Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Finish Road Trip At Long Beach State
December 05, 2015 | Women's Basketball
THE GAME: The University of Colorado concludes a two-game road trip this weekend and will make their only trip to southern California of the season to play Long Beach State on Sunday, Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. MST at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.
BROADCAST: Sunday's game will air live on KKZN 760 AM. Cory Lopez has the call alongside Carol Callan of USA Basketball. The game will be streamed through Long Beach's video player at the following link: http://buffs.me/1lgNlrD
ABOUT THE BUFFS: Colorado is 3-3 overall and will look to return to the win column after falling in their last two games. Most recently, the Buffs dropped a heartbreaker against in-state rival Colorado State, 64-63 after the Rams scored on a last-second shot on Dec. 2 in Fort Collins.
Collectively on offense, the Buffaloes are averaging 71.7 points per game while shooting 44 percent from the field. Colorado is a stellar 80 percent at the free throw line, tops in the Pac-12 Conference and ranks fourth in assists, averaging 16.0 helpers in each contest.
Defensively, the Buffs are holding their opponents to 36 percent shooting and CU records an average of 41.3 rebounds per game. Colorado ranks fourth in the Pac-12 on the defensive boards, grabbing on average 31.0 a game.
Freshman Kennedy Leonard has made quite the impact for the Buffaloes in such a short amount of time. She enters the game as Colorado's second leading scoring, averaging 13.8 points per game and has also dished out a team-leading 34 assists, averaging 5.7 in each contest.
On the Pac-12 leaderboard, Leonard is fourth in assists and 16th in scoring.
In her final year playing in a Buffs' uniform, senior Jamee Swan has been consistent with her play over the season's first six games. Swan is averaging a team-best 14.0 points and 7.7 rebounds while hitting 42 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free throw line. Swan has also recorded a team-leading 11 blocks on the season.
Swan ranks 15th in the Pac-12 in scoring, eighth in free throw percentage, 13th in overall rebounding, sixth in defensive rebounding (6.3) and fifth in blocked shots (1.8 bpg).
Junior Haley Smith has remained a constant in the Buffs' starting line-up, while averaging a solid 10.2 points per game and 5.3 rebounds. She has been one of Colorado's most accurate shooters from the field with a .491 field goal percentage and has gone 8-of-9 (.889) from the free-throw line.
Junior wing Lauren Huggins is averaging 8.2 points per game and is second on the team in 3-point shooting, connecting on 13-of-28 from long range for an impressive 46.4 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 is tied for seventh in the Pac-12 in 3-point field goal percentage and is tied for ninth in 3-pointers made.
Freshman Alexis Robinson has provided a nice spark off the bench averaging 9.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists in about 25 minutes per game. She has posted the team's most accurate shooting percentage from behind the arc at 53 percent (7-of-13) and has connected on 43 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 LONG BEACH STATE: The 49ers are 6-1 overall and enter Sunday's match-up on a three-game winning streak, while they own a 2-0 record on their home court in 2015-16.
Long Beach State is paced by junior Jewelyn Sawyer on offense and is their only player averaging double-digit scoring at 11.7 points per game. She also leads her team with 7.0 rebounds in each contest.
The 49ers, who made an appearance in last season's WNIT are limiting opponents to 56.0 points per game and holding them to .376 field-goal percentage and has forced at least 21 turnovers in five of their first seven games.
Head coach Jody Wynn is in her seventh year at the helm for the 49ers and has compiled a 96-100 record during that stretch, guiding her team to a pair of WNIT berths and six Big West tournament appearances.
THE SERIES: The Buffaloes hold a 2-3 all-time record against the 49ers and are 1-2 when playing in Long Beach. This will be Colorado's first trip to Long Beach since Jan. 2, 1994. The Buffs and 49ers met last season with Long Beach taking the contest 62-56 at the Coors Events Center. Jamee Swan led the Buffs with 15 points and 15 rebounds while Zoe Beard-Fails contributed a career-high 14 points.
WHAT'S NEXT?: The Buffaloes return to Boulder for a three-game homestand, which begins on Wednesday, Dec. 9 when Colorado welcomes Northern Arizona to the Coors Events Center. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. MST.
