Colorado University Athletics

Colorado Hosts UCLA Sunday Afternoon

Colorado Hosts UCLA Sunday Afternoon

THE GAME: The University of Colorado hosts UCLA on Sunday, Jan. 29, at 2 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.

BROADCAST: Sunday's game will be televised nationally on FSN and will also be available on ROOT Sports in the Rocky Mountain region. Jim Watson will have the call with Mary Murphy providing the color commentary. Sunday's radio broadcast will be carried on KKZN AM 760 with Mike Rice handling play by play duties and Carol Callan of USA Basketball providing the color commentary. Live audio is available at CUBuffs.com through BuffsTV and the BuffsRadio free subscription.

OPENING TIP: Junior guard Chucky Jeffery needs 28 points to become the 24th player in team history to reach 1,000.

ABOUT THE BUFFALOES: Colorado is 15-4 overall, and tied with Sunday's opponent, UCLA, for fifth in the Pac-12 standings at 4-4, just one game behind third place Arizona State and USC (5-3). The Buffaloes' 15 wins equal their regular season total from 2010-11, before moving on to the quarterfinals of the 2011 Postseason WNIT, finishing at 18-16. CU has won its last two after dropping three straight, both in dramatic fashion. CU snapped a three-game skid with a last minute 56-54 win at Arizona on Jan. 22 and then followed that up with a thrilling 69-67 home win over USC on Jan. 26. The USC game began a run of five of the next seven at home after beginning the Pac-12 season with five of its first seven on the road. Colorado is 8-2 overall at home this season.

Colorado has shown balance with five players averaging between eight and 15 points per game. Overall the Buffaloes are averaging 64.4 points per game and shooting 42.5 percent from the field. CU had its best scoring and shooting night in conference play against USC with 69 points and 44 percent from the floor. Nearting the mid-way point of the league season, the Buffaloes are averaging 57.4 points and shooting 38 percent in Pac-12 games. The Buffaloes rank third in the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage, rebounding defense (34.2 rpg) and rebounding margin (+6.5).

Junior guard Chucky Jeffery leads the Buffaloes at 15.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. She is prominent on the Pac-12 leader board, ranking fourth in assists, steals (2.3 spg) and defensive rebounds (6.1 drpg), fifth in scoring, sixth in free-throw percentage (.761), eighth in blocked shots (1.2 bpg), ninth in overall rebounding and 12th in field-goal percentage (.475).

Jeffery has scored in double-figures in 16 of Colorado's 19 games. She has scored the decisive points in the last two games, on a basket against Arizona, breaking a 54-54 tie with just 17.7 seconds remaining, and two free throws with 1.2 seconds left in the win over USC. She has a team-best five double-doubles on the season, tied for seventh in the Pac-12. She was the MVP of CU's Omni Hotels Classic and was named Pac-12 Women's Basketball Player of the Week on Dec. 4.

Senior forward Julie Seabrook leads Colorado and ranks third in the Pac-12 in field goal accuracy at 57.7 percent while also ranking 13th in offensive rebounds (2.3 orpg). She is averaging 10 points and 4.6 rebounds in Pac-12 play, ranking second in the league in shooting at 58.2 percent during that span. Seabrook, who scored in double-figures for three straight games for the first time in her career during the league season-opening road trip, has made 8-of-15 from 3-point range during conference action, topping the Pac-12 in that category.

Sophomore guard Brittany Wilson is second on the team in scoring at 9.7 points per game and is also second on the team in assists (41) and steals (24). She has started the last three games, averaging 14.7 points, 2.7 steals and 2.0 assists during that span. Wilson led Colorado in scoring for the second straight game with 21 points against USC, her third career game with 20 or more points. On the Pac-12 charts Wilson ranks 13th in 3-pointers made (1.4 3mpg) and 3-point percentage (.329).

