Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
5-8,0-2
Washington State
10-4, 1-2
Brooks: Buffs Drop To 0-2 In Pac-12 After 74-66 Loss To Cougars
January 05, 2016 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – Another shaky start put the Colorado women's team in early trouble Monday night. But the intensity the Buffaloes showed in a dramatic but futile second-half comeback in their Pac-12 opener against Washington never materialized against Washington State.
Result: A 74-66 loss that dropped the Buffs to 0-2 in the conference and left coach Linda Lappe puzzled.
"I'm obviously disappointed in the outcome and the way we played," she said. "It's a tale of two teams right now and we need to play more consistently and we need to play together."
Lappe called her team's first-half play "lackadaisical" and questioned its "overall toughness in the way we play and understanding how to win games in the Pac-12 . . .
"I didn't like our demeanor. It's the second game of a weekend series and you need to be better and tougher than you were in the first game."
As was the case in their 76-74 conference-opening loss to Washington two days earlier at the Coors Events Center, the Buffs (5-8, 0-2) struggled in Monday night's first half and trailed at 39-32 at intermission.
The Buffs' final lead was 26-25 early in the second quarter, and the Cougars (10-4, 1-2) led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter. CU closed only to within five points in the last 3 minutes but WSU wasn't deterred.
The Cougars' Maria Kostourkova and the Buffs' Jamee Swan scored 17 points each. Swan went to the locker room in the final 2 minutes after chasing a loose ball and crashing into the railing behind the broadcasters' table.
Lappe said Swan was having lower back pain and it was too early to determine her status. The Buffs next face four games away from the CEC, playing at California (Friday) and Stanford (Sunday) this weekend then traveling to Arizona State (Jan. 15) and Arizona (Jan. 17) two weekends later.
In addition to Swan's 17 points, Kennedy Leonard added 14 and Alexis Robinson 11 for CU.
After a Haley Smith layup gave the Buffs a 26-25 lead, the Cougars took control with a 14-4 run and gained their largest first-half lead – 39-30 – in the final 2 minutes.
WSU came to Boulder hitting 31.5 percent of its 3-point attempts, but there was no evidence of that Monday night. The Cougars hit 86 percent from behind the arc in the first half, missing only one of their seven trey attempts. They finished the game at 62 percent (8-of-13) from long range.
"We knew that they can all shoot threes," Lappe said. "For most of the game it was target practice for them. We weren't doing anything to get them out of their comfort zone."
Meanwhile, CU struggled to find a consistent offensive rhythm with its starters or reserves. The Buffs shot 41 percent from the field (24-of-59) and got just seven points from the bench while the Cougars were getting a staggering 47 points from their subs.
Down by 18 points at the half against UW, CU refocused, regrouped and got back in the contest. Monday night called for more of the same, but the Buffs weren't listening.
Outscoring them 8-2 to open the third quarter, the Cougars took their first double-digit lead – 45-34 – on a basket in the paint by the 6-4 freshman Kostourkova, who went six-of-seven from the field.
She was one of only two WSU players in double figures – Taylor Edmondson had 12 – but nine of the 11 Cougars who played scored. Mariah Cooks hit three of four treys and had a game-best 12 rebounds.Â
Swan missed most of the second quarter with two fouls, and early on in the third she was the only Buff who could find the range. She scored her team's first six second-half points before returning to the bench with her third foul.
She didn't sit long. She returned just in time to watch Cooks hit her second consecutive trey – the last of her eight straight points – that put WSU up 57-43.
The quarter ended with CU trailing 61-46, but a baseline jumper by Swan and 3-pointer by Lauren Huggins pulled the Buffs back to within 10 (61-51) and prompted a Cougars timeout with 8:37 remaining.
A jumper from the foul line by Leonard returned CU's deficit to single figures – 61-53. Another trey by Huggins and a steal and a layup by Leonard brought the Buffs to within 65-60 – the closest they'd been since 35-30 – at the 3-minute mark.
But that was as close as they could get. CU didn't score another field goal until Leonard made a steal and laid it in with 26 seconds to play. But the Cougars still led 72-66, and after another pair of free throws WSU was home free.
"It's really frustrating coming out against Washington, who's a better team, and we almost win against them," Leonard said. "And then (we) come out against a team you should beat and lose by that much. It's really frustrating for us as a whole."
Smith said two home games to open conference play "could have been really powerful for us to start the Pac-12 season off strong. Like coach Lappe was telling us in the locker room, protecting our home floor really needs to be important. This is going to be a learning point for us."
