Sunday, February 12
Boulder, Colo.
12:00 PM
Colorado
20-5,10-3Pac-12
65
vs
43
Washington
13-11,5-9Pac-12
1
2
3
4
F
Washington
8
11
9
15
43
Colorado
16
15
14
20
65
Photo by: Casey Paul
Colorado Rolls Huskies for win No. 20
February 12, 2023 | Women's Basketball
BOULDER – Colorado picked up its 20th win of the season in front of the home crowd at the CU Events Center on Sunday. The Buffaloes started hot and ran away with a 65-43 win over Washington to finish off the weekend sweep.
Colorado (20-5, 11-3 Pac-12) secured its first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 2011-12 and 2012-13 and did so in front of a large number of alumni that included CU's first Elite Eight team from 1992-93.
"I think it was cool [to meet the '93 team], especially for us because we've kind of got everything that we need to be at the level that they were," Kindyll Wetta explained. "Talking to them and kind of hearing things that they would have done differently or focus more on — Looking back on it 20 years now, they were able to give a lot of good advice and I think that was really good for us."
Colorado led by double-digits at the half and never had the lead slip below 11 in the second half.
CU's offensive game wasn't at its peak the entire game, going 28-for-68 from the field. Instead, the Buffs' defensive presence caused problems for the Huskies. UW's starting five accounted for just 17 of the team's 43 points and the Huskies hit just 33.3% (16-48) as a team.
"[That's] nothing new [for us]," Wetta added about the team's defensive play. "We just do what we do and do it well. We know that we can always control that."
Quay Miller led the way for Colorado with her sixth double-double of the season. She topped all players with 15 points and 11 rebounds in just under 24 minutes of action. Frida Formann and Aaronette Vonleh each had nine points apiece and Wetta and Jaylyn Sherrod each dished out six assists.
"[Today] was a great team win," head coach JR Payne "It really is hard as much as we focus on flushing Friday night's game when it's a really emotional game and it takes a lot of energy to win a game – it's still really hard to do. I continue to be proud of just our mental focus and our leadership that made sure we were ready for today's game. Washington's a really good team that's playing very well, and we knew that we'd have to be ready. I'm proud of our team for that. Lots of great stats, Kindyll Wetta had six assists and no turnovers, making that 11 assists and no turnovers this weekend. Quay Miller had a double-double and a lot of great things. I was so proud that we could get the win this weekend."
Washington (13-11, 5-9 Pac-12) did not have a player reach double figures on Sunday. Lauren Schwartz was the Huskies' top-scorer on the day, closing with nine points.
How It Happened
Colorado used a 5-0 start to the afternoon and never looked back. The Buffs jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead with a Sherrod jumper. CU's lead got to 12 in the period off a Miller 3-pointer. She was 3-for-3 shooting with seven points in the quarter, helping CU to 16-8 quarter.
"I think that we just emphasized this game because of what happened when we played the LA teams [loss to USC]," Miller expressed. "Being able to be mature and bounce back from one emotional game to another and execute. We didn't execute everything, but just being able to lock in and just get the win."
A Brianna McLeod layup put CU back up by 12 with two minutes gone in the second quarter. The Buffs used a Formann 3-pointer in the middle of a 7-0 run to gain its largest lead of the half, 29-12. UW clawed back with a 7-0 run of its own to get back to within 10, but the Buffs took a comfortable 31-19 lead into the locker room.
Miller opened the third quarter for the Buffs with her second 3 of the afternoon and closed the quarter in the same fashion, beating the buzzer from behind the arc. The Buffs only scored 14 in the period but held UW to nine to cruise into the fourth quarter with a 17-point lead.
Formann scored 11 of CU's 20 fourth-quarter points, going 4-for-8 from the floor and 3-for-6 from long range. Miller's only bucket of the quarter gave CU its largest lead of the day, 55-29, with six minutes to play. A 5-0 run for UW narrowed the gap to 19 points, but a 3-point play from Jada Wynn reclaimed the 20-point cushion.
