Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Face Presbyterian In Non-Conference Home Finale
December 18, 2015 | Women's Basketball
THE GAME: The University of Colorado concludes its three-game homestand on Saturday, Dec. 19, hosting the Presbyterian Blue Hose at the Coors Events Center. Tip off is set for 3:30 p.m. MST.
BROADCAST: Saturday's game will air live on KKZN 760 AM. Cory Lopez will have the call. A free live video stream will be available through Colorado's Pac-12.com video player. All CU women's basketball home games that are not televised will be available through Pac-12.com at this link: http://pac-12.com/videos/university-colorado.
Non-televised Pac-12 road games are scheduled to be available on the opponents' similar video player, free of charge.
MILESTONE APPROACHING: Senior Jamee Swan is just 14 points away from becoming the 28th player in team history to reach 1,000.
ABOUT THE BUFFS: Colorado is 4-5 overall on the season and are coming off a close defeat by Missouri, falling 79-75 to the Tigers a week ago. The Buffs will look to bounce back against Presbyterian, their second to last non-conference contest of the season.
Collectively on offense, the Buffaloes are averaging 70.8 points per game while shooting 44 percent from the field. Colorado is a stellar 78 percent at the free throw line, fourth best in the nation and second in the Pac-12 Conference. The team has also found success shooting from long distance as CU ranks 12th in the country and third among Pac-12 teams in 3-point field goal percentage, connecting on 40 percent of its shots from behind the arc.
Defensively, the Buffs are holding their opponents to 38 percent shooting and CU records an average of 29.2 defensive rebounds per game where Colorado ranks fourth in the Pac-12. Colorado also ranks fifth in the Pac-12 with 5.1 blocked shots per game.
Freshman Kennedy Leonard has made quite the impact for the Buffaloes in her debut season. She enters the game as Colorado's second leading scorer, averaging 12.4 points per game and has also dished out a team-leading 47 assists, averaging 5.2 in each contest.
On the Pac-12 leaderboard, Leonard is tied for fifth in assists, 15th in assist/turnover ratio (1.5) and 24th in scoring.
In her final year playing in a Buffs' uniform, senior Jamee Swan has emerged once again as Colorado's top scorer and rebounder. Swan is averaging 13.3 points and 7.0 rebounds while hitting 46 percent from the field and 78 percent from the free throw line. Swan has also recorded a team-leading 16 blocks on the season.
Swan ranks 17th in the Pac-12 in scoring, seventh in free throw percentage, tied for 11th in defensive rebounding (5.2) and is tied for sixth in blocked shots (1.8 bpg).
Junior Haley Smith has remained a constant in the Buffs' starting line-up, while averaging a 10.4 points per game, tied for 28th in the Pac-12 and 5.1 rebounds. She has been one of Colorado's most accurate shooters from the field with a .513 field goal percentage and has gone 13-of-15 (.867) from the free-throw line.
Junior wing Lauren Huggins is averaging 8.7 points per game and is fourth on the team in 3-point shooting, connecting on 20-of-50from long range (40 percent). Huggins hit four of her five 3-pointers against Loyola Marymount and tied a career-high with 16 points in the Buffs' win. She ranks ninth in the Pac-12 for most 3-pointers made this season as she averages 2.2 per game.
Freshman Alexis Robinson has provided a nice spark off the bench as the Ashland, Ky. native is averaging 8.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists in about 24 minutes per game. She has posted the team's most accurate shooting percentage from behind the arc at 53 percent (9-of-17) and has connected on 41 percent of her shots from the field. Robinson had one of her best offensive performances of her young career against UMass when she scored a personal-best 21 points.
ABOUT PRESBYTERIAN: The Presbyterian Blue Hose are 4-5 overall and 1-1 against Big South Conference opponents this season. Presbyterian has won three of its last four games, including two straight, most recently defeating Columbia College 104-37 earlier in the week.
The Blue Hose are averaging 64.1 points per game while shooting 41
percent from the field. On defense, they average a solid 8.4 steals each time on the court and have forced opponents to commit nearly 20 turnovers. Freshman guard Taylor Petty leads the team with 12.3 points a game and junior guard Aianna Kelly is Presbyterian's top rebounder, averaging 5.4 in each contest and scores nine points a game.
Presbyterian has posted a 1-4 record on the road during its 2015-16 campaign and are under the leadership of eighth-year head coach Ronny Fisher, who is guiding a young team comprised of nine underclasswomen and three juniors.
THE SERIES: This is the first meeting between the Buffaloes and Blue Hose. It will also mark the first time Colorado plays an opponent of the Big South Conference.
WHAT'S NEXT?: The Buffaloes conclude their non-conference schedule at Wyoming on Monday, Dec. 21. Colorado returns to the Coors Events Center on Saturday, Jan. 2 at 1 p.m. for its Pac-12 Conference opener against Washington.
