Colorado
19-3,9-2Pac-12
Washington
13-8,3-7Pac-12
No. 6 Colorado Completes Washington Road Sweep
February 04, 2024 | Women's Basketball
SEATTLE, Wash. – The No. 6 Colorado women's basketball team dominated from start to finish in an 80-57 victory over Washington Sunday afternoon to close out the weekend 2-0.
"Every game, every team is so good, and every game is so hard that if you're not really really focused almost every possession of every game it can go the other way," head coach JR Payne stated after the sweep. "I thought our team did a great job again of learning the scout very quickly, understanding and executing the game plan very quickly and we just played well tonight."
The Buffaloes (19-3, 9-2 Pac-12) locked down the Huskies (13-8, 3-7 Pac-12) defensively, forcing Washington into taking tough shots throughout the game. The Huskies shot 31.8% from the field and tried a whopping 30 3-pointers while making only six.
After tying her career-high in points with 27 vs Washington State, Frida Formann showed off her passing skills this afternoon, dishing out a career-high nine assists. Her ability to share the ball helped teammates Aaronette Vonleh and Quay Miller put up big numbers for the Buffs.
"I tell everybody the best thing about this team is our unselfishness," said Payne. "No one cares who scores, who gets the rebounds. We just want to play great basketball and feel good about what we're doing, and I think those numbers show it better than I could say that we were doing that."
Vonleh scored 20+ points for the second straight game leading Colorado with 21 on 10 of 13 shooting. Her 12 first-half points helped the Buffs to gain a comfortable lead early on which Washington was just unable to come back from. With her performance today she surpassed 800 career points.
Miller recorded her eighth double-double of the season behind 14 points and 10 rebounds. She was a big reason why Colorado outrebounded the Huskies 41 to 29 in the game.
Maddie Nolan also had a solid outing here in Seattle with 11 points, all of which came in the first half. She didn't miss a single shot and went 3 for 3 from behind the arc to go along with her six boards and four assists.
Colorado set out to dominate inside and did just that, executing its game plan successfully on the road with 48 points in the paint compared to Washington's 26. The Buffs look to ride this positive momentum back into Boulder when they take on the Oregon Ducks on Friday night.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Both teams fought back-and-forth to a 7-7 tie within the first two minutes of the game before the Buffs went on an 11-0 run to lead 18-7. Four different CU players managed to score on the scoring run.
While leading 20-10, Colorado was shooting 8 for 10 (80%) from the field in the quarter. The Buffs ended the first quarter with a 24-15 lead as 14 of their 24 points came from inside the paint.
Colorado started the second by outscoring the Huskies 9-5, forcing a quick Washington timeout. Shortly after the timeout, CU scored nine unanswered to make it 42-21. The Huskies made just one of its final 11 field goals to close out the first half.
The Buffs held a 50-28 lead at halftime as Vonleh scored 12 and Nolan scored 11 on 4-4 shooting.
Colorado continued to dominate in the second half, starting the third quarter on a 10-2 run to lead 60-30. A 3-pointer from Formann extended the Buffs' lead to 32, its largest lead in Pac-12 play this season.
Colorado kept the Huskies to just 13 points for the second straight quarter while heading into the fourth with a 70-41 lead.
The Buffs were able to rest their starters for the majority of the fourth quarter while Tameiya Sadler, Sara-Rose Smith, Kindyll Wetta, Mikayla Johnson and Brianna McLeod all saw more game action.
Both teams failed to score in the final two minutes of the game as CU secured the victory 80-57.
KEY MOMENT
With a 12-point advantage midway through the second quarter, Colorado scored nine unanswered points to take a 42-21 lead which seemed to put the game out of reach for Washington.
NEXT
The Buffs will travel back home to play Oregon on Friday, February 9th at 7 p.m. MT.
NOTES
Colorado is now 17-16 all-time vs Washington…now 6-8 all-time against Washington on the road…Second straight road sweep of the Washington schools…100th career game for Sadler…The Buffs tied a school record with 18 assists in the first half (vs Sam Houston State, Dec. 14,m 2000)...Colorado scored 50 points in a half for the 7th time this season (last time was the first half at ASU)...Formann surpassed 200 career assists with her career-high of nine...Vonleh recorded 12 points in the first half, putting her over 800 for her career…Miller's eighth double-double this season (19th at CU)...First back-to-back 20+ point games for Vonleh…Miller's 14 points give her 990 for her career at CU.
