Colorado University Athletics
Saturday, December 21
6 p.m.
Colorado
10-2,1-0Big 12
65
vs
60
West Virginia
10-2,0-1Big 12
1
2
3
4
F
West Virginia
16
12
23
9
60
Colorado
9
16
15
25
65
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
Buffs Complete Comeback, Upset No. 14 West Virginia
December 21, 2024 | Women's Basketball
Colorado erased a 16-point third-quarter deficit in its Big 12 opener
BOULDER – Head coach JR Payne and her Colorado women's basketball team opened Big 12 play in a big way at the CU Events Center on Saturday. The Buffaloes wiped away a 16-point third-quarter deficit and outscored No. 14 West Virginia by 16 points in the fourth quarter on the way to the 65-60 upset.
Colorado (10-2, 1-0 Big 12) trailed WVU for almost 30 minutes and entered the fourth quarter down 11 points. CU opened the final quarter with a 6-0 run, setting up a race to the finish. The Buffs' run grew to 22-4, overtaking the lead inside the final three minutes.
Saturday's tied for the second-largest comeback in the Payne era, matching the Buffs' 16-point reversal in a 69-65 win at Utah on Feb. 1, 2018.
"I just want to say I'm so proud of the entire team, the collective, because so many different people stepped up at different times, in different quarters, in different positions," Payne said after the win. "People that have been out for two weeks came back and played with very little preparation, and I'm just really proud. We talked about having emotional stability throughout the game because we knew it would be lots of runs based on how they turn people over and things like that. I thought we were so locked in and [in] control the entire game. People who hadn't played much in the first part of the game came in and were amazing down the stretch. I am crazy proud of our team today."
Graduate Frida Formann was responsible for a bulk of CU's first-half offense. She totaled 15 of her game-high 22 points in the first half. Junior Jade Masogayo put in 18 points on 9-of-10 shooting. Graduate Lior Garzon registered 12 of her 14 points in the fourth quarter, hitting a key 3-pointer in the momentum-shifting run.
West Virginia (10-2, 0-1 Big 12) entered Saturday's contest ranked second in the nation, allowing teams to just 48.9 points per game. CU's 65 points were the second most allowed by the Mountaineers, only trailing the 78 in their first loss to No. 5 Texas.
"Coming back from being down 16 against a ranked opponent, I think we showed that we're still scrappy," Formann expressed. "We still have that underdog mentality of anyone who comes and wants to play with us, we're here to beat them. We're not going to give up for anyone. I think it was good. We also needed it to prove to ourselves. We kind of know that we're good. [Our] coaches are trying to tell us, 'You can be this,' and I'm trying to [too], but I think to see it happening is so important. The more you can put in your bag that you can look back on and be like, 'We did it,' so we know we can do it again, the better."
How it Happened
Formann kept Colorado in contention in the first half, hitting 3-for-6 from behind the arch and 6-for-10 from the field. She was the only CU player with more than seven points in the first half, scoring 15 of the team's 25 first-half points. As a team, the Buffs were just 3-for-12 from long range and 11-of-26 from the field.
"I've relied on Frida for many years now, not just for the shooting, but she's just rock solid," Payne commented. "She's going to communicate; she's going to make sure we're all on the same page; she's going to do the little things; she's going to defend; she's going to finish plays. She's just everything you want in a fifth-year senior."
The Buffs cut the WVU lead down to one, 28-27, with a Masogayo layup to open the third quarter as the two sides traded baskets in the early portion of the quarter. The Mountaineer lead hit nine, 40-31, following a 3-pointer from Kyah Watson, and that got West Virginia rolling on a 10-0 run, which finished with the Buffs down 47-31.
Colorado turned the ball over five times in the third quarter, leading to nine of WVU's 23 points, and the Buffs' offense stalled out, going four minutes without a field goal.
A Formann jumper with 2:45 to go in the quarter brought the Buffs' offense back to life, and CU outscored WVU, 9-4, in the final 2:12 to get back to within nine points at the start of the fourth quarter.
