU led 20-4 at one point, but CU methodically picked its way back into the game and had a 72-56 edge over the final 35 minutes... CU's 37 points from its bench was a season-high (previous best was 30 versus Southern Utah)... CU missed its first eight shots in its win over Villanova and opened 2-of-11 tonight before shooting .500 (11-of-22) the rest of the first half.
Time Spent In The Lead... Colorado has won the last two WNIT games and has led for less than 10 minutes combined. Villanova led for 36:45 in the third round game (CU for 1:22), and this afternoon TCU led for 35:39 with CU ahead for 7:39; all totaled, CU has two wins leading for 9:01, while the last two opponents were ahead for 72:24 and left without a victory.
Brittany Spears. The CU freshman has 456 points and 253 rebounds on the season, just the fourth player to score 450 points and grab 250 rebounds in a single season at Colorado; with Jackie McFarland already reaching both levels this year, it's the first time two players have done it in the same year. McFarland and Lisa VanGoor have done it three times each, with Erin Scholz and Tera Bjorklund accomplishing it twice and Spears now once.
Overtime. Colorado is now 17-20 all-time in overtime, and set a school record today for the most points in an overtime period with 20; the old mark of 17 was set on two occasions, against Missouri in 1994 (L, 79-91) and Kansas in 1995 (W, 90-81).
3-0. The CU starting lineup for the WNIT is now 3-0, the only three games its been utilized this season: F Brittany Spears, F Jackie McFarland, F Kara Richards, G Bianca Smith and G Susie Powers.
Jackie McFarland (30 points/8 rebounds). The Colorado senior had 11 points at halftime then added 10 in the second half plus nine of CU's 20 in overtime. She has scored in double figures 93 times in her last 99 games, and has 1,940 career points (second on CU's all-time scoring list trailing only Lisa VanGoor, who had 2,067 between 1981-85). McFarland was 13-of-14 from the line, and is 28-of-30 (93.3%) over the last two games; this was the 12th time this year she went to the line at least 10 times in a game. The 30 points was the fourth time she scored 30 in a game; she had 32 against Villanova on Wednesday, while the other two times came on Nov. 18, 2005 against Cal State-Fullerton (34 points) and on March 6, 2007 against Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament (32 points).
Seasonal?Her 30 points upped her season point total to 620, now the second most ever in a single year in CU history, only Van Goor had more, scoring 678 in 1981-82. It is just the fourth 600-point single season in school history. She played 45 minutes today, tying her for the most ever in a year with Diane Hiemstra (1,181; Hiemstra played that number in 1981-82).
Aija Putnina (22 points/10 rebounds). Putnina had a career high 22 points, topping the 20 she had against Jacksonville State. This was also the seventh double-double of her career, her fifth this season.
