Buffs Celebrate Memorable 2021-22 Season

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

April 10, 2022 | Women's Basketball

Colorado held its annual team banquet on Sunday

By: Seth Pringle, Assistant SID

BOULDER—Head coach JR Payne and her Colorado women's basketball team gathered inside the Arrow Touchdown Club to put a wrap on the 2021-22 season on Sunday. The Buffaloes, just a few weeks removed from their first NCAA Tournament appearance in nine seasons, handed out their annual end-of-season awards along with the season's letterwinners.

Fifth-year senior Mya Hollingshed took home two of the year's honors, claiming the team's Offensive MVP as well as the Lisa Van Goor Rebounding Award. Freshman Kindyll Wetta earned the Newcomer of the Year, Defensive MVP and was one of two Crystal Ford Adams Scholar-Athlete awards winners along with sophomore Frida Formann. Sophomore Tameiya Sadler was awarded Most Improved Player in her first season as a Buff and senior Peanut Tuitele took home the Ceal Barry Pride Award.

Hollingshed, who earned her second consecutive honorable mention All-America honor last week, wrapped up her Colorado career by leading the Buffs in points (14.1), field goals made (5.2), 3-point field goals made (1.7), rebounding (7.4) and blocks (1.0) in 2021-22. She was the only player in the Pac-12 to lead her team in points, rebounds and 3 points field goals this season.

The Houston, Texas, native, recorded nine double-doubles this season, finishing with 25 in her five seasons at CU. She had five 20-point games this season, with a season-high of 28 coming against Utah on Jan. 30. Hollingshed led the Buffs in scoring on 13 occasions in 2021-22 and 42 times in her career.

Wetta played in all 31 games this season, averaging 24.4 minutes per game. Her 66 steals marked the fourth-most by a CU freshman and the most by a CU freshman since Bridget Turner's 73 in 1985-86. Wetta set school records for the most assists in a quarter and a half at Arizona State, totaling all six of her first-half steals in the final 5:22 of the second quarter. Wetta finished the season second in the Pac-12 in steals per game (2.13).

Sadler played in 26 games and started 12, playing a key role down the stretch. She scored 5.0 points and totaled 2.1 rebounds per game in her first season as a Buff. She averaged 17.3 minutes per game and 17.6 minutes in Pac-12 play. Her 20 steals in Pac-12 play were tied for third-most on the team. The Buffs finished with an 8-4 record with Sadler in the starting lineup, getting her first start at Arizona. Sadler had a season-highs of 13 points and seven rebounds at Utah.

Tuitele started every game for the Buffs in her senior season. The senior forward was a key leader on and off the court in 2021-22. She scored a season-high 16 points in CU's win over Washington in the Pac-12 Tournament, surpassing 800 career points. Tuitele closed the season with 7.4 points and 4.2 rebounds per game and led the team in field goal percentage (.511).

13-0

The 2021-22 season was one for the history books for the Buffaloes.

The team felt like it left the door open the previous season and used that feeling as fuel from the start of offseason workouts.

2021-22 started with Hollingshed announcing that she was returning to Boulder for a fifth season, passing on the opportunity to enter the WNBA draft.

"While I'm honored to be considered for the 2021 WNBA Draft, my teammates and I are excited to continue our hunt for a PAC-12 Championship and a deep run into the NCAA Tournament! We have unfinished business," Hollingshed said in her announcement.

That "unfinished business" was used as a rallying cry for all 12 players and coaches, pinpointing a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Colorado's season started with a trip to former Big 12 rival Oklahoma State, marking the Buffs' first season-opener against a Power 5 school since the 1984-85 season. Colorado's defense held the Cowgirls to 20 points in the first half and Hollingshed scored 15 points to help the Buffs to the 55-45 win to start the season.

CU's two-game road trip continued with a drive down to Air Force. The Falcons gave the Buffs a scare, but Jaylyn Sherrod hit a key 3-pointer inside two minutes to play and the Buffs outscored AFA 7-3 down the stretch to secure the 58-53 win.