Brittany's twin sister Ashley Wilson is hitting 52 percent from the floor (25-of-48) while averaging 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. Wilson had nine points on 4-of-5 shooting off the bench against Stanford, a personal best during league competition. She established an overall career high scoring 13 points in the win over Weber State.

Freshman guard Lexy Kresl is third on the team in scoring at 9.2 per game and leads the Buffaloes in both 3-point field goals (31) and free-throw accuracy at 84.6 percent. She has hit at least one 3-pointer in 16 of 19 games. Kresl ranks sixth in the Pac-12 in 3-pointers made (1.6 3mpg).

Freshman forward Jen Reese is averaging 12.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and shooting 48 percent (12-of-25) over her first two career starts. Overall she is averaging 8.4 points per contest and shooting 50.4 percent from the field (65-of-129), ranking 10th in the Pac-12. She recorded her first career double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds in the win at Washington State. Reese has also been hitting the boards, ranking second on the team with 6.1 per game, improving to 6.6 during Pac-12 games. She earned UTSA Holiday Classic All-Tournament honors by averaging 12.5 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 66.7 percent over the two games (10-of-15).

Junior forward Meagan Malcolm-Peck is averaging 4.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. She had season-highs of nine rebounds and three blocked shots in the UTSA Holiday Classic win over Texas-Pan American. Malcolm-Peck is second on the team in offensive rebounds (36) and third in assists (28).

Sophomore Rachel Hargis, who averages 4.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per contest, had a solid game against California scoring 10 points while grabbing five rebounds and blocking three shots. This was the second double-figure scoring game for Hargis, the other also served as her first career double-double netting 12 points and 11 rebounds against Texas Pan-American.

Freshman guard Jasmine Sborov has seen extended minutes over the last four games, scoring 14 of her 24 season points. She played a career-best 26 minutes off the bench against USC.

Colorado's bench has been outstanding, accounting for 32 percent of the team's scoring (20.5 ppg) and 42 percent of its rebounding (16.9 rpg). In addition to Reese, who came off the bench for the first 17 games, the Wilson twins and Kresl have been consistent in scoring whether coming off the bench or starting (Kresl has 12 starts, Brittany Wilson has seven while Ashley has four), combining for 26.8 points in a reserve role. Against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi the Buffaloes had a season-high 43 bench points (Jeffery 19, Reese 13, Kresl 11).

HISTORIC START: Colorado started the season 12-0 for just the third time in team history and first since the 1992-93 squad won a school record 15 games to begin the season. The 12-0 start ties for the second best start in school history. Here is a break down of CU's best starts:

Year Start Final Record Other
1992-93 15-0 27-4 NCAA Elite 8
2011-12 12-0 ?? Best Start Since 1992-93
1980-81 12-0 28-5 *AIAW National Tourn. First Round
1993-94 7-0 27-5 NCAA Sweet 16
1982-83 7-0 21-8 #Big Eight Semifinals
1988-89 6-0 27-4 NCAA First Round

*-CU's first national tournament appearance; #-First year of Big Eight Conference round-robin play.

NUMBERS ON 12 STRAIGHT: Colorado won 12 straight games for the seventh time and this season's streak is tied for the fifth longest in team history. It was also CU's longest win streak since its school-record 25-game streak in 1994-95. Here are the Buffs' all-time best win streaks:

Wins Season Record Notable
1. 25 1994-95 30-3 NCAA Elite Eight, 14-0 in Big Eight
2. 20 1988-89 27-4 NCAA 1st Round, 14-0 in Big Eight
3. 15 1992-93 27-4 NCAA Elite Eight, 15-0 season start
4. 14 1991-92 22-9 NCAA 1st Rd, Big Eight Tourney Champs
5. 12 2011-12 ?? 12-0 Tied Second Best Season Start
12 1981-82 28-8 AIAW National 1st Round
12 1980-81 28-5 First of two 9-plus winning streaks in '81
8. 11 2007-08 19-15 WNIT Semifinalist
9. 9 2003-04 22-8 NCAA 1st Round
9 1993-94 27-5 NCAA Sweet 16
9 1992-93 27-4 NCAA Elite Eight, Big Eight Champs
9 1980-81 28-5 First AIAW National Appearance
9 1978-79 22-9 3rd place in AIAW Regional

