Colorado
21-7,11-5Pac-12
Stanford
27-3,15-2Pac-12
Buffs Fall In Heartbreaker To Stanford In Double OT
February 23, 2023 | Women's Basketball
BOULDER—Jaylyn Sherrod hit the game-tying shot in regulation and two critical free throws near the end of the first overtime, but No. 3 Stanford outscored No. 21 Colorado 13-2 in the second overtime period to leave Boulder with a 73-62 win and clinched at least a share Pac-12 regular season championship here Thursday afternoon at the CU Events Center.
In a rare weekday afternoon game, the Buffaloes pushed the nation's third-ranked team to the brink, as has been the case against the two teams in recent memory in Boulder. The Cardinal improve to 27-3 overall and 15-2 in league standings and the Buffs fall to 21-7 and 12-5, respectively.
"I'm incredibly proud of every single member of our team and program," head coach JR Payne expressed after the game. "Anyone who watched this game saw it on full display. It wasn't a bunch of superstars, it was a team that's tough and gritty, fights and scraps for every single possession. That's who we are. [I'm] unbelievably proud of our ability to dig in with less numbers, people playing tons of minutes and making big plays offensively and defensively. We've been saying all year that we know we're pretty good, so this game - it hurts to lose a game like this to Stanford, but we're incredibly proud of how we played in how we competed."
Sherrod led the Buffs with 19 points, posting 17 in the second half and overtime. Senior Quay Miller put in 17 points and tied for the team lead with eight rebounds. Sophomore Aaronette Vonleh rounded out the top performers for CU with 11 points and eight rebounds.
"For me, it just hurts because I came here so I could compete with teams like Stanford," Miller said. "This is probably the closest I've been to them in my whole college career. Being able to play with this team and to compete and to not have it come out the way we want to hurt because you want to [win] so badly."
Junior Tameiya Sadler got her first start of the season in place of Frida Formann, who was out due to illness.
"Frida is one of the best shooters in the country," Payne said of her absence. "She's one of our best players. She scores, she defends and she rebounds. She's second on the team in rebounding right now in the last five or six games. There were a lot of things we missed, just kind of her steady presence, but it was cool to see other people step up. Jada [Wynn] comes in and hits a big 3, Tay [Jones] as we've already talked about, people having to play heavier minutes than usual. We have that philosophy just next player up."
Stanford was paced by Haley Jones' 23 points and 11 rebounds. The Buffs limited the damage done by Cameron Brink, holding her to her lowest conference scoring total (8) before she fouled out in the first overtime.
"They just bring in another McDonald's All-American," Payne commented about Stanford's depth. "I thought Lauren Betts was absolutely incredible tonight. She came and played a large part of the game when Cameron went out. They're so good and so big and so deep inside, it's kind of like, 'We'll just bring in the next 6'6'' kid.' I'm proud of us for defending her and defending different people really well tonight."
How It Happened
The Buffs started the game on a tear, opening up a 13-0 lead out of the gate with Tayanna Jones and Miller doing most of the scoring in that early run, which was capped off by a 3-pointer from Jada Wynn at the two-minute mark of the quarter. Stanford in fact didn't score until 8:46 into the game with a pair of free throws and after a 3-pointer from Broke Demetre, the Buffs held an eight-point lead (13-5) after the first quarter.
Jones remained hot for the Buffaloes, who quickly pushed the lead to 14 points at 19-5 after she hit a 3-pointer of her own. The Cardinal's shooting woes continued, starting the quarter 0-for-5 to make them 1-for-21 from the floor almost 13 minutes into the contest.
The Buffs' advantage hovered around 10 points through the remainder of the half and led 22-12 with just under two minutes remaining. Stanford put together a 6-2 run to cut the Buffs' lead to six at 24-18 at halftime.
The Cardinal shot just 6.3% in the first quarter and 20.7% at the half, hitting 6-of-29 from the field.
Neither team scored for the first two-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter, but the Cardinal then scored on three straight possessions to take its first lead at 25-24 and scored the first eight points of the quarter to go up 27-24 halfway through the quarter. After four lead changes, the Cardinal used a 7-0 lead to end the quarter up 38-32.
Brink put Stanford up 40-32, its largest lead of regulation before the Buffs began chipping away. Sherrod hit a 3-pointer, then got a steal and layup to bring the Buffs within three, 40-37. The lead stayed between three and four points over the next five minutes until Miller hit four straight free throws to tie the game at 46-46 with 2:40 remaining.
