Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
12-6, 2-3Big 12
Oklahoma State
16-3, 4-1Big 12
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma State | 37 | 37 | 74 |
| Colorado | 35 | 28 | 63 |
Second-Half Drought, Cowgirls' Riley Doom Buffs
January 24, 2010 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Andrea Riley's reputation precedes her at every Big 12 Conference stop, but that doesn't make her any less effective or any easier to defend.
Oklahoma State's stellar senior point guard scored a game-high 26 points and Colorado's shooting slipped below frigid as the No. 12 Cowgirls rolled past the game but outgunned Buffaloes, 74-63, Sunday afternoon.
After trailing 55-52, CU (12-6, 2-3) managed just one field goal in the game's final 101/2 minutes. The Buffs' 30.6 field goal percentage - 24.1 in the second half - was a season low.
"It was just one of those night when the shots weren't falling," said junior Brittany Spears, who led the Buffs with 18 points. "We should have gone to the rim more."
Added CU coach Kathy McConnell-Miller: "We beat ourselves . . . we had plenty of opportunities to hit open shots. A lot of great things happened . . . (but) we've got room to grow. If shooting was our biggest concern, we can work on that."
Senior center Courtney Dunn was the only other CU player in double figures. Despite suffering hyperventilation, she recorded her second career double-double (16 points, 14 rebounds) and the second in four games.
"I don't look at the stats," Dunn said. "I care more about the win."
Riley, an obvious All-America candidate, was coming off a week in which she averaged 34.5 points, 8.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals. She scored 16 of her total after intermission Sunday.
"We know what Andrea Riley is capable of . . . we did not adjust to Tegan Cunningham as well as we should have," McConnell-Miller said, noting Cunningham (21 points) was just as problematic for the Buffs.
The only downside to Riley's game Sunday was her free throw shooting; normally an 80 percent shooter from the line, she made just six of 13 attempts.
"It was just one of those nights that the free throw wouldn't go in," she said. "It was frustrating because I hate missing free throws, because they're free."
Riley is the only player to rank in the national Top 10 in both scoring (second, 29.5) and assists (third, 7.4), and coupled with Cunningham's 17.2 points a game, their combined 43.1 average makes them the nation's No. 1 scoring tandem.
They combined for 47 points at the Coors Events Center, including 21 of the Cowgirls' first-half total (37). Riley contributed two more assists (eight) than the Buffs managed as a team before intermission. She finished with 11, while CU ended up with 10 as a team.
The Buffs gave themselves a large shot of confidence Wednesday night in Manhattan, Kan., holding on to defeat Kansas State, 63-57, and snap an eight-game road losing streak.
But it didn't translate into what it might have been four days later.
The Buffs scored the game's first two points for their only lead of the first half. For the next 5 minutes, they watched the Cowgirls (16-3, 4-1) conduct a shooting clinic, as Riley & Co. hit six of their first seven shots - including three-of-three from behind the arc - to take a 15-7 lead.
OSU's advantage swelled to as many as 10 on two occasions in the opening half before CU settled in and closed to within two (37-35) at intermission.
The Buffs didn't have a player in double figures in the first 20 minutes, but their balanced scoring and late defense on Riley helped them close the deficit to a basket at halftime. Riley got her 10 points in the half's first 6:54.
CU, which travels to Kansas Wednesday (6 p.m., MST), kept it close to open the second half. But with the Buffs trailing 44-42, Riley scored on back-to-back drives, banked in a foul-line jumper and deftly fed Cunningham for a layup to key a 10-2 OSU run and a 54-44 Cowgirls lead with 14:28 to play.
The Buffs didn't roll. A three-pointer by Kelly Jo Mullaney pulled CU to 55-51 with 10:30 left, and a free throw by Chucky Jeffery less than a minute later cut the Buffs' deficit to 55-52.
At that point, said CU senior Bianca Smith, "We thought we had some momentum . . . I think everybody on the bench and in the arena thought we were going to come back. I think we stopped executing - and it hurt us."
With their shooting gone frigid, three points was as close as the Buffs got. Hitting a layup with 12.1 seconds to play, Jeffery got her team's lone field goal in the last 101/2 minutes.
For OSU, the road win came on the heels of a road loss at Texas (77-63).
"It's a big deal,'' said Cowgirls coach Kurt Budke, "because Kathy does a great job. She's got her team playing well, and watching them on film, you can just see her team believes what she's teaching."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
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