ABOUT THE BRUINS: UCLA is 9-10 overall and tied with Colorado for fifth place in the Pac-12 at 4-4. The Bruins are coming off a solid 65-60 road win at Utah on Jan. 26. UCLA has won three of its last five after beginning the league season 1-2. The Bruins enter the weekend averaging 62 points per game while shooting 39 percent from the field. UCLA ranks last in the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage defense at 40 percent, but has fared better out on the perimeter, holding opponents to just 28 percent, third best on the league charts.

Senior guard Rebekah Gardner leads UCLA and ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in scoring at 15.6 points per game, right ahead of CU's Chucky Jeffery (15.5 ppg), in fact just one point separates each team's top scorer. Sophomore guard Thea Lemberger is second in scoring at 12.2 points per game and has a team-best 28 3-point field goals. Junior forward Markel Walker is UCLA's top rebounder at 10.4 per game and is averaging a double-double for the season as she pitches in 11.8 points per contest.

SERIES RECORDS: This will be the fifth meeting between Colorado and UCLA with the two teams each holding a pair of wins in the series. The teams meet for the first time since Dec. 8, 2001, a 79-48 CU win in Los Angeles. UCLA comes to Boulder for the first time since a 88-63 Buffaloes win on Dec. 2, 2000. Current CU head coach Linda Lappe was on both of those teams. She appeared in the 2000 game, grabbing two rebounds and missed the 2001 contest due to injury.

Lappe had never faced UCLA as a head coach. Bruins' head coach Cori Close has never faced Colorado as a head coach.

CONNECTIONS: Colorado sports three players from California on its roster and all three from the greater Los Angeles area. The Wilson twins, Ashley and Brittany, hail from Long Beach while freshman guard Esther Lee is from L.A. The Wilson's were high school teammates with UCLA senior forward Jasmine Dixon at Long Beach Poly. UCLA has one Colorado player on its roster, starting guard Mariah Williams is from Aurora. UCLA assistant coach Jenny (Roulier) Huth was a three-time All-Big 12 performer for Colorado (1998-02) and teammate of current CU head coach Linda Lappe. Roulier scored 1,399 points in her CU career, helping the Buffaloes to two NCAA Tournaments, including the 2002 Elite Eight.

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE: Colorado has won seven straight games decided by five points or less, including a 4-0 mark this season. Five of those seven wins have come away from Boulder. The Buffaloes are 8-2 under Linda Lappe in games decided by five points or less.

...AND IN EVEN TIGHTER CIRCLES: Three of Colorado's four Pac-12 wins have been by one or two points, including back-to-back wins over Arizona (56-54) and USC (69-67). Colorado hadn't been involved in back-to-back one or two point games since the final two contests of the 2004-05 season when the Buffaloes beat Nebraska in the home finale, 78-76, and then fell to Iowa State, 64-62, in the first round of the Big 12 Championship, which was also Ceal Barry's last game as head coach. Colorado hadn't won back-to-back games with that little margin since the 1983-84 campaign, squeaking out road wins at Northern Arizona, 62-60, and at Wyoming, 57-56.

ROAD WARRIORS: Colorado has won seven of its last nine road games and also seven of its last nine away from home (both encompassing a slightly different set of games). Prior to the Washington game, the Buffaloes had won six-straight both in true road games and games away from Boulder, each being the program's best such streaks since the 2003-04 squad won six in a row in true road contests.

Additionally, Colorado has won five of its last seven conference road games after only winning four of the previous 30 dating back to the 2007-08 Big 12 season. CU has three conference road wins this season, its most since the 2003-04 NCAA Tournament squad won five league games away from Boulder.

