Colorado Readies for Oregon State, Oregon

BOULDER — The Colorado women's basketball team will take on No. 10 Oregon State and No. 3 Oregon in a pair of Pac-12 rematches. The Beavers come to town on Thursday and the Ducks cap the week on Saturday.

The first time around with the Oregon schools could not have been more opposite games. Colorado entered the toughest trip in basketball, playing the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the nation, as severe underdogs.

Things did not go according to plan in Eugene, but the Buffs had a strong bounce-back performance against then-No. 3 Oregon State in Corvallis. Colorado lead, 21-17, after the first quarter and kept the game to within four points early in the fourth quarter.

"I feel that we're more prepared emotionally, physically and from a chemistry standpoint," head coach JR Payne explained. "We're a better basketball team [since then]. I think we're confident against all these teams. I know we can't wait for this weekend. This is just such a cool opportunity."

The Buffs have not beaten a ranked opponent since their 67-61 win over No. 24 Miami (Fla.) in the early goings of the 2017-18 season. Colorado is 0-4 against ranked teams this season, but have been within reach against No. 3 Oregon State, No. 8 UCLA and most recently No. 6 Stanford.

"We're kind of past the point of saying, 'now we know we can compete,'" Payne continued. "Now we're pissed off that we don't win that game. I think after the Oregon State game, the first time, we were trying to rally around, 'look at that like we can really compete with these great teams and we can do this.' Then against UCLA it was like, 'see, I told you we could compete.' Now we're at a point where we're just mad. When we are unable to do what we need to do win. We're more focused on what didn't we do well enough to win the ballgame."

There are similar events in CU's three close losses to Oregon State, UCLA and Stanford that can be pointed to as turning points. Each one of the losses featured a point where Colorado allowed its opponents to get back into the game. Each time Colorado has stepped back up, whether it was a strong defensive showing at Oregon State, a 20-point comeback against UCLA or hitting a 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds to play against Stanford.

"There's a handful of things that we do really well," Payne noted. "There's a handful of things we don't do well. We need to try to maximize what we can do and just stay in that lane. Everybody just max-out at their roles and play as hard as you possibly can. Limiting turnovers is always a factor for us. I think that's where our focus needs to be."

The Buffs will be back at full strength against Oregon State, having played all but three minutes shorthanded in the first meeting. Freshman Charlotte Whittaker left the first game with an injury and missed three games. She returned to the court last week at Stanford and played a key role in CU's 62-50 win at California.

The Beavers have lost three consecutive games, including a pair to Oregon in last week's Civil War series. The Beavers have been dominant on the glass this season, ranking second in the NCAA with 32.1 defensive rebounds. They lead the Pac-12 this season with an 11.7 rebounding margin. Mikayla Pivec leads OSU with 9.4 rebounds per game.

Oregon comes to town in the middle of a three-game road trip. They open at Utah on Thursday and close at Connecticut on Monday. The Ducks, led by senior phenom Sabrina Ionescu, are 17-2 this season and 7-1 in Pac-12 play. Ionescu has added four more triple-doubles to her NCAA record that now stands at 22.

Thursday is Throwback Thursday night against the Beavers. There will be $1 popcorn and each quarter will be a different decade in time.

Saturday is Chip's birthday. Chip, CU's three-time national champion costume mascot, will have his mascot friends in attendance to help celebrate the occasion.

All of Colorado's Pac-12 games will be televised on the Pac-12 Network this season. You can also catch the game on the Colorado Radio Network with the TuneIn app.

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Players Mentioned

Charlotte Whittaker