Buffs Face No. 10 Sun Devils Friday Morning, Wildcats On Sunday

TEMPE, Ariz. – The Colorado women's basketball team launches the final leg of its four-game Pac-12 road trip here Friday morning against No. 10 Arizona State, one of the hottest teams in the country and the only unbeaten team in conference play.

On the road last weekend for the first time this season in the conference, the Buffaloes (5-10 overall, 0-4 Pac-12) dropped a pair of games at then-No. 21 California and now-No. 11 Stanford. After a 64-35 loss to the Bears, the Buffs regrouped offensively and battled the Cardinal before falling 71-56.

Friday's game at ASU (11 a.m. MT, ASU Live Stream) sends CU against an opponent that has won 10 consecutive games and this week entered the AP top 10 for the first time this season. The Sun Devils (13-3, 4-0) enjoyed a 14-game winning streak during the 2014-15 season and a 10-game winning streak the prior season.

“They're balanced, they play hard and they're led by defense . . . everyone contributes,” CU coach Linda Lappe said of ASU. “They're a hustle and effort team.”

The Sun Devils have allowed a league-best 46.5 points a game in their four conference wins while the Buffs have allowed an average of 71.2 points – second-worst behind Utah's 76.2 – in their four league losses.

Lappe said ASU's pressure “doesn't make anything easy . . . they're tough-minded and smart. An offense really has to execute well to score on them.”

The Buffs could receive an offensive boost if senior forward Jamee Swan is cleared to play. Swan, the team's leading scorer (18.0 ppg in two Pac-12 games), did not make the Bay Area trip last weekend due to a sore lower back. However, Swan, of Marana, Ariz., is scheduled to travel with the team this weekend.

Lappe said the Buffs' inefficient offensive performance at Cal – they were scoreless in the second quarter and scored only nine points in the third – was due in part to being “shell-shocked” by Swan's absence.

“But I think we got over it at Stanford,” Lappe added. Defensively against the Cardinal, Lappe said her team was “as solid as we've been all year. We were stingy and made them work for everything. It was a huge step in the right direction for us.”

In addition to Swan, CU has three players averaging in double figures in conference play – freshman guards Kennedy Leonard (13.5 ppg) and Alexis Robinson (10.3), and junior wing Haley Smith (11.3).

Robinson, said Lappe, “is really coming along. We knew she would be a player that takes time to get a handle on things, but that's happening now. She doesn't have to think so much . . . she's a scoring threat and one of our best defenders. She's playing with a lot of confidence.”

As good as the Sun Devils have played of late, their fans have not responded. ASU's attendance average of 910 is the league's worst, making the school the only one in the league with a sub-1,000 attendance mark.

CU and Oregon are the only winless teams in league play (0-4) and the Buffs are the Pac-12's only team with a losing record (5-10). CU has lost nine of its last 11 games and six of its last seven; its last win was 72-60 vs. Presbyterian on Dec. 19.

After the Buffs visit Arizona (10-6, 1-3) on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m. MT, Pac-12 Networks), they begin a four-game home stand next weekend that will take them through the end of the month.

Up first are Oregon (Friday, Jan. 22) and Oregon State (Sunday, Jan. 24), followed by UCLA (Friday, Jan. 29) and USC (Sunday, Jan. 31).