Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
5-14, 0-8Pac-12
Oregon State
16-3, 7-1Pac-12
Buffs Fall To Eighth-Ranked Oregon State, 61-47
January 24, 2016 | Women's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — For a little more than three quarters Sunday afternoon, Linda Lappe's Colorado Buffaloes played one of their better games of the season.
Seconds into the fourth quarter, a Haley Smith bucket pulled the Buffs to within six, 49-43, of eighth-ranked Oregon State. Smith's basket capped an 8-1 CU run — with Smith scoring all eight — and a repeat of last season's Pac-12 tourney upset, when the ninth-seeded Buffs knocked off top-seeded OSU, seemed possible.
But there would be no repeats this time around. Just as they did for most of the game, the Beavers answered CU's run with one of their own, putting together a 10-0 burst to take a 59-43 lead. The Buffs then went cold and OSU never let CU get close again, taking a 61-47 win.
The loss, Colorado's ninth straight, dropped CU to 5-14 overall and 0-8 in the Pac-12 while the Beavers improved to 16-3, 7-1.
Smith led the Buffs with 20 points and Jamee Swan added eight. OSU center Ruth Hamblin, who scored the Beavers' first 10 points, led all scorers with 20.
"We aren't that far away from where we want to be," a disappointed CU head coach Linda Lappe said. "We played tough for the large portion of the game and they did some good things. Â We just aren't getting what we want on the offensive end."
Indeed, the Buffs' shooting woes once again proved to be their downfall, along with too many turnovers in crunch time. CU shot just 34 percent from the field (21-for-61) and committed six costly turnovers in the final period after having just five in the first three periods combined.
"It's been a habit of ours," Lappe said. "We've had way too many turnovers in the fourth quarter."
Smith had one of her better games of the season, collecting her 16 points on 8-for-13 shooting and also grabbing eight rebounds. But the Beavers' inside tandem of Hamblin (20 points, seven rebounds) and Marie Gulich (eight points, 10 rebounds) kept the Buffs at bay for most of the afternoon.
"We had a tough time defending on the inside and scoring," Lappe said.
Early in the game, however, the Buffs managed to match OSU's inside game with some sharp outside shooting. While the 6-foot-6 Hamblin scored OSU's first 10 points, the Buffs got four points from Smith and four from Swan in the first six minutes and held a 12-10 lead over the Beavers. At that point, CU had connected on six of its first 12 shots.
But then came a CU cold stretch. The Buffs hit just two of their next 15 shots and OSU took a 20-14 lead at the end of the quarter and a 32-27 lead into the locker room at halftime.
"It has to do with the mindset that we approach the offense with," Smith said. "The past few games we've been doing really well defensively. We've been really enjoying playing defense and working together, playing team defense. That is something that we are trying to work toward on offense."
After trailing by five at the half, 32-27, the Buffs managed to stay close through the third quarter. A Brecca Thomas bucket cut OSU's lead to three, 38-35, with 5:40 remaining in the period, but OSU responded with a 10-0 run to bump the margin back up to 13. CU, however, answered again, cutting the gap back to single digits when six straight points from Smith helped CU narrow OSU's lead to 49-41 by the end of the third period.
Colorado gets two more games at home this week, with UCLA scheduled to visit Friday (7 p.m.) and USC on Sunday (7 p.m.). The Buffs hope they'll be able to take Sunday's good stretches and build them into something that will help produce their first Pac-12 win of the season.
"We should be able to build on it," Lappe said. "We have all the potential to build on this, and we just need to choose to maximize that potential. It'll be a special day when it happens because I feel as though we have some special players."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
