Colorado
14-5,3-5Pac-12
California
8-11,0-8Pac-12
Buffs Top the Bears, 62-50
January 26, 2020 | Women's Basketball
Emma Clarke totals game-high 14 points
BERKELEY, Calif. – Sophomore Emma Clarke scored 14 points and helped fuel a strong third quarter in Colorado's 62-50 come from behind win over California on Sunday. The win snapped a three-game skid.
Colorado (14-5, 3-5 Pac-12) trailed by four after the first quarter and worked its way back to a tie at halftime. The Buffs scored 32 points in the second half on the way to the 12-point win.
Clarke led all scorers on the day and added five rebounds. Freshman Jaylyn Sherrod posted nine points to go with her seven rebounds and five assists. CU's bench put up 25 points, getting nine apiece from Aubrey Knight and Charlotte Whittaker.
Jaelyn Brown led Cal with 12 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Colorado got out to a 5-0 lead, getting contributions from Sherrod and Tuitele on the Buffs' first two possessions. CU couldn't keep up the pace, going through an 0-for-4 slump. Baskets from Hollingshed and Whittaker got the Buffs back on track. A 3-pointer from Finau put the Buffs up 14-10, but CU's lead disappeared down the stretch. Cal closed with the final five points to end the period with a 20-16 advantage.
Both teams played a pretty even second quarter. Each side hit five field goals in the frame. Cal's lead hovered between four and six points through the first five minutes of the quarter. Five consecutive points from Whittaker helped cut the Bear lead to 26-25. Clarke hit a key 3 inside of two minutes even the score at 28-28. Colorado closed the final 1:55 with a 5-2 run to outscore Cal 14-10 in the quarter.
Clarke scored the first eight points for CU to start the half. She hit back-to-back 3's and followed with a fast-break layup to put the Buffs up 38-32. Colorado scored 13 straight points build a 43-32 advantage at the five-minute mark.
The Golden Bears pushed back with a 9-2 run to cut CU's lead down to four, 47-43, to start the fourth quarter.
Both sides struggle for offense to start the final quarter. CU started 0-for-5, while Cal went 0-for-3 in the first three minutes. Knight scored all nine of her points in the final quarter. She put the Buffs up six with a pair of free throws and hit Colorado's first field goal with 6:10 to go, helping CU get a 51-45 lead. She went 5-for-5 from the line and Colorado went 7-for-9 as a team to closeout the Bears.
KEY STATISTICS: Colorado outrebounded Cal 47-30 (+17). It was the team's largest margin in the last four games (USC +19).
NOTES: Clarke's 14 points were the most in a Pac-12 game since 15 last season vs Washington…Colorado shot 81.3 percent (13-16) from the free-throw line…Lesila Finau scored all seven of her points in the first quarter…CU is now 8-12 all-time against Cal…It was also CU's first win in Berkeley since 2017.
NEXT UP: The Buffs prepare for round two against the Oregon schools next week. Colorado will take on Oregon State on Thursday and Oregon on Saturday.
QUOTES
Head Coach JR Payne
Overall thoughts
"i think we proved day in day out that we're very resilient group. I knew that we would be able to bounce back after Stanford because that's sort of who we are. I appreciate that we were able to flush a major disappointment [loss at Stanord] in less than 48 hours. I thought we played a pretty good basketball game. It was wonderful to have Charlotte back. I thought Sila [Finau] played tremendously this weekend, looking to be aggressive and scoring the ball. We definitely need her to continue to do that. And then our rebounding numbers were fantastic."
On the third quarter
"We pretty much just talk about everything. We don't try to play mind tricks. We say, listen, 'we haven't had good third quarters we got to fix it. What are we going to do about it?' so we've been very intentional as a staff about trying to address it and come up with some strategies to do better and I think we have. I think our team likes that directness and it's shown that it's improving."
