Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
15-16, 6-12
Oregon State
26-4, 16-2
Brooks: Buffs Stun No. 1 Seed Beavers, Advance To Semis
March 06, 2015 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
SEATTLE – The 2015 Pac-12 Conference Women's Tournament has a Cinderella – and she looks suspiciously like a Buffalo.
Colorado stunned top-seeded and eighth-ranked Oregon State 68-65 here Friday night in the Pac-12 quarterfinals, defeating a ranked opponent for the first time in seven attempts this season and for the first time in 18 tries.
It also was the Buffs' first win over a Top 10 team away from Boulder since they defeated No. 5 Stanford in the 2002 NCAA Sweet 16.
CU plays California in Saturday night's semifinals (9:30 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Networks) at KeyArena. No. 4 seed Cal, a 69-53 winner over Washington on Friday night, defeated CU 75-59 on Jan. 5 in Berkeley. The Pac-12 championship game is Sunday night (7 p.m. MDT, ESPN), with the winner receiving an automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
The ninth-seeded Buffs – the lowest to defeat a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in Pac-12 tourney history – trailed the Beavers 60-59 with 4:21 to play, but went on a gritty 8-0 run and held OSU (26-4) at bay down the stretch.
"Great game for our team," said CU coach Linda Lappe, whose 2013 Buffs also advanced the Pac-12 semis. "Really excited for our three seniors who have been battling all season long. It's so fun for us as coaches to be able to see our team so excited about a great win and really playing well."
One of the trio of seniors, Lexy Kresl, led CU (15-16) with 19 points – 14 in the first half -- and was five-of-five from long range. Junior Jamee Swan contributed 18 points and 13 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season, and senior Jen Reese added 13 points – all of them in the second half, with 10 scored consecutively during a stretch that saw OSU overtake CU and threaten to pull away.
Lappe said Reese's contributions offered the Buffs "great momentum . . . she had laser focus in the second half on that basket. She scored in different ways. She didn't just take her jumper. She got a couple of nice drives and post finishes in there. Our team rallies behind our three seniors and I thought they really rallied behind Jen in that segment."
The Buffs' third senior – Jasmine Sborov – finished with only two points, but they were vital. Her coast-to-coast layup with 1:43 left put CU up 63-60 and offered just a sliver of breathing room in the nerve-fraying final two minutes.
Reese credited her teammates with "great passes . . . you've just got to find open gaps and knock the shot down when have (it). But when you're moving the ball and playing great basketball like that, it's easy to knock down shots – no matter who is doing the shooting on our team."
The Beavers, who outscored the Buffs 40-18 in the second half last month and rolled to a 66-44 in the Coors Events Center, had four players in double figures, led by Ruth Hamblin's 14. But CU limited OSU to a season-low 33.8 percent from the field (22-of-65) while the Buffs shot 43.5 percent (27-of-62). They also committed just 10 turnovers.
OSU coach Scott Rueck said the Buffs "played a great, inspired game. They brought energy from the beginning. It took us a while to match it, and I liked different stretches . . . but they made plays when they needed to."
The Buffs opened on a blistering shooting pace but closed the half with their shooting touches iced down. Hitting their first five shots – including three treys by Kresl – they leapt to a 14-7 lead and went ahead by 10 points (30-20) on a 3-pointer by Lauren Huggins with 6:15 left until halftime.
"Kresl, Kresl set the tone," Rueck said. "She came in and just shot the lights out. This team scored 18 points in the second half against us two weeks ago, three weeks ago, on their home floor. Today they had 18 points in four minutes. That is a trend in the wrong direction."
The 6-6 Hamblin said her team was "all a little excited. Obviously they came in a bit higher than us, and they hit us first so that made a big difference."
Added Kresl: "Yeah, it definitely helps to start strong, but we were really focused coming into the game, and that's why we were able to start with so much energy."
But after shooting 67 percent in the game's first 4:30, CU had cooled to 37.5 percent by halftime. And after her torrid start – 14 points in the first 9:27 – Kresl didn't score in the half's final 10:33. CU finished the half three-of-seven from long range and the game six-of-nine from beyond the arc – and those treys were enough to keep OSU honest in its perimeter defense and help the Buffs get 24 points in the paint to the Beavers' 28.
Huggins' three points were her team's last of the first half. The Buffs got only six shots over the last six minutes of the half – and missed them all. The Beavers took advantage, launching a 13-0 run on a trey by Sydney Wiese and closing it on a three-ball by Ali Gibson to take a 33-30 halftime lead. It was OSU's first lead since 4-3, and that 13-0 run expanded to 15-0 when the Beavers scored the first two points of the second half to go up 35-30.
Maybe sensing a repeat of their disastrous second half in Boulder against the Beavers, the Buffs buckled down. "We were tied with them at halftime (26-26)," recalled Kresl of that February meeting, "and we kind of had a little bit of a mental letdown in the second half defensively. We gave them shots we knew we should have taken away and we didn't execute our game plan as well due to fatigue or just not focusing enough. This time around we came out stronger actually in the second half."
And by now, Reese was ready to score and Swan, who was only 8-of-21 from the field, still was making the occasional jumper and keeping Hamblin away from the basket. At the 8:32 mark, after six consecutive points from Swan, another Kresl trey and an "and-one" from Reese, CU had built a seven-point lead.
Trailing 56-49, Oregon State was in unfamiliar territory – but not too unfamiliar to rally. Over the next 4:11, the Beavers outscored the Buffs 11-3 and regained the lead, 60-59, on a three-point play by Hamblin with 4:21 remaining. CU hit only one of eight shots during that stretch.
Rueck saw that one-point advantage "as an opportunity for us to separate just a little bit. We didn't take advantage and then they made big plays down the stretch and hit big shots. So hats off to Colorado."
Coming out of a timeout, the Buffs got a stop but turned it over. The Beavers' next possession was fruitless. Swan hit a short jumper to put CU back in front 61-60, followed by Sborov's end-to-end for a layup and a 63-60 Buffs advantage with 1:43 left.
They went up 65-60 on a Kresl layup after a sweet feed from Reese, then 67-60 on two free throws by Haley Smith with 40.2 seconds showing. Ali Gibson's trey with just under 20 seconds left brought the Beavers to within 67-63, and after Sborov missed the front end of a one-and-one with 17.5 seconds left, a put-back by Gabriella Hanson brought OSU to 67-65 with 2.1 seconds showing.
Huggins was fouled and hit one of two free throws. Needing a 3-pointer to tie, OSU's in-bounds pass sailed out of bounds at mid-court at the buzzer and CU's biggest win of the season was complete.
"We're just a team," said Reese. "We all love each other and we're family. Our coaches do a great job of drawing up plays and personnel and we listen to them and understand the game plan. But we focus more on ourselves. We don't consider ourselves underdogs because we know what we're capable of – and that's kind of just how we do it."
If they do it again Saturday night, their improbable Pac-12 run will continue. And if they make it to Sunday, who knows what might happen.
Contact:Â BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
