Colorado
15-3,5-1Pac-12
California
10-8,1-6Pac-12
No. 24 Colorado Battles Late, Defeats California, 73-66
January 20, 2023 | Women's Basketball
BERKELEY – Colorado's Quay Miller put in a career-high 26 points to help the Buffaloes pick up their seventh consecutive win on Friday. The Buffs overcame a 3-point fourth-quarter deficit on their way to the 73-66 win at Haas Pavilion.
"I think that my scoring came from my energy—everyone's energy to be honest," Miller said of her career day. "We tend to find the person with the hot and a lot. It comes naturally. It's not like we're trying to force it to me, Netty [Vonleh], Frida [Formann] or anyone who is going off. That's just the flow of our offense. If someone's in a rhythm, we just keep that rhythm going."
Colorado (15-3, 6-1 Pac-12) trailed to start the fourth quarter for just the third time this season. The Buffs weren't phased, using a 30-point effort in the final quarter to put away the Golden Bears. CU went a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and went 80% (16-20) from the line on the day.
"I 100% expected the game to look like this—an athletic matchup with a lot of back and forth," head coach JR Payne expressed after the win. "They have players that have the confidence and ability to hit really big shots when they need to and they rebound. I expected it to be exactly how it was. I was really proud of our team down the stretch. We executed and hit some big shots. Kindyll [Wetta] had a baseline runner. Quay some in a row that were huge and we got stops and hit free throws when we needed to."
Miller converted a team-high three 3-pointers and added five rebounds to her final line. Senior Jaylyn Sherrod finished the afternoon with 15 points and went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line. Sophomore Aaronette Vonleh extended her double-digit scoring streak to 13 games, finishing with 13 points and eight rebounds.
California (10-8, 1-6) hit 10 3-pointers to keep the game tight the entire way. Evelien Lutje Schipholt led the Golden Bears with 17 points. Jayda Curry and Kemery Martin contributed three 3's on the day, finishing with 13 and nine points, respectively.
Former Buff Peanut Tuitele was scoreless on the afternoon, picking up six rebounds.
"We knew that this was going to be one of the hardest games in the league this season," Miller explained. "We were studying for about four or five days in preparation. We knew that they had their heart shattered in games prior to us and that they were going to leave it all on the floor."
More to follow…
How It Happened
Martin beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter that gave Cal the 46-43 lead going into the final quarter.
The sprint to the finish was on from there.
Miller accounted for CU's first five points of the quarter to tie the game at 48. Sherrod would tie the game again at 50 and then would give the Buffs their first lead of the quarter, 52-50, with 6:57 left to play. The Golden Bears would tie the game twice more in the quarter, but wouldn't be able to regain the lead down the stretch.
The Buffs missed just two shots from the floor in the fourth, going 9-for-11 in the quarter. Both misses came from behind the arc. Sherrod totaled 11 points and played almost all 10 minutes in the closing period. Both Sherrod and Frida Formann was 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the closing moments.
"The first thing out of my mouth when we started watching film on Tuesday was that this [Cal] is the most dangerous team in the league right now," Payne noted. "We let that simmer for a second and let the team process that. Then I explained why. This game was hugely important for a lot of different reasons. To be able to win down the stretch in a tough environment with tons of kids—I think it helps you later down the road when you're going to have to do it again."
The Buffs went to Miller early and often, contributing 14 points in the first half. She hit CU's first basket, a 3-pointer, to get Colorado on the board. She went 4-for-6 from the field in the first quarter and helped the Buffs hold the lead for the majority of the opening 20 minutes.
The Buffs closed the final 2:38 of the first quarter with a 6-0 run to take a four-point lead, 22-16. CU opened the second frame with the first four points, to take its largest lead of the day, 26-16.
Neither team shot particularly well leading up to the half. Both teams got out to a 0-for-5 start to the second with Cal finishing 5-for-15 and Colorado just 4-for-17. Curry hit a pair of 3's in the quarter and Cal shot 50% from deep to cut the CU down to five, 34-29, at the break.
Colorado's offense continued to struggle in the third, totaling just nine points in the quarter. The Buffs went 4-for-11 in the quarter and got outscored 17-9. California used a 7-0 run to tie the game at 36-36, but the Golden Bears' production halted momentarily, going 0-for-6 from the field after the run.
Cal took its first lead of the half, 43-41, with a Claudia Langarita 3 with just under two minutes left in the quarter. Miller came back with an answer on the other end to tie the game at 43-43, before Cal's buzzer-beater to close the period.
"We were a little bit lethargic [on defense]," Payne admitted. "I don't think we communicated as well as we needed to. Some of our coverages—we knew what we were supposed to be doing, we just weren't doing it. We don't typically have those types of breakdowns. We need to make sure we address that but it was a great fourth quarter, defensively."
Key Moment
CU's Tameiya Sadler came up big for the Buffs in the fourth quarter. She went to the free-throw line and knocked down a pair to break a 52-52 tie. Cal came back and tied the game on its next possession and CU turned the ball over to give the home team a shot at the lead.
Sadler came up with a steal on Curry and made a layup on the fast break to put CU ahead 56-54 with 5:22 to play. CU's defense then stepped up and forced two empty possessions that led to a Miller layup and a 58-54 CU lead.
The Buffs would go on a 13-3 run to the 1:39 mark after being tied at 54. The run handed CU a 67-57 lead and the Buffs would close the game 6-for-6 at the line.
Up Next
Colorado will close out the road trip with a shot to take down another ranked opponent on Sunday. The Buffs will head over to Maples Pavilion to take on No. 4 Stanford at 3 p.m. MT.
Notes
CU has now won seven in a row…The Buffs are now 6-3 on the road this season…CU's 30 fourth-quarter points were the most in a quarter this season and the most since posting 32 in the 1st quarter at Denver (Dec. 12, 2019)…Friday was Miller's 8th career 20-point game (four this season)…Sadler tied a season-high with eight rebounds…Vonleh has scored 10+ points in 13 straight games…Formann passed Brittany Wilson for 13th on CU's career 3-point list with 141.