Colorado began the Pac-12 season with three straight on the road finishing 2-1. It was CU's first three-game conference road stand since 1997, the inaugural season of the Big 12. In that string, the Buffaloes lost at Kansas State on Feb. 19, but bounced back to win games at Missouri on Feb. 23 and No. 12 ranked Texas on Feb. 26, sparking an eight-game win streak that carried Colorado through the first Big 12 Tournament Championship and an appearance in the 1997 NCAA Sweet 16.

Colorado returned home for California and Stanford after nearly a month away from home, spanning five games, which hadn't happened since the end of the 2001 season with a final regular season road game and then four neutral site Big 12 and NCAA Tournament games. The five away from home hadn't been done entirely in the regular season since the 1993-94 team played seven in a row away from Boulder in the late preseason (5) and early Big Eight Conference schedule (2).

FOR OPENERS, CONFERENCE VERSION: Colorado improved to 22-16 in all-time in conference openers with its 58-52 win over Utah. The win snapped a three-game losing streak in road conference openers for the Buffaloes.

DEFENDING THE HOOP: Colorado allowed just 51.7 points in the 11 nonconference games, limiting the opponent to just 33.2 percent shooting overall (34.6 percent on two-point attempts and 29.7 from three-point range). The Buffaloes held five nonconference opponents under 50 points. CU has held its opponent under 50 points 11 times in CU head coach Linda Lappe's 53-game tenure.

REBOUNDING WOWS: Colorado has been even or outrebounded its opponent in 14 of 19 games, including 11 in a row prior to the Washington game. CU's margin of plus-6.5 on the season, ranks third in the Pac-12. CU had a big night on the glass against San Francisco, ending with a margin of plus-33 (53-20). That plus-33 margin overall is tied for the ninth best margin in team history and tied for the fourth best since the NCAA/Big Eight Conference era began with the 1982-83 season. It's also the widest margin since the Buffaloes put up a similar plus-33 margin against Bowling Green (59-26) on Nov. 23, 2001. Those two games are the best since CU outrebounded Northern Arizona by 34 (56-22) on Dec. 18, 1993.

Rebounding Margins Since 1982-83 Season
Team Date CUR OppR Margin
Northern Arizona 12/18/1993 56 22 +34
Oklahoma 2/18/1990 67 33 +34
Texas El-Paso 11/19/1982 67 33 +34
San Francisco 11/30/2011 53 20 +33
Bowling Green 11/23/2001 59 26 +33
at Colorado State 12/1/2007 58 26 +32
Northern Colorado 2/13/2006 53 22 +31

Colorado has grabbed 50 or more rebounds four times this season, including a high of 54 against Texas-Pan American. It's the most 50-plus rebound games for the Buffaloes since they also had four during the 1994-95 season.

On the other end of the spectrum, CU's 20 rebounds allowed to San Francisco tied for the second-lowest in team history. The Buffaloes held a team at 20 on three other occasions, most recently against Loyola Chicago in a 65-34 win on Nov. 27, 2010. The record low is 19, set against Northern Arizona on Feb. 7, 1981.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Chucky Jeffery earned Colorado's first ever Pac-12 Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week honor on Dec. 4. Her award was the fourth overall for the Buffaloes in their inaugural Pac-12 season, joining three football winners from earlier this fall. The league Player of the Week honor is also the first for women's basketball since Brittany Spears was named Big 12 Conference Player of the Week on Nov. 23, 2009. For Jeffery, it's her second similar honor, as she was the Big 12 Freshman of the Week winner on Jan. 11, 2010.

Jeffery averaged 28 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 64.5 percent from the floor, leading the Buffaloes to wins over San Francisco (84-66) and Idaho (68-59).

