Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
14-4, 3-4
Arizona
13-6, 2-5
Colorado Nips Arizona 56-54
January 22, 2012 | Women's Basketball
TUCSON, Ariz. - Chucky Jeffery hit a mid-range jumper with 17.7 seconds left to help Colorado edge Arizona 56-54 in a Pac-12 Conference contest Sunday afternoon at the McKale Center.
Jeffery scored all seven of her points in the second half, and none more important than the 10-foot jumper just to the right of the key off a Brittany Wilson pass. The win snaps a three-game Colorado skid as the Buffaloes improve to 14-4 overall, 3-4 in league play. Arizona falls to 13-6, 2-5.
"I didn't have a really good shooting game but I knew I had to have the confidence when coach called my number," said Jeffery who was 3-of-9 from the field but had six rebounds, four assists and three blocks to compliment her game. "I had to believe I would knock that shot down."
While Colorado's leading scorer may have started slow others stepped up. Wilson had a team-high 15 points with four assists and four steals, Freshman Jen Reese, making her first career start, had 12 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Julie Seabrook had 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
 "Brittany really started us, as did Jen. They both came out aggressive," CU head coach Linda Lappe said. "We did some different things with our offense that created some driving lanes, and (Brittany) did a nice job of attacking and really making plays to start us off."
Colorado's patience on offense led to good decisions, resulting in 13 turnovers, a stat that had been a sore spot for the Buffaloes, who entered the game giving up an average of 19 during conference play.
"We did a nice job taking care of the ball," Lappe said. "One of our goals coming in was to have positive assist-to-turnover ratio, and we did that for the first time in a long time (14 assists)."
Sunday's game featured 12 ties and 13 lead changes. While the Wildcats dominated on the boards (51-30), CU's defense forced 20 turnovers and held Arizona to 31 percent from the field.
Colorado led 54-48 with 4:41 remaining on Reese basket, but the Wildcats came back. Reiko Thomas, who scored a game-high 16 points, tied the game at 54-54 with 2:38 left by hitting a pair of free throws after a technical foul on the CU bench.
The Buffaloes then clamped down on the Wildcats, holding them scoreless in four straight possessions to end the game. With the score still tied, Wilson had a baseline 3-pointer with just under a minute left that rimmed out. For all CU's struggles on the boards Sunday, it was Reese that came down with the biggest rebound of the game. Her offensive board - and last of her seven - with 34 seconds left allowed the Buffaloes to reset for Jeffery's last minute winner.
"For Chucky to not have a great scoring game and to be able to come through and hit that last shot when we needed it shows a lot of maturity, composure and toughness on her part and I'm glad she was able to get that one to go," Lappe said."
After a CU timeout, Arizona's Shanita Arnold attempted a contested runner through the lane with four seconds left, but the shot fell off to the right of the rim. Reese, Meagan Malcolm-Peck and several Wildcats hustled for the board, but it skirted out of bounds off CU, giving the Wildcats one last chance with 1.7 seconds left.
Colorado held its ground, forcing the Wildcats to take three time outs, and two after the setting the final play, because they couldn't get the ball in. Wilson applied pressure on Arnold who was trying to inbound the ball while the rest of the Buffaloes played a tight defense.
"That 1.7 seconds felt like a lifetime, but they called three timeouts and we weren't switching defense," Jeffery said. "We knew they wanted to go to (Davellyn Whyte). She kept trying to go to the post and we switched off and they didn't have any looks."
On the third try, instead of getting a close look, the Arizona had to go outside and settle for a Candice Warthen desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer well above the top of the key that was off the mark.
Jeffery was the primary defender on Whyte, a two-time all-Pac 10 guard who entered the game averaging 19.7 points per game. Jeffery and her teammates held Whyte to just eight points on 3-of-16 from the field.
"We've done a great job on the road, we've had great focus," Lappe said. "We had a little hiccup against Arizona State on Thursday so we wanted to rebound and have a good game. It was an important game and I'm proud of our players coming in with a great focus."
Colorado returns home to host the Southern California schools next week at the Coors Events Center. The Buffaloes will face USC on Thursday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. and will host UCLA on Sunday, Jan. 29, at 2 p.m. Sunday's game will be televised by FSN and also seen locally on ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain.
