Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
12-12, 3-8
Kansas State
17-7, 7-4
Late First-Half Run Pushes Wildcats Past Buffs
February 16, 2011 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Colorado Buffaloes stayed competitive for about 15 minutes here Wednesday night against Kansas State. But in those final 5 minutes before halftime, the game got away from the Buffs at a dizzying speed.
Up by a point with 5:12 before intermission, they went to their locker room trailing by 15. It only took that long for K-State to distance itself from CU, then easily hold the visitors at bay in the second half and claim a 78-51 Big 12 Conference victory at Bramlage Coliseum.
Until Wednesday, the road team had won the last four games in the series - a trend that appeared might continue until the Wildcats used a 20-4 run to take a 42-27 halftime lead.
"There's not much to say," noted CU Coach Linda Lappe. "K-State made a great run at the end of the half . . . after about 16 minutes, we just couldn't stay with them."
"We tried not to get discouraged (at the half)," CU sophomore point guard Chucky Jeffery added. "We knew they'd made a big run, and if we could make one we could get right back in it."
But the closest the Buffs could come after intermission was 12 points, and after the Wildcats weathered that mini-run, they steadily pulled away. They led by 30 (76-46) in the waning minutes.
Why the let down/smack down before the break?
While Lappe attributed the collapse to "lost focus (and) mental lapses" and her defenders frequently failing to get their hands up as the Wildcats were hitting eight of their season-high 14 treys, veteran K-State Coach Deb Patterson said her team simply decided it was time to change gears.
"We had been settling, playing at a pace that CU was bringing," Patterson said. "For us, it was about being better; our team did a great job of coming out late (in the half) and establishing that we were going to take control . . .
"We had to become the aggressors and get our running game going . . . it was critical for to us establish how we were going to play the second half."
That's what the Wildcats did - and unfortunately, so did the Buffs.
Losing their seventh road game and eighth away from the Coors Events Center this season, the Buffs fell to 12-12 overall and 3-8 in the conference. K-State, which defeated CU 72-59 in Boulder last month, improved to 17-7, 7-4.
With the Buffs moving to the Pac-12 Conference next season, the Wildcats effectively ended the series with a 35-33 advantage, winning six of the final seven meetings. However, the schools could meet in next month's Big 12 postseason tournament in Kansas City.
K-State's eight first-half three-pointers tied the most CU had yielded in a game this season (Texas, Iowa State). Of the Wildcats' 14 treys, five were canned by sophomore Taelor Karr.
"I felt like the last couple of games I let the team down, not knocking down shots . . . it feels good to knock some down when they're setting screens for me and giving me good looks," said Karr, whose high release demands that defenders also get their hands high when she shoots.
Said Lappe: "When you have your hands down and she's getting wide-open looks, she's a pretty good shooter."
But Patterson said Karr & Co. "made quality decisions with our threes" and displayed "good ball distribution . . . we had an aggressive mindset from the three-point line, but they were intelligent and well-shot threes; they came within the flow of the offense."
CU, meanwhile, mostly failed to find its flow. The Buffs hit only two of their nine three-point attempts (both in the first half), shot 32.7 percent from the field (17-for-52), and had almost three times as many turnovers (16) as assists (6).
With 18 points, Jeffery was the only CU player in double figures. Senior Brittany Spears, who entered the game needing 15 points to move into second place on the school's career scoring list, finished with six points on 2-for-11 shooting.
"They didn't defend me in any special way, I just had an off night," Spears said.
Patterson called Spears "one of the best players in the league, but tonight not a great night for her . . . we were pretty accountable (defensively) and made her take tough shots."
Just prior to KSU's decisive first-half run, CU senior Chelsea Dale - back in the starting lineup after missing the previous game with concussion symptoms - had hit a jump shot to give CU a 23-22 lead.
It would be the Buffs' last advantage of the game. Then, Jalana Childs took over. Prior to K-State's pre-halftime surge, the 6-foot-2 junior had scored two points. But in the final 5 of the half she got 12, including a trey - only her second of the season and third of her career - in the final second to produce K-State's 15-point halftime advantage.
Childs finished with 18 points and Karr with 19, tying her career high.
The Buffs took an 11-8 lead before the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run to go ahead 18-11. CU survived that spurt, answering with a 12-4 burst and taking the lead (23-22) on Dale's jumper with 5:12 remaining before intermission.
From there, K-State reigned - and continued to rain three-pointers. The Wildcats didn't get a trey in the second half's opening 9 minutes, but really didn't need one. Childs kept up her dominant inside work, scoring four of her team's first six points as K-State outscored CU 6-2 and opened a 48-29 lead.
The Buffs weren't ready to roll over yet. They quickly outscored the Wildcats 7-0 and pulled to 48-36, but the Wildcats did them one worse - an 8-0 run, with Karr hitting back-to-back treys and giving K-State a 20-point cushion (56-36) with 10:18 to play.
Patterson spent the rest of the game subbing liberally. Of the dozen players she used, only two failed to score. But it was her team's defense that she spoke most highly of: "It was a good defensive effort . . . you have to create a situation for teams on the road where it's tough to get baskets - and we did a good job of that."
 After playing at No. 20/23 Iowa State Saturday (6 p.m., MST), the Buffs return to the Coors Events Center on Wednesday to face No. 12/14 Oklahoma (7 p.m. FSN Rocky Mountain).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