CHUCKY DOUBLES: Chucky Jeffery has five double-doubles on the season, tied for seventh in the Pac-12, including a string of three-straight (Wisconsin-San Francisco-Idaho). It was the first time a CU player had double-doubles in three-straight games since Jackie McFarland had two separate strings of three during the 2006-07 season. She joins Bridget Turner as the only other guard in team history with three-straight double-doubles. Turner pulled the trifecta during the 1988-89 season, with one of her doubles the points-assists variety.

Overall she is the seventh player to achieve three straight double-doubles. CU Athletic Hall of Famer Lisa Van Goor holds the consecutive mark of six during the 1980-81 season.

LEXY AMONG ELITE COMPANY: Freshman guard Lexy Kresl scored in double-digits in the first six games of her career, tying CU Athletic Hall of Fame member and All-American Shelley Sheetz for the second-most in team history. Current CU Director of Basketball Operations Tracy Tripp holds the mark of 10, set during the 1985-86 season.

CHUCKY REBOUNDS: Junior guard Chucky Jeffery became the 20th player in team history to reach 500 rebounds in the win over Washington State and now sits at 531, 18th on CU's all-time list. She has a career average of 6.8 per game which jumps to 7.8 since the beginning of her sophomore year (49 games). She had a career night on the glass at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, grabbing 16 rebounds in the win over the Islanders. Her 16 rebounds were the most by a CU player since Jackie McFarland recorded 18 at Kansas on Feb. 6, 2007.

LEXY'S RECORD NIGHT: Freshman guard Lexy Kresl had a memorable collegiate debut making 5-of-6 3-point attempts in the first half of CU's 84-60 win over Northern Arizona. She tied a school record for 3-pointers made in one half, a feat that had happened five previous times by three players. Bianca Smith, who was the last person to hit five in one half (vs. Nebraska on Jan. 31, 2009), did it three times. Kate Fagan and CU Athletic Hall of Famer and All-American Shelly Sheetz are the other two.

MALCOLM-PECK CLIMBING IN 3-POINTERS, BLOCKS: Junior Meagan Malcolm-Peck is tied with Sabrina Scott (1999-03) for 12th on CU's all-time list for 3-pointers with 74. She is 14th in career blocked shots with 61.

JEFFERY MOVING UP CAREER LADDERS, 1,000 POINTS ON THE HORIZON: Junior guard Chucky Jeffery had three steals against USC, moving into sole possession of 10th place on CU's all-time steals list with 177. In addition she is 15th in assists (305), 16th in blocks (52) and 18th in rebounds (531).

Jeffery has 972 career points, needing just 28 to become the 24th player in team history to reach 1,000. She is on pace to be just the 10th player to reach that milestone before her senior year.

HOME AT THE CECC: Colorado is traditionally tough at home with a 363-122 all-time record at the Coors Events/Conference Center (.748). The Buffaloes have won 10 or more games in a season at the CECC in 22 of the previous 33 years. The Buffaloes have enjoyed five undefeated seasons (1980-83, 1992-94) at the CECC.

BUFFS ON TV: Colorado's regular season schedule will feature at least nine regionally or nationally televised games in 2011-12. CU made its first appearance on The Mtn in the win over Colorado State on Nov. 20. Colorado will have eight games air on ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain. The first was the San Francisco game on Nov. 30, followed by Idaho (Dec. 4), Denver (Dec. 8), Stanford (Jan. 14) and at Arizona (Jan. 22). Also scheduled for ROOT Sports are UCLA (Jan. 29), Utah (Feb. 18) and Oregon (Mar. 1). All ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain games are available nationally on DIRECTV and DISH Network.

The games with Arizona and UCLA are part of the Pac-12's FSN national package. In addition, CU's home game against Arizona State on Saturday, Feb. 11, is part of the Pac-12's FSN Wildcard Weekend. One of the five league contests scheduled for that date will be picked up for national broadcast, but that determination won't be made until the last week in January. If the CU-Arizona State game is selected for FSN the game time will change from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. MST, per conference guidelines.

CU has appeared on 91 regional or national telecasts over the last 10 seasons.