Colorado University Athletics
Friday, January 26
Boulder, Colo.
8:00 PM
Colorado
55
vs
74
Oregon
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
No. 7 Oregon Holds Off Buffs With Strong Second Half
January 26, 2018 | Women's Basketball
BOULDER – No. 7/9 Oregon held off a tough Colorado team for a 74-55 win at the Coors Events Center on Friday night. The Ducks improved to 19-3 overall and 8-1 in the Pac-12, while CU dropped to 11-9 and 2-7 in the Pac-12 with its fifth consecutive loss.
Oregon outscored the Buffs 35-13 in the second half after holding a seven-point halftime lead.
STAT LEADERS: Kennedy Leonard had an outstanding game for the Buffs with 16 points and nine assists, while committing just one turnover. Alexis Robinson also scored in double figures with 11 points and the two players each knocked down three 3-pointers.
Quinessa Caylao-Do scored nine points and had a career-high seven rebounds. Janea Bunn had eight points and six rebounds off the bench after missing last weekend's games.
Ruthy Hebard led Oregon with 20 points and nine rebounds. Sabrina Ionescu had 14 points, eight assists and seven points.
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Buffs played their best first quarter in Pac-12 play this season. They came out hot, making four of their first six shot attempts, including three 3-pointers, to lead 12-6 with 6:34 remaining.
Oregon clawed its way back as the Buffs held just a 16-15 lead at the end of the quarter.
The Ducks caught fire early in the second quarter, outscoring Colorado 18-2 over the first five minutes to take a 33-18 lead. But Colorado then fought back, scoring eight of the final 10 points as Leonard buried two late 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 39-32 at halftime.
CU got within 39-36 after Caylao-Do and Leonard opened the second half with layups, but that was as close as the Buffs would get.
The Ducks hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close out the third period and went on an 18-6 run that carried into the fourth quarter to lead 59-43. Oregon then outscored CU 18-12 in the fourth quarter.
KEY STATISTICS: CU outrebounded Oregon 40-39 and committed just 14 turnovers in the game. But the Ducks had just eight turnovers and shot 43.5 percent from the floor. CU was held to just 33.9 percent shooting.
NOTES: Leonard was responsible for 27 of CU's 32 first-half points with 12 points and six assists (three came on 3-pointers); for the game, she accounted for 38 of CU's 55 points ... CU's 16-15 lead after the first quarter was the first time since Dec. 31 against Arizona that the Buffs outscored an opponent in the first quarter ... Caylao-Do's seven rebounds were a career high ... Oregon leads the all-time series 14-8 now vs. Colorado.
UP NEXT: CU will host No. 17 Oregon State at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
POSTGAME QUOTES:
JR Payne, head coach
Opening Statement
"Every time we meet this week we talked about competing on the glass and we definitely did that tonight. To outbound a team that was bigger than us at every position shows the toughness of our team, and our desire to work. It was a game of runs. They went on a run then we got back in it, then they went back on a run and we couldn't get enough stops or enough scores."
On the team's scoring droughts
"It really hurt. Especially when we were giving up easy buckets and they were scoring on the pick and roll. Ruthy (Hebard) started to get to her right hand which she loves and is so good at. We weren't scoring and we were giving up easy points at the basket. They also had some timely offensive boards that they scored on, and that combination was hard to recover from."
On the team's turnovers
"Fourteen (turnovers) isn't horrible, but it is the points they scored off of those turnovers. They took those and turned them into points which is a challenge. A lot of times it was off of things that we were in control of like throwing a blind pass that they would get their long arms on."
On the team's five-game losing streak
"I'm not worried about wins, losses, or the score. I'm worried about how we are playing. I'm worried about where our team is from an emotional standpoint, our work ethic, our toughness, and our discipline. The score will eventually take care of itself. There are a lot of things we can pull from this game. There are also things where we will look back and know what we could have done differently. It is all learning. Continuing to play hard, competing, never backing down, and continuing to execute scouts is where our focus has to be to grow as a ball club."
On having Zoe Correal and Janea Bunn back in the lineup together
"It was great. They are two different types of post players. Our focus was on Correal really being able to be physical early, and then to have Janea (Bunn) come in with her athleticism against a fatigued defense. They both did a great job and both rebounded. When Correal gets her legs under her a little more, she can go for longer stretches. It was great to have our two significant post players in the game."
Kennedy Leonard, junior
On great start to the game
"Yeah, it was huge, our energy in warmups was I think probably the best it's been all season. We were just fired up. They were talking us up on the sideline and it kind of hyped us up a little bit. Obviously, it is crucial starting that way, especially against a team like Oregon who attacks you super quickly. Starting that way is really good for us and I hope that we can use it in the future games."
