Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
3-3
Colorado State
6-1
Buffs Catch Rams With Late Rally, But Fall On Last-Second Shot
December 02, 2015 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
FORT COLLINS – For the last 1:25 here Wednesday night, Colorado's Kennedy Leonard and Colorado State's Ellen Nystrom traded baskets. But Nystrom got the last one and the Rams got the last word – a dramatic 64-63 win at Moby Arena.
The Buffaloes rallied from a 10-point third-quarter deficit and took a one-point lead in the final 3.6 seconds, only to have Nystrom's 13-foot jumper off an in-bounds play with one second left break their hearts.
After a Kennedy Leonard layup with 1:25 to play put CU ahead 61-60, Nystrom's layup pushed CSU ahead by a point, 62-61. But Leonard answered with another layup, sending the Buffs up 63-62.
"When we were in the huddle we talked about don't shoot it to try to get fouled, they aren't going to call it," CU coach Linda Lappe said of Leonard's would-be winner. "Shoot it to make the layup. I thought she attacked aggressively. She stayed composed and did a nice job of finishing."
But Nystrom and the Rams had the final shot at the win – and got it. CU was left to try a desperation length-of-the-court pass for a miracle that didn't happen.
Said Lappe: "It just came down to just one more stop; it was a great game. It had to have been a great game to watch. It was a great game to be a part of, two teams playing pretty quality basketball. We just happened to be on the bad end of that.
"Any game doesn't come down to the last play, but you want to be able to finish the last play. I thought we made some unbelievable plays down the stretch. We grew up a lot this game. You look at CSU, they have all juniors, seniors; they've played a lot of games and won a lot of games on this court. It was a great game for us to learn."
Leonard led the Buffs (3-3) with 21 points, while Jamee Swan added 12 – 10 in the second half after encountering first-half foul problems – and Lauren Huggins 11.
Elin Gustavsson's 22 points paced the Rams (6-1), with Nystrom scoring 14 and Jamie Patrick 11.
The Buffs trailed 33-31 at the half, but their deficit had been seven (31-24) 4:26 earlier. They closed the second quarter with a 9-4 run and pulled to within two points at intermission, and their ability to stay close was done mostly minus Swan, who was whistled for her third personal foul with 8:40 left in the second quarter.
Swan, averaging a team-best 14.4 points a game, played only 4 minutes in the first half and scored two points.
CU outrebounded CSU 17-16 in the first half, with six of those boards on the offensive end that helped the Buffs score seven second-chance points. That, plus hitting 5-of-11 (45.5 percent) from beyond the arc, kept CU competitive when CSU went on a 12-2 run at the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second.
Making the 3-ball even more important, the Buffs shot only 37.9 percent (11-of-29) from the field in the first half. CU finished the game at 43 percent (23-of-53) from the field, CSU 39 percent. Before Nystrom's last two baskets, the Rams had endured a 31/2-minute scoreless stretch (0-for-5).
Leonard scored 10 of her total in the opening two quarters, while Gustavsson had 11 points. They were their team's only players in double figures in the first 20 minutes.
With 7:28 left in the third quarter, the Buffs caught and passed the Rams on a layup by Leonard, who was fouled but missed her free throw and a chance at a 3-point play. Still, her basket provided a 37-35 lead – CU's first since 18-17.
But fouls were becoming a problem for the Buffs. With Swan still on the bench, freshman guard Alexis Robinson picked up her third foul and the Rams went into the bonus with 6:50 left in the quarter.
Gustavsson took immediate advantage, hitting 4-of-6 free throws and a jumper over the next 4 minutes to send CSU up 41-37. Swan reentered the game, tried to draw a charge but the refs said no way. Result: a layup by Alana Arias that shot the Rams ahead 43-37.
Swan hit one of two free throws (43-38) before picking up her fourth foul at the 1:57 mark of the third quarter. And all the while, the Buffs were shooting miserably. They didn't get their third field goal of the quarter until Leonard hit a 3-pointer with 11.9 seconds left in the period – a span of 7:17 without a basket that allowed CSU to take its first double-digit lead (48-38) of the game.
Lappe called that span "a huge stretch . . . we just weren't clicking as well offensively in that stretch as we had been in the start off the half. And how we ended the half, that hurt us. When you're not scoring, you have to find a way to get stops."
But during the offensive drought, she also liked "how we didn't hang our heads and we stayed in it. We did some good things that way . . . you have to credit our players; they put their hearts out there and played extremely hard. They didn't give up. They executed down the stretch; did so many good things."
Leonard's trey brought the Buffs to 48-41 at the end of the third quarter, and they would creep closer as their shooting heated up. After being down by 10, CU launched a 15-6 run – including 7-0 in 90 seconds – that pulled the Buffs to within a point (54-53) with 5:35 to play.
CSU rallied, going up 60-55, but CU wouldn't roll over. A 6-0 Buffs run capped by a Leonard layup put them ahead 61-60 with 1:25 remaining. From there, she and Nystrom swapped hoops – with Nystrom getting the last one and the Rams getting the win.
The Buffs play at Long Beach State on Sunday (3 p.m., MST).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