The Buffs' winning streak hit three games with a 69-53 win over Marquette in the home-opener. Wins against Samford, Texas State, Louisiana Tech and Wisconsin closed out the month of November.

December continued with a bang, opening with a 25-point win against Dixie State. The win was CU's eighth to start the season and the team moved into the AP rankings at No. 25 for the first time since Dec. 26, 2016.

The No. 25 Buffs hit the road for the first time since opening week, making a trip to a familiar destination for Payne and the coaching staff. CU went down to Southern Utah where Payne spent five seasons as the Thunderbirds' head coach. Colorado cruised to its ninth win, getting 18 points from Quay Miller.

"Just knowing how much Cedar City and Southern Utah meant to us – we really tried, knowing the game was going to be something we had to pour all of our focus into – we tried to get all the emotion out before the game started so when it came to game time it was all business," Payne said after the game. "I think our team definitely heard that loud and clear."

Colorado closed the non-conference portion of the schedule a perfect 10-0 with home wins against SMU and San Francisco.

The Pac-12 season was supposed to open on the road, traveling to Oregon State and Oregon. COVID issues within the Buffs forced the Oregon State game to be postponed and rescheduled while the game at Oregon got wiped off the schedule. Instead of spending New Year's in Oregon, the Buffs opened Pac-12 play a week later with a 71-58 win over Southern California.

CU improved to 13-0 and started 2-0 in conference play for the first time since 2006-07 by breaking a 10-game losing streak to UCLA. CU trailed after the first quarter, 12-10, for the first time all season and needed a then-career-high 25-point effort from Sherrod to pull out the 71-63 victory. The win marked CU's first-weekend sweep of USC and UCLA.

"I just told the team I'm really proud of them," Payne commented after the win. "I think every team is going through some adversity or another. We're no different. To come out and sweep our opening weekend in the Pac-12, on a short turnaround, when our opponent had a lot of time to prepare for us. We had a very short amount of time to prepare for a great team like UCLA. [That] just shows a lot of resilience. A lot of togetherness, a lot of cohesion and I'm super proud of our ballclub."

Facing Adversity

The Buffs jumped back into the rankings at No. 22 and staked claim to being the only undefeated, Division I men's or women's, team left standing as the team prepared to take on No. 2 Stanford in Boulder.

The No. 2 Cardinal put an end to CU's longest winning streak since the 1994-95 season, handing CU a 60-52 loss.

"I think two really good basketball teams played tonight" Payne explained after the game. "Two teams that should be competing at the highest level and we both did tonight. We competed and battled. There are so many things we can learn from."

CU's scheduled game against Cal was canceled due to COVID issues with the Golden Bears but had the Oregon State game rescheduled for Monday in Corvallis, forcing the Buffs to play its next four games on the road.

The Buffs started the trip with a pair of overtime losses at OSU and then at Arizona State, falling to 2-3 in Pac-12 play. No. 10 Arizona handed CU its fourth straight loss, 75-56, in Tucson.

Colorado closed the four-game trip with a double-overtime win over Utah, improving to 14-4 on the season.

"After that four-game stretch, I'm glad we pulled this one out," Tuitele noted after the win. "I think it's big in general, these last four losses we've had it tough, we could easily have given in and wilted, but we showed resilience."

Utah handed the Buffs their fifth loss of the season on the second half of the back-to-back, beating Colorado 78-67 in Boulder. Colorado would drop its next game to Washington State, 63-56, giving the team six losses in its last seven games.

"I think the good teams know how to stay emotionally level," Wetta noted in the Buffs' slum. "When you're on a 13-0 winning streak you don't think you're ever going to lose. Then when you do, it's very hard. Losing multiple games after that is even harder. We are going through some of that adversity now and every team has to go through that. I know we can make it through and that we're going to come out better for it."

