Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
5-0
Wisconsin
2-5
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin | 23 | 25 | 48 |
| Colorado | 31 | 27 | 58 |
Brooks: Buffs Win Third Omni Classic Championship
November 26, 2011 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Chucky Jeffery knew what was going on, but when Lexy Kresl heard herself being paged Saturday night at the Coors Events Center she wasn't sure why. She found out pretty quickly - and the reason was all good for her and the Colorado Buffaloes.
Jeffery recorded her 12th career double-double and Kresl scored a career-high 16 points to lead the CU women's basketball team to a 58-48 win against Wisconsin in the championship game of CU's Omni Hotels Classic.
The victory pushed the Buffs to 5-0 for the first time since the 2000-01 season and earned them their third consecutive Omni Classic title. Jeffery was named the tournament MVP for the second consecutive year while Kresl, a 5-11 freshman guard, also was selected to the all-tournament team. Other all-tourney selections were Wisconsin's Taylor Wurtz, Montana State's Katie Busey and Valparaiso's Tabitha Gerardot.
"When they called my name I didn't know what they were talking about," said Kresl with a laugh. "It's humbling. I appreciate the support from the fans and everybody that came today."
Kresl scored 26 points in the two tournament games and has hit at least one three-pointer in every game this season. She was two-of-three from beyond the arc Saturday night and hit all eight of her free throw attempts.
Jeffery, meanwhile, contributed 28 points and collected 20 rebounds in the two Omni games, helping the Buffs dispose of Valparaiso 60-32 on Friday. Montana State defeated Valparaiso 71-55 in Saturday's third-place game.
The junior guard called her back-to-back MVP awards "big . . . it just makes me want to keep working. I can't dwell on it; I have to come back and work harder."
Just as they did in the tournament opener, Kresl and Jeffery got help Saturday from sophomore guard Brittany Wilson, who scored 10 points each night and was key coming off the bench in a first-half surge against UW.
The Buffs expected a physical game from the Badgers, and they got it. But CU coach Linda Lappe was pleased with how her team responded in that regard and how it played defense.
"Our defense was key," Lappe said. "We did a great job in the first half of limiting them to 23 . . . and even those shots were rushed; they were not shots they wanted. It helped us win the game."
Lappe also applauded her team's rebounding, calling it "outstanding . . . they were outrebounding teams by eight (before Saturday), we outrebound them by 19 (46-27)."
Kresl said maintaining a rebounding edge "is always one of our three goals," and Jeffery called it "part of our identity . . . we've got a lot of good rebounding guards."
The Buffs trailed only once against the Badgers (2-0) and held a double-digit lead for the game's final 15:34 in sending the visitors home with a 2-5 record.
CU led 31-23 at the half , but it took a healthy run in the final 4:31 for the Buffs to create some separation with the Badgers. CU led by as many as nine before UW ratcheted up its defense and closed to 19-17 on a pair of free throws by Wurtz at the 6:11 mark.
Just under a minute before that, Wurtz hit another pair of free throws after the Buffs' bench was whistled for a technical foul, apparently after complaining about what appeared to be a shot clock violation by the Badgers.
Lappe said if her lost its composure "for about two minutes . . . we regained it and never lost our lead. We stayed up by a decent margin, we responded and ended the half strong."
But the Buffs opened frigidly, hitting just one of their first seven field goal attempts. Less than 5 minutes into the half, Lappe brought Brittany Wilson off the bench for a spark and "B-Wil" furnished it.
Over the next 4 minutes, she contributed a pair of three-pointers and a put back to give CU a 13-4 lead - its biggest before UW responded with an 8-2 run and closed to 15-12 on a three-pointer by Wurtz.
From there, neither team hit a field goal, but the Badgers outscored the Buffs 5-4 at the free throw line - including the two for the 'T' - and pulled to 19-17. But CU fashioned a 12-4 run and took its biggest lead of the half (31-21) with 1:27 before intermission.
CU wound up shooting 40 percent (10-for-25) from the field in the first 20 minutes, while UW was at 25.9 percent (7-for-27). The Buffs held a 21-15 board advantage in the first half, with Jeffery claiming five rebounds and adding nine points to lead CU in both first-half categories.
The Buffs finished the game shooting 33.9 percent from the field (19-of-56), while the Badgers were at 33.3 percent (16-of-48). Both teams scored 20 points off of turnovers, but CU's 24-12 point advantage in the paint was critical.
The Badgers opened the second half with a trey by freshman guard Lindsay Smith, but it would be their only points for the next 3 minutes. In the meantime, the Buffs got baskets from Julie Seabrook, Kresl and Brittany Wilson to take their biggest lead to that point, 37-26.
From there, CU began to pull away, opening a 44-30 advantage on a follow in the lane by freshman post Jen Reese with 12:50 to play. The Buffs led by as many as 16 points before the final whistle.
Lappe and her players said winning their own Thanksgiving weekend tournament always is an early season priority.
"It's our own tournament, so we know we have to come in and be ready for anything," Jeffery said. "We know we're hosting somebody in our house and we have to take the tournament."
CU continues its home stand with a game on Wednesday against San Francisco (7 p.m., Root).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
