Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
16-7, 5-7Pac-12
Arizona
13-11,2-10Pac-12
Brooks: Jeffery's Treys Lead Buffs Past Wildcats
February 09, 2012 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - When Chucky Jeffery set her feet, squared up and buried the game's first shot and her first three-pointer Thursday night, her coach had an inkling good things would follow.
Linda Lappe was right.
Behind Jeffery's 21 points and career-high five treys, the Colorado women's basketball team cruised past Arizona 69-59 at the Coors Events Center, winning by its largest margin in Pac-12 Conference play.
"Chucky, from the opening shot, showed how she was going to play that game . . . that set the tempo," Lappe said. "She took it with confidence and even if she missed it, she still had the same confidence . . . she really controlled the game from start to finish."
The Buffs, breaking a three-game losing streak, improved to 16-7 overall and 5-7 in the conference. With Arizona State losing Thursday night at Utah, CU has a chance to pull even with ASU (now 6-6) when the Sun Devils visit the Events Center on Saturday (7 p.m.).
Behind 10 first-half points each from Jeffery and Brittany Wilson, the Buffs finished the first 20 minutes strong, then opened the final 20 with the same vigor. It was very close to being a performance with no dead spots, which Lappe called "huge. Our players, hopefully, learn from our mistakes. We came out in the second half really strong - and we haven't done that in a while.
"It was good for us to get back into the killer instinct mentality. I thought we did a great job playing 40 minutes of basketball."
The Buffs' 6-0 run to close the first half gave them a 40-37 lead at intermission, and five straight points to open the second half put them up eight (45-37) before the Wildcats could recover.
Arizona did, closing to 47-45 before CU surged with an 11-2 run - it featured Jeffery contributing a pair of treys - and went up 59-47. The Buffs held a double-digit lead for the final 10:22 and sent the Wildcats (13-11, 2-10) to their seventh consecutive loss.
In addition to Jeffery's game-best 21 points, CU got 12 points from Brittany Wilson and a career-high 10 from freshman Jasmine Sborov, who also contributed seven rebounds (tied with Julie Seabrook for a game high), three assists and a steal. Lappe called Sborov the team's most improved player since practice began.
Jeffery, who made five of her nine three-point attempts, snapped out of a behind-the-arc slump that had seen her make only 3-of-25 trey tries in the previous seven games.
"When I feel like my shot is good, I get encouraged to hit another one if I'm open," Jeffery said. "So I wasn't going to be hesitant. I missed a couple, but I just kept shooting when I was open. That's what I am told to do. We focus on catching the ball and getting ready to score every time."
Lappe was as pleased with Jeffery's defense as her offense, citing the clamp down job done on Arizona's Davellyn White, whose 10 points were 7.4 below her average. Also key was the Buffs' offensive board work: they outrebounded the Wildcats 41-27, snaring 20 offensive boards and outscoring the visitors 21-4 on second-chance points.
Lappe called that "the difference in the game." Her team also converted 20 Wildcats turnovers into 13 points - which also helped tip the night in the Buffs' favor.
"It was very frustrating," Arizona coach Niya Butts said of her team's miscues. "We turned the ball over and we had a lot of travels . . . we were really careless with the basketball and you can't do that when you're on the road."
The Buffs, 56-54 winners against the Wildcats last month in Tucson, opened by hitting their first three shots - all treys - and went ahead 9-5. The Wildcats finally got in a flow and tied the score at 13-13 and took their first lead at 15-13 a minute later on a layup by Candice Warthen.
From there, the lead changed hands five times before Arizona got seven consecutive points from Shanita Arnold and took its largest lead (31-26) of the half. The Wildcats led for the next 8 minutes, surrendering their advantage when Ashley Wilson hit a layup with 1:48 left before intermission to send the Buffs ahead 38-37.
Another layup by Meagan Malcolm-Peck gave CU its 40-37 halftime lead and marked the Buffs' first 40-point half in Pac-12 play. The Wildcats made only one field goal in the final 6:59 of the first half but wound up shooting 63.6 percent overall (14-of-22) and 71.4 percent from behind the arc (5-of-7) - and that kept them close for awhile.
Said Butts: "The first half, you're shooting 64 percent and you're down three. You're shooting 71 percent from the three-point line and 100 percent (4-of-4) from the free throw line. It comes down to that we were just not defending; we didn't get stops. And when they got the shot, they were getting the offensive rebounds."
Lappe said her team "came out ready to play . . . came with that aggressive mentality. Our defense really struggled in the first half, but we came out (strong) in the second half. Our players really did a good job of adjusting.
"Anytime you get a win in the conference it's a good thing."
Tickets for Saturday's game can be purchased on-line at CUBuffs.com/tickets for by calling 303-49-BUFFS.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
