Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
3-2
Florida
5-1
Gators Put The Chomp On Buffs, Win Omni Classic, 83-61
November 28, 2015 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – Omni Classics aren't supposed to end like this for the Colorado women's basketball team, but form wasn't followed Saturday night by Florida.
The Gators took a healthy Thanksgiving weekend bite out of the Buffaloes, rolling to an impressive 83-61 win in the Omni championship game at the Coors Events Center.
"That was a tough game . . . we're disappointed that we didn't show up better on our home floor," CU coach Linda Lappe said. "But give Florida credit; they came out and played really, really hard . . . in the second half they made all the little plays, all the big plays."
CU (3-2) had won 18 of 27 Omni Classic titles and played in every championship game but three. Meanwhile, Florida (5-1) was making its first appearance in the holiday tournament. But the Gators made themselves at home and methodically turned the night into four quarters of catchup for the Buffs.
Florida held CU to 30 percent shooting from the field (19-of-63) while shooting 44 percent (32-of-72). The Gators outrebounded the Buffs 55-40, forced 26 turnovers and had a commanding 48-22 advantage in the paint.
Freshman Kennedy Leonard led the Buffs with 16 points, with Haley Smith adding 11 and Jamee Swan 10. Cassie Peoples topped the Gators' scorers with 14 points, while January Miller had 11. Florida used 13 players and all but one of them finished with points as the Gators' bench outscored the Buffs reserves, 52-18.
"They have great depth and play lot of players," Lappe said. "We don't play a lot of players (CU used nine) but that's not an excuse."
The Buffs never led in the first half (or in the game) and trailed 39-33 at intermission. But considering their first quarter, a six-point halftime deficit was a best-case scenario. In the 29-year history of the Omni/Coors Classic, the host school might not have endured a more nightmarish start.
Consider:
·      CU missed its first five shots and didn't score until Smith hit a short jumper at the 7:11 mark;
·      The Buffs went almost a full 3 minutes before scoring again, this time on a Smith layup;
·      CU closed the quarter shooting 16.7 percent from the field (3-of-18), missed all six of its 3-point attempts and had one assist to seven turnovers.
Little wonder that less than 4 minutes into the second quarter Florida had surged to a 25-11 lead, leaving the Buffs just short of bewildered. To their credit, that mood didn't last long.
Behind six points from freshman forward Makenzie Ellis, CU went on a 12-2 run and cut its deficit to four points (27-23). Beginning to cope with the Gators' changing defenses and physical play, the Buffs finally managed some offensive momentum that kept them close until the halftime buzzer.
"We were having trouble with the flow of our offense," Smith said. "Once we were able to work on the flow and get shots out of that, we did better."
Florida scored the second half's first five points and went back ahead by double digits (44-33). But CU weathered that run and answered with a 7-0 surge, fueled by five points from Leonard. Once more, the Gators' lead had been cut to four (44-40).
But the Buffs' night-long battle from behind was beginning to take its toll both in playing defense and protecting the ball. Back-to-back turnovers resulted in baskets by 6-3 sophomore Haley Lorenzen, the tournament's MVP. The Gators were off on a 14-4 run that restored their 14-point advantage – 58-44 – with 2:46 left in the third quarter.
Finishing the period with two free throws by Peoples, Florida took a 61-48 lead into the final 10 minutes. If the Buffs had anything in reserve they needed to tap into it pronto.
But CU's tank was empty. Florida opened the final quarter with a 14-3 run and took its largest lead of the night, 69-50, to that point.
Leonard said playing behind for the entire game "makes you exert a lot of effort. We shouldn't be down to a team like that by 10. Once you're down that much, it's really hard to get back. It all depends on how we start the game. We have to start the game faster to be better."
Leonard, who contributed six rebounds, two assists and two steals but also had a team-high seven turnovers, said the Buffs will "come in mad on Monday and get ready for our next game on Wednesday."
The Gators led by as many as 24 points on two occasions in the final 6 minutes, and CU's second contest of the season against an SEC team was about to match the disappointment of the first – an 86-61 loss at No. 13 Kentucky last weekend.
But the difference to Lappe in those defeats was how her team didn't delay in mounting a comeback. "It was way sooner than we did against Kentucky," she said. "In that game we didn't start until the second half. That's a big positive (but) we did exert a lot energy in the second half.
"We'll take that momentum and move forward. I still see a lot of positives . . . we've got to continue to build on that."
The Buffs are on the road for their next two games, playing at Colorado State on Wednesday (7 p.m.) and at Long Beach State on Sunday (3 p.m.).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