Back on Track

Colorado was able to right the ship with a pair of wins over Washington and California, improving to 16-6 and 5-6 in Pac-12 play.

With two back in the win column, it was time for a rematch with No. 2 Stanford.

The Buffs led by one, 30-29, at the half at Maples Pavilion, but wouldn't be able to keep up in the second half. The Carinal held the Buffs to 16 points in the final 20 minutes and took the contest 63-46.

That would be CU's last loss of the regular season as the team responded with a second sweep of the Los Angeles schools to kickoff the last four-game stretch of the season.

The final weekend of the regular season opened with an 86-83 double-overtime win over No. 25 Oregon, marking CU's first win over the Ducks since Feb. 19, 2017. Miller and Tuitele combined for 12 of Colorado's 14 points in the two overtimes. The pair went a combined 4-for-5 from the field and 3-for-4 from the free-throw line, helping CU to its 19th win of the season.

Colorado concluded the regular season with a 60-45 win over Oregon State to give CU its first 20-win season since 2012-13. Formann led the way for the Buffs with 15 points, matching her season's best effort.

"I think it's really important we're playing this way going into March," Hollingshed commented after the game. "When you're not playing your best basketball, you don't know where you stand. I think we are realizing we are the only team that can stop us down the stretch."

Postseason

The Buffs finished 9-7 in the Pac-12, earning the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament in Las Vegas.

Colorado drew No. 12 Washington for its first-round matchup, setting up a rematch from the first round of the 2021 tournament when the Huskies upset the Buffs and eliminated CU from NCAA Tournament consideration.

This time around the Buffs had Miller and Sadler on their side and Tuitele matcher her season-high of 16 points, helping Colorado advance to the second round with a 64-52 win. It was CU's first win in the Pac-12 Tournament since it moved to Las Vegas.

The only downside to the win was an injury to Sadler in the fourth quarter, sidelining her for the rest of the season.

CU matched up with No. 14 Arizona in the second round in what proved to be a defensive battle. A late 3-pointer from Formann proved to be the final dagger that helped Colorado narrowly escape the fourth-seeded Wildcats, 45-43.

"I'm proud of our team for how we played, how we battled. We were up. We were down. We came back up, came back down, definitely a defensive effort from both teams as we knew it would be. In the end, I think we just handled our business. We talk about everything's a business trip and everyone has a job to do and we were able to do that tonight," Payne stated after the win.

Colorado would meet up with Stanford for the third time in the semifinal round. It was CU's first trip to the Pac-12 semifinals since the 2015 tournament.

The Buffs kept with the eventual tournament champs for the first quarter, trailing 11-10 after 10 minutes. From there it was all Stanford, who would go on to a 71-45 win, ending CU's Pac-12 Tournament.

But the season wasn't done. Colorado felt it was securely in the field of the 68 when Selection Sunday came around and its confidence was reassured when the Buffs were announced as a No. 7 seed on ESPN.

"All week we felt like we did what we needed to do to have our name called," Payne said of CU's selection. "There is really nothing that compares to seeing your name actually pop up. I think the black and gold kind of shook everybody for a second, but we're really honored and excited for the opportunity."

Colorado, making its first NCAA appearance since 2013, drew NO. 10 Creighton in Iowa City. The Bluejays offered up a unique task for the Buffs with an offensive style that they hadn't seen all year. Colorado got out to a 21-17 lead after the first quarter but trailed 36-31 at the half.

Sherrod dropped a career-high 27 points, but Buffs struggled to match Creighton's offensive efficiency. The Bluejays shot 50.9% from the field and went 8-for-19 (42.1%) from 3-point range, bringing an end to the Buffs' memorable season with an 84-74 loss.

"Overall, we have to look at the things we've been able to accomplish, things we've been able to achieve throughout the season and be grateful for being put in this position," Hollingshed reflected after the Creighton game. "You never want to lose, making it this far, but as she [Coach Payne] said there's only one team in the country that will win at the end of their season."