Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
11-14,4-10Pac-12
Washington
19-7, 8-6Pac-12
Buffs Fall Behind Early, Never Catch Up In 79-67 Loss
February 15, 2015 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – The Colorado women's basketball team dug itself cavernous first- and second-half holes on Sunday and spent 40 minutes trying to escape. Washington wouldn't allow it and cruised to a 79-67 Pac-12 Conference win at the Coors Events Center.
The Buffaloes (11-14, 4-10) fell behind 16-2 to open the game, trailed 41-28 at halftime and were down by as many as 21 points just under six minutes into the second half. They closed to within 10 with 1:40 remaining, but guard Kelsey Plum hit a 3-pointer to give the Huskies (19-7, 8-6) a 69-56 lead and effectively put the Buffs away.
CU crept to within 10 (75-65) once more on a Lexy Kresl trey in the final 23 seconds, but UW concluded the night at the free throw line and won its fourth straight against the Buffs and fifth in the last seven meetings since they joined the Pac-12.
"Well, we pretty much got it handed to us in that game; it pretty much wasn't a game," CU coach Linda Lappe said. "I thought we had some decent chances with eight minutes left. I felt like we were in good position down ten, we were finally scoring the basketball and finally getting a few stops. But we just couldn't really figure out a way to cut it down below ten."
Lappe said her team "just didn't come out ready to go for whatever reason," which was not the way to start against a team with as much as UW was playing for. "They are trying to get a home site for the NCAA tournament, they are on the road and just dropped one at Utah the other night," she said. "They came out and punched us in the mouth. You have to give them a lot of credit with how hard they played and the intensity with which they played."
 Plum, the Pac-12's leading scorer (23.0 ppg), finished with 28 points, including 10-of-10 free throws. Three other Huskies also reached double figures in scoring: Chantel Oshahor with 16 and Aminah Williams and Jazmine Davis with 13 each.
CU, which shot only 35 percent (23-of-65), got 13 points and a game-best 12 rebounds from Jamee Swan while Haley Smith and Jen Reese added 10 points each. Reese also grabbed nine rebounds, while Swan recorded her seventh double-double of the season.
Lappe said the Buffs "had a lot of great looks, especially in the second half. We were executing the offense very well at the start of the second half. We had a lot of layups with second and third chances . . . we just couldn't convert. I'm not that upset about it, poor shooting nights are going to happen. It's a matter of whether or not you can get stops on the other end when you do have poor shooting nights. We aren't giving ourselves any room to do that on offense. We have to shoot 50 percent for us to be in the game right now, because we aren't playing very good defense."
Playing the second of a four-game home stand, CU was coming off an impressive 72-51 rout of Washington State two nights earlier. Plus, the Buffs had played the Huskies much closer last month in Seattle, losing only 85-82.
But on Sunday, staying close was a fantasy for the Buffs as the Huskies, losers of three of their last five games, took control early and never gave up the lead.
CU played from behind – way behind – for the entire first half. In the first five minutes, they were down 16-2 as the Huskies opened by shooting 60 percent from the field. They finished at a meager 38 percent (20-of-52) but made up for it by hitting 32 of their 37 foul shots. CU was 15-of-21.
UW's lead went to 15 points (21-6) before CU shook itself awake and began the slow climb back. A 7-0 run jump-started the Buffs and helped bring them to with three points – 31-28 – but they got no closer before intermission.
The Huskies closed out the half with a 10-0 run and took a 41-28 lead to their locker room.
Plum, who hit four of her first five shots and all three of her 3-point attempts, finished the half with 17 points. None of her teammates had more than seven points, and none of the Buffs had that many. Kresl and Smith each had six as CU shot only 33 percent (10-for-30).
After expending considerable energy in their first-half comeback, the Buffs didn't need to do it again in the second. But trailing by 13 when the final 20 minutes started, they had little choice. And the hill quickly got steeper.
With Oshahor nailing back-to-back 3-pointers with her quirky set shot, the Huskies outscored the Buffs 14-6 in the second half's first 5:30 and roared ahead 55-34. CU had rallied in the first half – but not from a 21-point deficit.
By the 10-minute mark, the Buffs had cut the deficit to 58-45 on a pair of Lauren Huggins 3-pointers and two free throws by Brecca Thomas. But from there to the final buzzer, 10 points back was as close as they could come.
CU returns to the CEC on Friday (6:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) to play Oregon State and takes on Oregon next Sunday (2 p.m., Live Stream).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