On getting back in it after Oregon's big run during the first half
"I think we've proven that we fight back. We don't ever really give up. They're a good team, they're going to make runs. Every team makes runs, its basketball. We just had to buckle in and make shots, run our plays, and execute. See what happens."
On playing tough teams and the take away from tonight's game
"I mean yeah, Oregon, Arizona State, Arizona are all really good teams. Every night in the Pac 12 is a good game and obviously we're still a young team. I think the biggest thing to take from these games is you know, they go on a huge run and we don't back down. I think just learning that we're tough, we're getting tougher every game, and were all playing better and playing better together. You don't win overnight, it takes a bit."
Quinessa Caylao-Do, sophomore
On rebounding effort tonight
"Yeah, I think this whole week and last week we've been talking a lot about rebounding. I know today they were pretty good on the 'O' boards so I knew that if I rebounded we can get our transition going. Rebounding really helped us out. I think the next game we will rebound a lot harder and get our transition going a little bit next time."
Kelly Graves, Oregon head coach
On playing a tough Colorado team
"It wasn't the prettiest game tonight, but credit to them they play really hard. You know they hit some threes early on. It is contagious once you hit one or two and things start to roll. But I liked how we battled back and battled some injuries, fatigue and other things tonight; I thought we did a pretty good job for a good portion of that game."
On Colorado cutting it close in the third and how Oregon was able to pull away
"I thought that we left a lot of points on the board, you know we haven't shot the ball well in a while. We just haven't. We are not shooting the three. I thought that Satou (Sabally) had a couple of really good looks; Sabrina (Ionescu) had some great looks they just weren't going. I thought that looking inside we could have finished a little better; Mallory (McGwire) had a couple of bunnies. You know sometimes those things are just contagious but here we are complaining when we have a 19-point win on the road without Maite (Cazorla) for a good portion of that second half, so in that way we have to be pleased."
On Colorado being a good rebounding team and what they need to fix in the future
"They are good, they go after it. Their guards are good rebounders, I think that is what makes them more effective. I would like to see us a little bit better than nine offensive rebounds; that isn't good enough for a team that is as athletic as us. This is maybe the fourth Friday in a row that we haven't played that well. You know in the USC game we struggled, then in the Arizona game, then last week against Oregon State, then tonight so I don't know if there is something that I need to do a little different during the week. We are trying to keep our kids healthy. We have a few that just can't practice they just maybe shoot, free-throws and things like that. We have to find a way to come out and play a little bit harder, a little more intensely on Fridays."
Oregon outscored the Buffs 35-13 in the second half after holding a seven-point halftime lead.
STAT LEADERS: Kennedy Leonard had an outstanding game for the Buffs with 16 points and nine assists, while committing just one turnover. Alexis Robinson also scored in double figures with 11 points and the two players each knocked down three 3-pointers.
Quinessa Caylao-Do scored nine points and had a career-high seven rebounds. Janea Bunn had eight points and six rebounds off the bench after missing last weekend's games.
Ruthy Hebard led Oregon with 20 points and nine rebounds. Sabrina Ionescu had 14 points, eight assists and seven points.
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Buffs played their best first quarter in Pac-12 play this season. They came out hot, making four of their first six shot attempts, including three 3-pointers, to lead 12-6 with 6:34 remaining.
Oregon clawed its way back as the Buffs held just a 16-15 lead at the end of the quarter.
The Ducks caught fire early in the second quarter, outscoring Colorado 18-2 over the first five minutes to take a 33-18 lead. But Colorado then fought back, scoring eight of the final 10 points as Leonard buried two late 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 39-32 at halftime.
CU got within 39-36 after Caylao-Do and Leonard opened the second half with layups, but that was as close as the Buffs would get.
The Ducks hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close out the third period and went on an 18-6 run that carried into the fourth quarter to lead 59-43. Oregon then outscored CU 18-12 in the fourth quarter.
KEY STATISTICS: CU outrebounded Oregon 40-39 and committed just 14 turnovers in the game. But the Ducks had just eight turnovers and shot 43.5 percent from the floor. CU was held to just 33.9 percent shooting.
NOTES: Leonard was responsible for 27 of CU's 32 first-half points with 12 points and six assists (three came on 3-pointers); for the game, she accounted for 38 of CU's 55 points ... CU's 16-15 lead after the first quarter was the first time since Dec. 31 against Arizona that the Buffs outscored an opponent in the first quarter ... Caylao-Do's seven rebounds were a career high ... Oregon leads the all-time series 14-8 now vs. Colorado.
