Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
12-15,5-11Pac-12
Oregon
12-15,5-11Pac-12
Buffs Seniors Step Up Boldly In 84-69 Run Past Ducks
February 22, 2015 | Women's Basketball
BOULDER - The significance of Senior Day speaks for itself, and the Colorado women's basketball team's trio of upperclassmen had much to say Sunday at the Coors Events Center.
Seniors Lexy Kresl (16), Jen Reese (15) and Jasmine Sborov (13) made their special afternoon one for their scrapbooks, accounting for a combined 44 points as the Buffs overcame a slow start then overran Oregon, 84-69.
The Buffs (12-15, 5-11 Pac-12) received considerable help from junior Jamee Swan, who added 15 points and seven rebounds. And the afternoon's biggest numbers were posted by Oregon's Jillian Alleyne (21 points, 13 rebounds). But Sunday's most meaningful stat lines were put up by CU's seniors:
- Kresl hit three of her four 3-point attempts, five-of-six free throws, and contributed seven rebounds and five assists;
- Sborov was two-of-two from beyond the arc, hauled in a team-best nine rebounds and added four assists;
- And after Oregon had closed to within eight points with 2:31 to play, Reese hit seven consecutive points to give CU a 15-point lead and close out the Ducks (12-15, 5-11).
"I think it was good that all three of us stepped up," Kresl said. "We set the tone for our team with an attacking mentality. Sometimes that's scoring and sometimes it's not; tonight it was just being aggressive. We had open shots and we just hit them."
CU coach Linda Lappe said sending the trio of seniors out with a win "was very important to our team and our staff. We talked about, before the game, about everybody giving their best for those three. I felt like you could see that on the floor. You could see our bench coming in and giving us some key minutes. You could see those three playing even better than they normally do. You could see a lot of fire and intensity from our team.
"I'm very excited and happy for (them) . . . just really proud of what those three have been able to bring to our program not just in terms of being on the basketball floor but also who they are as people and the amount of respect that they have gained from the community as well as from the University of Colorado."
The Buffs took a 2-0 lead on a put-back by Reese, then didn't lead again until Sborov hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put CU ahead 38-36 at halftime.
In between those baskets, the Ducks led by as many as 13 points on two occasions before the Buffs finally rediscovered their shooting touches and realized playing some defense would be of help.
"We just came out flat," Lappe said. "The intensity on defense wasn't there. I didn't feel like we were quite ready. I'll take the blame for that just with the scouting report. When we changed some things up in the way that we were defending, it definitely benefited us."
Added Sborov: "We just talked in timeouts. We just talked about changing our mindset and attacking. We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game, so we had to come into this game with an attacking, aggressive, defensive-rebounding mindset. Sometimes it's easy to lose that focus a little bit. I think that happened for a little bit, but we got it back in our timeouts and halftime and we came out ready to go after that."
Down by 11 points (33-22), a Reese jump shot started what would be a 16-3 run over the half's final 4:30 and give CU its two-point advantage at intermission. Meantime, the Buffs were holding the Ducks without a field goal over the final 4:50.
After hitting only one of its first seven field goal attempts, CU quickly fell behind by 10 points (14-4) as Oregon went uncharacteristically hot and shot 77 percent for the game's first 10 minutes. That percentage might have unnerved the Ducks; they entered the afternoon shooting 41 percent from the field and by game's end had slipped back to 45 percent.
But the first half was a night-and-day shooting experience for both teams. Over the first 9:30, Oregon hit 9 of 12 shots (75 percent) for 24 points while CU was 5-for-18 (27.8 percent) for 11 points. In the last 11:30, the Ducks checked out at 4-for-12 (33.3 percent) for 12 points while the Buffs scored 27 points on 12-of-20 shooting (60 percent).
CU finished the afternoon at 47 percent (33-of-70) but hit 80 percent (6-of-9) from long range. The Buffs also outrebounded the Ducks 43-31, including 17-10 on the offensive glass that gave them a 19-11 advantage in second-chance points. CU took care of the ball, too, committing just 10 turnovers while forcing Oregon into 11 and getting 17 points in return.
Kresl scored six points in the first half, but she matched that total with a pair of treys in the second half's opening 2:38. That pair of triples gave the Buffs their largest lead of the afternoon - 45-40 - to that point.
It wouldn't last. By the 14:22 mark, the Ducks had tied the score at 45-45 with a 5-0 run. But after a 50-50 tie, the Buffs used a 10-2 run - it was capped by a three-point play from Sborov - to take a 60-52 lead with 9:54 to play.
CU began to pull away. Back-to-back baskets by Swan put the Buffs up by double digits - 64-54 - with less than eight minutes remaining. After extending the run to 18-4 on field goals by Sborov and Reese, the Buffs led 68-54 - and the Ducks needed a lift.
They got it after Reese and Sborov missed layups, with Oregon parlaying those into a 6-0 run and pulling to within 69-61. But the Ducks never got closer than eight points as Reese scored seven consecutive points to give the Buffs an 80-65 lead and send them on their way to a fourth consecutive win in the series.
Senior Day was all but wrapped up - just as CU's three seniors had envisioned it.
"We keep fighting every day," Reese said. "It sucks to lose. Everyone hates to lose, but we just try to take that into practice and just get better. We've done that these past two weeks in practice and it's shown in the game. We work so hard in the games and we play together. These past four years, we've worked hard and we've played together as a team offensively and defensively. That's just playing Colorado basketball."
The Buffs close out the regular season with games this week at Arizona (Friday, 6 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) and at Arizona State (Sunday, 2 p.m., Live Stream). The Pac-12 Tournament begins Thursday, March 5 in Seattle.Â
