Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
15-4, 4-4Pac-12
USC
10-8, 5-3Pac-12
Brooks: Jeffery's Pair Of Free Throws Lifts Buffs
January 26, 2012 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - When Chucky Jeffery stepped to the free throw line with 1.2 seconds remaining Thursday night, a calm settled over Colorado women's basketball coach Linda Lappe. Well, something close to a calm anyway.
CU and Southern California were tied at 67-67, and as Jeffery dribbled and pondered the front end of a one-and-one, Lappe began visualizing a win against a team that had defeated the Buffaloes twice last season by margins of 14 and 17 points.
Said Lappe: "You get feelings as a coach, and I visualized it going in. I guess that's what I do in that scenario. But you could tell by her facial expressions and demeanor. I felt she was confident and felt she was going to hit that shot . . . I don't think it hit the rim."
It didn't - and neither did the second one.
CU 69, USC 67.
It was as good a win as the Buffs have experienced this season, and it was the first they've experienced this season in the Coors Events Center as members of the Pac-12 Conference. It improved their league mark to 4-4 and their overall record to 15-4, and coupled with a two-point win at Arizona last weekend it might have signaled the beginning of a resurgence for CU.
"I think it's big for our confidence level," said Lappe, whose teams now have won their last seven games - four this season - decided by five or fewer points. "We lost to USC twice last year (and) after watching the film I thought we were the better team. I thought we could beat that team. I think (Thursday's win) is great for a lot of different reasons."
Jeffery termed the win "huge," and it was not only because of how she finished, but what she did in the previous 391/2 minutes. Not close to being up to par in the previous three games (18 points total) and having shot only two free throws in the previous four games, Jeffery bounced back nicely with 19 points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals and a blocked shot. She attempted 10 free throws, making seven, and hit six of her 13 field goal attempts.
When Jeffery went to the bench in the first half, she said assistant coach Jennie Barancyzk told her to "keep being aggressive and go to the hole - if you just go strong you'll either shoot it or get fouled . . . So I just tried to take it to the hoop as much as I could and finish and get to the free throw line."
She did exactly that in the final seconds. Even so, if her coach could visualize the pair of deciding free throws going in, Jeffery would term them "the most nerve-wracking thing ever. I just had to calm down when they blew the whistle. It was all about confidence - stepping up to the line and knowing that you're going to knock down those shots."
Jeffery's heroics were backed by sophomore Brittany Wilson and freshman Jen Reese, with Wilson scoring a game-best 21 points and Reese reaching double figures (13) for the fourth time in her last six games. Reese also collected a game-high seven rebounds.
For Wilson, the date with USC was prominent on her calendar. She and her twin sister Ashley are from Long Beach, Calif., and the USC roster was littered with familiar names.
"This meant a lot," said Brittany Wilson, who recorded the third 20-point game of her career and led CU in scoring for the second straight game. "It doesn't mean I played any differently though. I wanted to win that game so bad. I always want to win, but that was the one I had circled on my calendar since the beginning of the season."
USC (10-8, 5-3) lost for the first time in four conference road games this season. The Trojans also had three players in double figures, led by Christina Marinacci's 17 - 12 in the second half.
Both teams led by as many as four points in a first half that saw seven ties and five lead changes. But by intermission the Buffs trailed by two (35-33) as the Trojans got uncharacteristically hot from the field.
Last in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (37.5), USC shot 55.6 percent (15-of-27), hitting half of its eight three-point attempts. Senior Briana Gilbreath led USC with 14 first-half points, making six of her eight field goal attempts and both of her tries from behind the arc.
But, with Jeffery tightening her defense, Gilbreath got only one point in the final 20 minutes and USC's shooting slipped to 43.3 percent (13-of-30).
CU stayed close in the first half by scoring 11 points off of eight USC turnovers while committing only five (13 for the game). The Buffs shot 13-of-31 from the field (41.9 percent) and hit only two of their eight three-point attempts in the first half, but improved to 46.4 percent (13-of-28) in the second.
Their second-half mission should have been to clamp down on the Trojans - and that should have included Marinacci. After scoring five first-half points, the 6-1 junior forward accounted for 10 in the first 41/2 minutes - all of USC's scoring - as the Trojans rolled to an eight-point (44-36) advantage.
But the Buffs stormed back, outscoring the visitors 8-1 and pulling to within a point (45-44) on a conventional three-point play by Reese with 13:53 to play.
"I can think of a little segment in the second half where we let down our guard," noted Lappe, who said other than that her team turned in "the best 40 minutes we've played."
CU took its first lead (54-53) of the last half on a three-pointer by Brittany Wilson 10:10 remaining - and the back-and-forth began anew in a night that finished with 11 ties and 14 lead changes.
USC senior Ashley Corral hit a layup, then followed with two free throws to put USC up 65-62 with 2:40 left. But Reese's baseline jumper pulled the Buffs to 65-64, and Jeffery tied the score at 65-65 by hitting one of two free throws with 1:07 remaining.
The Trojans countered with a jump shot in the lane by Cassie Harberts to take a 67-65 advantage, leaving the Buffs 42.6 seconds to respond. After Lappe called a timeout, Reese drained a turnaround from the baseline, tying the score at 67-67 and giving USC 29.4 seconds for a final shot at the win.
Trojans coach Michael Cooper, the former Lakers star, called timeout with 25.5 seconds to play. Afterwards, the ball went inside to Gilbreath, but she was tied up and the possession arrow pointed to the Buffs, who had 9 seconds.
Jeffery brought the ball downcourt and appeared to lose control at the right baseline. But Gilbreath fouled her. Said Jeffery: "She was on my back. I wanted to turn back and kick it out, but she was hovering there. She definitely fouled me."
After Jeffery hit both ends of her one-and-one, USC had two chances for a full-court heave and desperation shot. The first went untouched, giving the ball to the Buffs. CU turned it over, but the clock showed only two-tenths of a second remaining. Jeffery intercepted USC's second full-court heave as the buzzer sounded.
Cooper congratulated CU - sort of. The Buffs' win, he said, was attributable to "what we didn't do," before adding, "Colorado played a very good basketball game. Their record is an indication of that. But, it comes down to what we didn't do. In our four consecutive road wins, we were outrebounding teams. We just weren't doing that (Thursday). We weren't boxing out."
The Buffs play four of their next six games at the Events Center, beginning with a visit from UCLA on Sunday (2 p.m., ROOT Sports). Tickets are available at CUBuffs.com/tickets or by calling 303-49BUFFS.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