Masogayo and Garzon combined for the first six points of the fourth quarter, bringing Colorado back to within five points, 51-46, with just over three minutes played in the quarter. Garzon drilled her only triple of the night to bring CU to make it a one-possession game, 53-51, with 5:31 to play.
WVU hit a pair of free throws to break up the CU run and move back in front by four, 55-51 before freshman Grace Oliver hit a 3 in front of the CU bench to bring all 3,209 fans to their feet with 4:26 left to play. An offensive foul by the Mountaineers gave the ball back to CU, and Masogayo put the Buffs ahead for the first time since they had led 9-8 in the first quarter.
The Buffs outscored WVU 22-4 in the first nine and a half minutes, with Masogayo and Garzon combining for 17 points in the defining stretch.
"Having veterans like Lior is so huge," Payne added. "I keep saying this, but we don't have one single dominant player, but we have lots of players that can do a lot of different things and are just staying ready. Lior scored in a lot of different ways during that period. So staying confident, again, emotional stability, like staying confident, staying poised, finding ways to contribute was great."
Up Next
Colorado will return to the road on New Year's Day, traveling to TCU for its first Big 12 road test.
Notes
Saturday was the first meeting between WVU and Colorado…It was the 17th ranked win for the Buffs under head coach JR Payne...It was CU's first home win vs a top-25 opponent since beating No. 6 USC, 63-59, on Jan. 21, 2024…CU shot .543 (25-46) and has now shot over .500 in five straight games…West Virginia scored 24 points off of 19 CU turnovers…CUs' bench scored a season-low seven points…West Virginia led for 29:25…Redshirt freshman Kennedy Sanders had a season-high five assists, all in the first half…CU outrebounded WVU 33-22 but was outscored in second-chance points 7-5.
Quotes
Head coach JR Payne
On Jade Masogayo: "We've all said it, but we as coaches have been telling Jade since she walked on campus, like, this is what you can be. She's so sweet and humble and doesn't necessarily, hasn't always been, able to receive it? She was like, 'Oh, thank you.' You know that she really believed it. We did a thing the other day with the team where we had some players individually go up, and their teammates were able to share with them what they love about them, what their superpowers are, etc. And a lot of Jade's teammates told her exactly what we say. Kindyll started it and said, 'I need you to know how good you are and how unstoppable you are.' I think maybe that was helpful as well. But, I mean, you're doing that against the No. 2 defense in the country, like you should come in knowing you could do it against anybody."
On players stepping up when veterans weren't on the court: "Just different people at different times. Grace, it wasn't just the 3, the 3 was great and needed, but she also was really good defensively. She was executing the game plan defensively after sitting for 30 minutes. That's what I mean by emotional stability. She could have been pouty or frustrated that she hadn't gotten in yet. But staying ready is such a mature response, and it's unselfish and just so great for our team. Even Johanna was kind of in and out, in and out, which is hard, but she came in, played out of position, came back to the point guard spot, which she had done really well the past two games."
On having a brand new team being ready for the moment: "I felt it a lot, from lots of different people. With a young team, you might get into a timeout when you're down 16, and their eyes are really big. There was none of that. It was just strategy. What do we need to do? What's working, what's not working, and over-communicating. Every time we left a huddle, Frida was communicating with the group as we were leaving. Everybody was just really locked in."
Junior Jade Masogayo
Hearing her teammates and coaches' support: "Honestly, it means a lot. Hearing it from my peers and my coaches, hearing that they believe in me and trust me in a sense. In the past, I hadn't heard that. So, getting confirmation from the people that I'm with all the time, it's just really nice to hear."
Graduate Frida Formann
On feeling the crowd's energy and being in a similar atmosphere like that: "I think it got super loud, like, especially in that fourth quarter. You could really feel we had a lot of fans behind us. They were super loud, and it was a really great atmosphere. And hopefully, we can keep it up for Big 12 play because we have a lot of good matchups. And I think we've shown today that we're a really fun team to watch, and we don't give up, and we have the same Colorado basketball mentality, as people know us for and love us for."