Key Moment
The Buffs opened the game shooting 6-for-7 in the game's first five minutes and change. The sharp-shooting start put the Buffs up 13-4 and provided enough confidence for the remainder of the contest.
Notes
Sunday was CU's first 20-point Pac-12 win since defeated Washington by 23 ((66-43) on Feb. 6, 2022…Colorado's 26-point lead was its largest in the Pac-12 this season…CU now has 11 wins in the conference for just the second time since joining the Pac-12 (13 in 2012-23)…Washington's 19 first-half points were its fewest of the season…Colorado evened the all-time series against Washington, 16-16, and leads 7-6 in Boulder…The Buffs record 50 rebounds for the first time since having 55 against Western Colorado (Nov. 25, 2020)…Formann had four 3s in the game, passing Kennedy Leonard for 10th all-time at CU with 159 career 3FGM.
Quotes
Head coach JR Payne
On CU's rebounding and defense – "Rebounding was definitely a huge factor. We knew that they are the second-leading rebounding team in the league, and pretty high statistically across the country rebounding, so we talked about it a lot. It was a huge priority, and I thought our team did a great job limiting them to seven offensive rebounds when they average close to 15 per game is really great discipline. The offense wasn't as great as usual, but we're built on the defensive side of the ball. We have a lot of offensive weapons that can score in different ways, but we trust our defense. It doesn't matter if we have a great offensive night or not, we know we can defend anybody. We take a lot of pride in that."
On the team's play the last few weeks – "I think for us the priorities are to be great every day, and in whatever you can control, be excellent at that. I think our team believes in that and wants to be great teammates. They want to communicate what they need to do. They want to take pride in defending. They want to look at a team like Washington, who's so great on the offensive glass and limit them. We're very prideful in trying to be great. I think that's why we're playing great basketball. We're very unselfish. Truly, no one cares, who scores, we just want to get a great shot. We just want to get a great stop. I think you can play really good basketball when you have talent, but you also have to have a level of unselfishness."
Kindyll Wetta
On sharing the ball – "I feel like that's [us] every game. Not just Jaylyn and I, but I feel like we really do work to find the best shot on almost every possession. That's great offensively for us."
Colorado (20-5, 11-3 Pac-12) secured its first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 2011-12 and 2012-13 and did so in front of a large number of alumni that included CU's first Elite Eight team from 1992-93.
"I think it was cool [to meet the '93 team], especially for us because we've kind of got everything that we need to be at the level that they were," Kindyll Wetta explained. "Talking to them and kind of hearing things that they would have done differently or focus more on — Looking back on it 20 years now, they were able to give a lot of good advice and I think that was really good for us."
Colorado led by double-digits at the half and never had the lead slip below 11 in the second half.
CU's offensive game wasn't at its peak the entire game, going 28-for-68 from the field. Instead, the Buffs' defensive presence caused problems for the Huskies. UW's starting five accounted for just 17 of the team's 43 points and the Huskies hit just 33.3% (16-48) as a team.
"[That's] nothing new [for us]," Wetta added about the team's defensive play. "We just do what we do and do it well. We know that we can always control that."
Quay Miller led the way for Colorado with her sixth double-double of the season. She topped all players with 15 points and 11 rebounds in just under 24 minutes of action. Frida Formann and Aaronette Vonleh each had nine points apiece and Wetta and Jaylyn Sherrod each dished out six assists.
"[Today] was a great team win," head coach JR Payne "It really is hard as much as we focus on flushing Friday night's game when it's a really emotional game and it takes a lot of energy to win a game – it's still really hard to do. I continue to be proud of just our mental focus and our leadership that made sure we were ready for today's game. Washington's a really good team that's playing very well, and we knew that we'd have to be ready. I'm proud of our team for that. Lots of great stats, Kindyll Wetta had six assists and no turnovers, making that 11 assists and no turnovers this weekend. Quay Miller had a double-double and a lot of great things. I was so proud that we could get the win this weekend."