UP NEXT: CU will host No. 17 Oregon State at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
POSTGAME QUOTES:
JR Payne, head coach
Opening Statement
"Every time we meet this week we talked about competing on the glass and we definitely did that tonight. To outbound a team that was bigger than us at every position shows the toughness of our team, and our desire to work. It was a game of runs. They went on a run then we got back in it, then they went back on a run and we couldn't get enough stops or enough scores."
On the team's scoring droughts
"It really hurt. Especially when we were giving up easy buckets and they were scoring on the pick and roll. Ruthy (Hebard) started to get to her right hand which she loves and is so good at. We weren't scoring and we were giving up easy points at the basket. They also had some timely offensive boards that they scored on, and that combination was hard to recover from."
On the team's turnovers
"Fourteen (turnovers) isn't horrible, but it is the points they scored off of those turnovers. They took those and turned them into points which is a challenge. A lot of times it was off of things that we were in control of like throwing a blind pass that they would get their long arms on."
On the team's five-game losing streak
"I'm not worried about wins, losses, or the score. I'm worried about how we are playing. I'm worried about where our team is from an emotional standpoint, our work ethic, our toughness, and our discipline. The score will eventually take care of itself. There are a lot of things we can pull from this game. There are also things where we will look back and know what we could have done differently. It is all learning. Continuing to play hard, competing, never backing down, and continuing to execute scouts is where our focus has to be to grow as a ball club."
On having Zoe Correal and Janea Bunn back in the lineup together
"It was great. They are two different types of post players. Our focus was on Correal really being able to be physical early, and then to have Janea (Bunn) come in with her athleticism against a fatigued defense. They both did a great job and both rebounded. When Correal gets her legs under her a little more, she can go for longer stretches. It was great to have our two significant post players in the game."
Kennedy Leonard, junior
On great start to the game
"Yeah, it was huge, our energy in warmups was I think probably the best it's been all season. We were just fired up. They were talking us up on the sideline and it kind of hyped us up a little bit. Obviously, it is crucial starting that way, especially against a team like Oregon who attacks you super quickly. Starting that way is really good for us and I hope that we can use it in the future games."
On getting back in it after Oregon's big run during the first half
"I think we've proven that we fight back. We don't ever really give up. They're a good team, they're going to make runs. Every team makes runs, its basketball. We just had to buckle in and make shots, run our plays, and execute. See what happens."
On playing tough teams and the take away from tonight's game
"I mean yeah, Oregon, Arizona State, Arizona are all really good teams. Every night in the Pac 12 is a good game and obviously we're still a young team. I think the biggest thing to take from these games is you know, they go on a huge run and we don't back down. I think just learning that we're tough, we're getting tougher every game, and were all playing better and playing better together. You don't win overnight, it takes a bit."
Quinessa Caylao-Do, sophomore
On rebounding effort tonight
"Yeah, I think this whole week and last week we've been talking a lot about rebounding. I know today they were pretty good on the 'O' boards so I knew that if I rebounded we can get our transition going. Rebounding really helped us out. I think the next game we will rebound a lot harder and get our transition going a little bit next time."
Kelly Graves, Oregon head coach
On playing a tough Colorado team
"It wasn't the prettiest game tonight, but credit to them they play really hard. You know they hit some threes early on. It is contagious once you hit one or two and things start to roll. But I liked how we battled back and battled some injuries, fatigue and other things tonight; I thought we did a pretty good job for a good portion of that game."
On Colorado cutting it close in the third and how Oregon was able to pull away
"I thought that we left a lot of points on the board, you know we haven't shot the ball well in a while. We just haven't. We are not shooting the three. I thought that Satou (Sabally) had a couple of really good looks; Sabrina (Ionescu) had some great looks they just weren't going. I thought that looking inside we could have finished a little better; Mallory (McGwire) had a couple of bunnies. You know sometimes those things are just contagious but here we are complaining when we have a 19-point win on the road without Maite (Cazorla) for a good portion of that second half, so in that way we have to be pleased."
On Colorado being a good rebounding team and what they need to fix in the future
"They are good, they go after it. Their guards are good rebounders, I think that is what makes them more effective. I would like to see us a little bit better than nine offensive rebounds; that isn't good enough for a team that is as athletic as us. This is maybe the fourth Friday in a row that we haven't played that well. You know in the USC game we struggled, then in the Arizona game, then last week against Oregon State, then tonight so I don't know if there is something that I need to do a little different during the week. We are trying to keep our kids healthy. We have a few that just can't practice they just maybe shoot, free-throws and things like that. We have to find a way to come out and play a little bit harder, a little more intensely on Fridays."
Players Mentioned
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