Colorado (10-2, 1-0 Big 12) trailed WVU for almost 30 minutes and entered the fourth quarter down 11 points. CU opened the final quarter with a 6-0 run, setting up a race to the finish. The Buffs' run grew to 22-4, overtaking the lead inside the final three minutes.
Saturday's tied for the second-largest comeback in the Payne era, matching the Buffs' 16-point reversal in a 69-65 win at Utah on Feb. 1, 2018.
"I just want to say I'm so proud of the entire team, the collective, because so many different people stepped up at different times, in different quarters, in different positions," Payne said after the win. "People that have been out for two weeks came back and played with very little preparation, and I'm just really proud. We talked about having emotional stability throughout the game because we knew it would be lots of runs based on how they turn people over and things like that. I thought we were so locked in and [in] control the entire game. People who hadn't played much in the first part of the game came in and were amazing down the stretch. I am crazy proud of our team today."
Graduate Frida Formann was responsible for a bulk of CU's first-half offense. She totaled 15 of her game-high 22 points in the first half. Junior Jade Masogayo put in 18 points on 9-of-10 shooting. Graduate Lior Garzon registered 12 of her 14 points in the fourth quarter, hitting a key 3-pointer in the momentum-shifting run.
West Virginia (10-2, 0-1 Big 12) entered Saturday's contest ranked second in the nation, allowing teams to just 48.9 points per game. CU's 65 points were the second most allowed by the Mountaineers, only trailing the 78 in their first loss to No. 5 Texas.
"Coming back from being down 16 against a ranked opponent, I think we showed that we're still scrappy," Formann expressed. "We still have that underdog mentality of anyone who comes and wants to play with us, we're here to beat them. We're not going to give up for anyone. I think it was good. We also needed it to prove to ourselves. We kind of know that we're good. [Our] coaches are trying to tell us, 'You can be this,' and I'm trying to [too], but I think to see it happening is so important. The more you can put in your bag that you can look back on and be like, 'We did it,' so we know we can do it again, the better."
How it Happened
Formann kept Colorado in contention in the first half, hitting 3-for-6 from behind the arch and 6-for-10 from the field. She was the only CU player with more than seven points in the first half, scoring 15 of the team's 25 first-half points. As a team, the Buffs were just 3-for-12 from long range and 11-of-26 from the field.
"I've relied on Frida for many years now, not just for the shooting, but she's just rock solid," Payne commented. "She's going to communicate; she's going to make sure we're all on the same page; she's going to do the little things; she's going to defend; she's going to finish plays. She's just everything you want in a fifth-year senior."
The Buffs cut the WVU lead down to one, 28-27, with a Masogayo layup to open the third quarter as the two sides traded baskets in the early portion of the quarter. The Mountaineer lead hit nine, 40-31, following a 3-pointer from Kyah Watson, and that got West Virginia rolling on a 10-0 run, which finished with the Buffs down 47-31.
Colorado turned the ball over five times in the third quarter, leading to nine of WVU's 23 points, and the Buffs' offense stalled out, going four minutes without a field goal.
A Formann jumper with 2:45 to go in the quarter brought the Buffs' offense back to life, and CU outscored WVU, 9-4, in the final 2:12 to get back to within nine points at the start of the fourth quarter.
Masogayo and Garzon combined for the first six points of the fourth quarter, bringing Colorado back to within five points, 51-46, with just over three minutes played in the quarter. Garzon drilled her only triple of the night to bring CU to make it a one-possession game, 53-51, with 5:31 to play.
WVU hit a pair of free throws to break up the CU run and move back in front by four, 55-51 before freshman Grace Oliver hit a 3 in front of the CU bench to bring all 3,209 fans to their feet with 4:26 left to play. An offensive foul by the Mountaineers gave the ball back to CU, and Masogayo put the Buffs ahead for the first time since they had led 9-8 in the first quarter.