Washington (13-11, 5-9 Pac-12) did not have a player reach double figures on Sunday. Lauren Schwartz was the Huskies' top-scorer on the day, closing with nine points.
How It Happened
Colorado used a 5-0 start to the afternoon and never looked back. The Buffs jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead with a Sherrod jumper. CU's lead got to 12 in the period off a Miller 3-pointer. She was 3-for-3 shooting with seven points in the quarter, helping CU to 16-8 quarter.
"I think that we just emphasized this game because of what happened when we played the LA teams [loss to USC]," Miller expressed. "Being able to be mature and bounce back from one emotional game to another and execute. We didn't execute everything, but just being able to lock in and just get the win."
A Brianna McLeod layup put CU back up by 12 with two minutes gone in the second quarter. The Buffs used a Formann 3-pointer in the middle of a 7-0 run to gain its largest lead of the half, 29-12. UW clawed back with a 7-0 run of its own to get back to within 10, but the Buffs took a comfortable 31-19 lead into the locker room.
Miller opened the third quarter for the Buffs with her second 3 of the afternoon and closed the quarter in the same fashion, beating the buzzer from behind the arc. The Buffs only scored 14 in the period but held UW to nine to cruise into the fourth quarter with a 17-point lead.
Formann scored 11 of CU's 20 fourth-quarter points, going 4-for-8 from the floor and 3-for-6 from long range. Miller's only bucket of the quarter gave CU its largest lead of the day, 55-29, with six minutes to play. A 5-0 run for UW narrowed the gap to 19 points, but a 3-point play from Jada Wynn reclaimed the 20-point cushion.
Key Moment
The Buffs opened the game shooting 6-for-7 in the game's first five minutes and change. The sharp-shooting start put the Buffs up 13-4 and provided enough confidence for the remainder of the contest.
Notes
Sunday was CU's first 20-point Pac-12 win since defeated Washington by 23 ((66-43) on Feb. 6, 2022…Colorado's 26-point lead was its largest in the Pac-12 this season…CU now has 11 wins in the conference for just the second time since joining the Pac-12 (13 in 2012-23)…Washington's 19 first-half points were its fewest of the season…Colorado evened the all-time series against Washington, 16-16, and leads 7-6 in Boulder…The Buffs record 50 rebounds for the first time since having 55 against Western Colorado (Nov. 25, 2020)…Formann had four 3s in the game, passing Kennedy Leonard for 10th all-time at CU with 159 career 3FGM.
Quotes
Head coach JR Payne
On CU's rebounding and defense – "Rebounding was definitely a huge factor. We knew that they are the second-leading rebounding team in the league, and pretty high statistically across the country rebounding, so we talked about it a lot. It was a huge priority, and I thought our team did a great job limiting them to seven offensive rebounds when they average close to 15 per game is really great discipline. The offense wasn't as great as usual, but we're built on the defensive side of the ball. We have a lot of offensive weapons that can score in different ways, but we trust our defense. It doesn't matter if we have a great offensive night or not, we know we can defend anybody. We take a lot of pride in that."
On the team's play the last few weeks – "I think for us the priorities are to be great every day, and in whatever you can control, be excellent at that. I think our team believes in that and wants to be great teammates. They want to communicate what they need to do. They want to take pride in defending. They want to look at a team like Washington, who's so great on the offensive glass and limit them. We're very prideful in trying to be great. I think that's why we're playing great basketball. We're very unselfish. Truly, no one cares, who scores, we just want to get a great shot. We just want to get a great stop. I think you can play really good basketball when you have talent, but you also have to have a level of unselfishness."
Kindyll Wetta
On sharing the ball – "I feel like that's [us] every game. Not just Jaylyn and I, but I feel like we really do work to find the best shot on almost every possession. That's great offensively for us."
Team Stats
UW
CU
FG%
.333
.382
3FG%
.250
.368
FT%
.588
.857
RB
29
50
TO
11
13
STL
9
4
Game Leaders
Pts
17
FGM
6
3FGM
3
FTM
2
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's BasketballC
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballC
/ Women's Basketball
G
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