Stanford hit a pair from the line 1:42 left to take a two-point lead. With 33 seconds left, Kindyll Wetta got a steal and Sherrod made the layup down the floor to tie the game 48-48 with 28 seconds left. That's where the score remained through regulation.
Aaronette Vonleh gave the Buffs a 50-48 lead a minute into overtime and after a quick 4-0 run by Stanford, Miller tied it again at 52-52 with 2:27 left. Miller hit two free throws with 1:46 left and Vonleh hit two with 1:19 left to give the Buffs two-point advantages each time. Miller picked up a foul with 58 seconds and Haley Jones tied the game at 56-56.
Sherrod hit a driving layup with 45 seconds to give the Buffs a 58-56 advantage but Jones answered again with a layup for the Cardinal and was fouled to put Stanford ahead 59-58. Colorado used two free throws from Sherrod with 29 seconds left to put the Buffs up one at 60-59. Miller was again called for a foul, this time with three seconds to go, but Lauren Betts hit just 1-of-2 attempts to tie the game at 60-60 and force double overtime.
The Cardinal came out of the gate quickly in double OT and the Buffs couldn't respond. CU's only points came at the midpoint of the period when Sherrod hit two free throws to pull CU within 65-62. A combination of breaking pressure and hitting free throws allowed Stanford to go on an 8-0 run to end the game.
"Yeah, this team is tough," an emotional Sherrod said of Colorado's mentality. "That's what we pride ourselves on. In an important game like this, you know, everybody's gonna go out and play their hearts out. So I think that was just the mentality, and I'll be fine."
Key Moment
Sherrod cut the Stanford lead to three, 65-62, midway through the second overtime. But the Cardinal kept Buffs scoreless in the final two and half minutes of the period, finishing 0-for-7 from the field.
Notes
Colorado has now lost its last six to Stanford, dating back to Jan. 17, 2021...CU falls to 5-27 all-time against Stanford...Colorado has lost two in a row for the first time this season and the first time since the final two games of the 2021-22 season (vs Stanford & Creighton)...The Buffs shot under 30% for the second consecutive game...Stanford had 21 of its 50 rebounds on the offensive glass...The Cardinal also outscored CU 40-30 in the paint and 26-6 off the bench...Tayanna Jones had nine points in the first half but did not attempt a shot in the second half or overtime...Season-high in attendance at (2963).
Quotes
Head Coach JR Payne
On if this can boost the team's confidence - "We're confident anyway. We know that we're good, we've worked very hard to recruit those types of people that put in the work to earn the right to be confident. We expect to win every game that we play and Stanford is such a good team, so well coached, so deep, they're No. 3 for a reason, they are that good. We just take a lot of pride in being extremely competitive and we feel like we can compete and should be competing with everybody."
On if this proves that CU is on the same level as Stanford - "They're No.3 in the country, so it's hard to say if we're on par with them. I definitely think we're all at the top of the conference, us, Stanford, and Utah. We're all worthy and we've worked really hard to be one, two, and three in the conference. "We just want to compete, wherever we play, whoever we play, whenever we play, we just want to go at people and be aggressive and play well and make sure that every possession is contested. I don't know how you want to rank different things, but we expect to compete with teams like that."
On if CU missed an opportunity to shut Stanford down more with the early lead - "They're really hard to score against because they're so big at every position. That makes it challenging. Of course, I would have loved to have had a huge lead and been able to capitalize more on that after the first quarter, but I don't think we were taking bad shots or weren't getting good looks. I'm not sure. We'll have to watch the film to see maybe what we could have done differently at that time."
Jaylyn Sherrod
On double overtime - "Honestly, I just think we weren't hitting shots and they were. That's pretty much all we could really say to that one. But I mean, I'm proud of this team. So it is what it is."
One mentality down the stretch - "Actually, it was Quay who told me to shoot the 3. But yeah, I mean, it wasn't a good shooting night and I kind of started second guessing myself. Quay was really a good leader and a good teammate, and just telling me to keep shooting the shot all the time. I just needed to keep my confidence. So I think that that's just what it was. It wasn't really anything else to it, just being confident in the player that I am."
Quay Miller
On stepping up as a leader going forward against California - "I just try to be myself. I'm emotional about this loss, but I think that this team is going to come into practice tomorrow ready to beat California. I don't think we'll hold our heads down too long. It just seems a little bit more when you've never been so close to Stanford, and when you lose in a double overtime game. It's just surreal for me because I've never been in this position. But I think the team and I will come tomorrow and we'll probably be forgetting about this game."
