Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
1-1
Western Kentucky
2-0
Brooks: Buffs Rally In Second Half, But Fall In OT
November 17, 2014 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – Free throws brought the Colorado women's basketball team back into its WNIT game Monday night against Western Kentucky but turnovers took the Buffaloes out of it, allowing the Lady Toppers to escape the Coors Events Center with a 79-78 overtime win.
Trailing by nine points midway through the second half, the Buffs roared back by hitting 22 of 27 free throws in the final 12:46 and tied the score at 68-68 on one of two foul shots by Jen Reese with 19.3 seconds to play.
But OT belonged to Western Kentucky, which turned CU's 24 turnovers into 21 points and got a game-high 30 points from Chastity Gooch – the Conference USA coaches' preseason player of the year.
Reese scored a career-best 24 points, including 20 in the second half and overtime. Her 11-of-13 performance from the foul line set career highs for both attempts and makes. Meanwhile, teammate Lexy Kresl tied her career high with 20 points and hit four of seven 3-point attempts.
The game was marred by 64 personal fouls, with Western Kentucky losing three players to fouls and CU four. The Buffs shot 40 free throws, hitting 30, while the Lady Toppers shot 39 and made 23.
"Western Kentucky is a good team, tough," said CU coach Linda Lappe, whose team is now 1-1 and faces Arkansas State at 6 p.m. Saturday in a WNIT consolation contest at the CEC. "I'm not sure how we were even in that game knowing how many more shots they took (74-54) . . . they beat us in every category."
The categories that seemed to dismay Lappe the most were the turnovers and an edge in physicality that unquestionably went to Western Kentucky (2-0). "We've got to get physically tougher," she said, noting that the Buffs had "decent position" rebounding but "they ripped it out of our hands. We weren't strong enough . . . that really killed us."
Still, added Lappe, "I liked our hard work; we never laid down and died . . . we normally don't play this great competition this early. Give Western Kentucky a whole lot of credit."
Some of CU's turnovers, said Reese, were created by the Buffs "playing into their speed of the game." Kresl added that the errors kept CU out of synch offensively: "We got flustered (and) that takes us out of our offense."
Taking the game into overtime, said Reese, assured the Buffs they could compete with a high-caliber opponent but was frustrating nonetheless. "I feel like we should have won, but we can learn a lot from it," she said.
Reese had only four points at halftime and was two-of-two from the free throw line. "Jen started slow, but she didn't let confidence wane," Lappe said.
The Lady Toppers led 36-35 after a first half that couldn't have been much tighter. The first 20 minutes featured 13 lead changes and seven ties, with neither team leading by more than four points.
That large lead was posted by the Buffs, who got 12 points from Kresl on her perfect 3-point shooting (4-of-4). She opened the night's scoring with a trey, and didn't cool off before intermission.
CU finished the half hitting five of its six 3-point attempts, with Haley Smith hitting the other 3-ball and Jasmine Sborov responsible for the lone miss. Overall, the Buffs shot 50 percent (11-of-22) from the field before the break.
Meanwhile, Western Kentucky attempted 10 more treys than CU but connected on only two, finishing the half 2-of-16 from beyond the arc. The Lady Toppers also hit just 34.2 percent (13-of-38) from the field but stayed close by missing only one of their nine first-half free throw attempts, while the Buffs went 8-of-12 from the line.
But the rebounding battle was as close as the halftime score, with the Conference USA visitors owning a 20-19 edge and finishing the game with a two-board edge (49-47). The Lady Toppers got their one-point halftime lead courtesy of the last of the Buffs' 13 first-half turnovers that led to 13 points. Micah Jones converted a steal into a layup for the visitors' 36-35 advantage.
Western Kentucky opened the second half just as it did the first, getting a trey from the versatile Gooch and taking a 39-35 lead for its largest advantage of the night to that point.
Gooch wasn't done. She scored the Lady Toppers' next five points, pushing them in front 44-37 with a conventional 3-point play with 16:13 remaining. More vital to the Buffs, Gooch drew Jamee Swan's fourth personal foul, sending Swan to the bench. She would foul out, along with teammates Zoe Beard-Fails, Brecca Thomas and Haley Smith.
Less than 2 minutes after Swan's fourth, Smith went to the bench with her fourth foul and Western Kentucky was beginning to pull away. Lappe shifted her team into a 2-3 zone defense, which might have eased the Buffs' foul problem but not their turnovers.
And the Lady Toppers took advantage, surging to a nine-point lead (48-39) and forcing the Buffs into catch-up mode. They took to it well, outscoring the Lady Toppers 12-3 and tying the score at 53-53 on a pair of free throws by Reese with 8:33 to play.
Kresl completed CU's comeback by hitting two free throws with 6:19 left, giving the Buffs their first lead (57-55) of the second half. It didn't last long. After Gooch hit the first of two free throws, Western Kentucky controlled the second miss, allowing Kendall Noble to sink a short jumper and the Toppers to reclaim a one-point advantage with just over 5 minutes remaining.
Having climbed back in, CU wasn't going away. Four free throws by Beard-Fails and Reese pushed the Buffs back in front 62-61 at the 4:08 mark. They managed a four-point lead (67-63) on another pair of foul shots by Beard-Fails, but the Toppers tied the score at 67-67 on a free throw and a put-back by Gooch of the second miss. Tashia Brown broke the tie (68-67) by hitting one of two free throws.
CU controlled the rebound and Lappe called a timeout with 26.8 seconds showing. The plan was to get Reese the ball – and it worked. Fouled with 19.3 second left, she hit one of two free throws to tie the score at 68-68.
Western Kentucky got off two errant shots and the game was headed for overtime.
Kresl gave the Buffs the OT lead, making one of two free throws, and Sborov corralled Kresl's miss and laid it back in. CU was up 71-68, but a Gooch free throw and a Noble put-back drew another tie at 71-71.
Gooch took care of that with two free throws, giving the Toppers a 73-71 lead, then hit a short baseline jumper to increase it to 75-71. Sborov made one of two foul shots with 42.1 seconds left, pulling the Buffs to within 75-72.
Two Jones free throws put Western Kentucky up 77-75, but Reese answered with a trey from the right corner, then a conventional 3-point play as CU closed to within 79-78 with 20.7 seconds left.
The officials' review of an out-of-bounds call gave the Buffs the ball with 19.5 seconds left, but Kresl missed a baseline drive and Noble was fouled with .3 seconds showing. She missed both free throws but they weren't needed; CU was out of time and luck.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