The Buffs outscored WVU 22-4 in the first nine and a half minutes, with Masogayo and Garzon combining for 17 points in the defining stretch.
"Having veterans like Lior is so huge," Payne added. "I keep saying this, but we don't have one single dominant player, but we have lots of players that can do a lot of different things and are just staying ready. Lior scored in a lot of different ways during that period. So staying confident, again, emotional stability, like staying confident, staying poised, finding ways to contribute was great."
Up Next
Colorado will return to the road on New Year's Day, traveling to TCU for its first Big 12 road test.
Notes
Saturday was the first meeting between WVU and Colorado…It was the 17th ranked win for the Buffs under head coach JR Payne...It was CU's first home win vs a top-25 opponent since beating No. 6 USC, 63-59, on Jan. 21, 2024…CU shot .543 (25-46) and has now shot over .500 in five straight games…West Virginia scored 24 points off of 19 CU turnovers…CUs' bench scored a season-low seven points…West Virginia led for 29:25…Redshirt freshman Kennedy Sanders had a season-high five assists, all in the first half…CU outrebounded WVU 33-22 but was outscored in second-chance points 7-5.
Quotes
Head coach JR Payne
On Jade Masogayo: "We've all said it, but we as coaches have been telling Jade since she walked on campus, like, this is what you can be. She's so sweet and humble and doesn't necessarily, hasn't always been, able to receive it? She was like, 'Oh, thank you.' You know that she really believed it. We did a thing the other day with the team where we had some players individually go up, and their teammates were able to share with them what they love about them, what their superpowers are, etc. And a lot of Jade's teammates told her exactly what we say. Kindyll started it and said, 'I need you to know how good you are and how unstoppable you are.' I think maybe that was helpful as well. But, I mean, you're doing that against the No. 2 defense in the country, like you should come in knowing you could do it against anybody."
On players stepping up when veterans weren't on the court: "Just different people at different times. Grace, it wasn't just the 3, the 3 was great and needed, but she also was really good defensively. She was executing the game plan defensively after sitting for 30 minutes. That's what I mean by emotional stability. She could have been pouty or frustrated that she hadn't gotten in yet. But staying ready is such a mature response, and it's unselfish and just so great for our team. Even Johanna was kind of in and out, in and out, which is hard, but she came in, played out of position, came back to the point guard spot, which she had done really well the past two games."
On having a brand new team being ready for the moment: "I felt it a lot, from lots of different people. With a young team, you might get into a timeout when you're down 16, and their eyes are really big. There was none of that. It was just strategy. What do we need to do? What's working, what's not working, and over-communicating. Every time we left a huddle, Frida was communicating with the group as we were leaving. Everybody was just really locked in."
Junior Jade Masogayo
Hearing her teammates and coaches' support: "Honestly, it means a lot. Hearing it from my peers and my coaches, hearing that they believe in me and trust me in a sense. In the past, I hadn't heard that. So, getting confirmation from the people that I'm with all the time, it's just really nice to hear."
Graduate Frida Formann
On feeling the crowd's energy and being in a similar atmosphere like that: "I think it got super loud, like, especially in that fourth quarter. You could really feel we had a lot of fans behind us. They were super loud, and it was a really great atmosphere. And hopefully, we can keep it up for Big 12 play because we have a lot of good matchups. And I think we've shown today that we're a really fun team to watch, and we don't give up, and we have the same Colorado basketball mentality, as people know us for and love us for."
Team Stats
WVU
CU
FG%
.392
.543
3FG%
.261
.375
FT%
.933
.563
RB
22
33
TO
15
19
STL
9
6
Game Leaders
Pts
22
FGM
8
3FGM
4
FTM
2
Pts
18
FGM
9
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
3
Pts
4
FGM
0
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
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