Colorado
9-6, 0-2Big 12
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Kansas
14-2, 1-1Big 12
Jayhawks Pull Away From Buffs In Big 12 Home Opener
January 12, 2011 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - When crunch time arrived, Colorado checked out.
A late lapse Wednesday night allowed Kansas to overtake and outlast CU, 68-58, at the Coors Events Center, spoiling the Big 12 Conference home debut for Buffs Coach Linda Lappe.
"I'm disappointed," Lappe said. "We played very well for about 32 minutes. But there was a stretch where we weren't able to regain our composure and that cost us the game . . . . Maybe the best lesson out of that game was that we can't do it individually."
CU got a game-high 23 points from sophomore guard Chucky Jeffery, but her productivity wasn't enough for the Buffs to overcome their poor marksmanship or the Jayhawks, who pulled away from a 41-41 second-half tie with a 10-2 run and never trailed thereafter.
The Buffs closed to within five points twice in the final 7:35 but got no closer - and Jeffery knew why: "We made back-to-back mistakes and all got frustrated and didn't realize we were still in the game," she said. "At some point you just have to get over things like that . . . we all went our separate ways and we fell apart."
Senior Brittany Spears (16) was the only other player in double figures for the Buffs, who dropped to 9-6 overall and 0-2 in the conference. KU improved to 14-2 and 1-1.
Tying a career-best by hitting 11 of her 19 field goal attempts, Jeffery accounted for almost half of CU's baskets. Spears' total came on six of 17 shooting from the field, and no other CU player surpassed two field goals.
Lappe said the Buffs seemed befuddled by the Jayhawks' zone defense. KU Coach Bonnie Henrickson called it "great . . . (CU) went maybe three for 11 against the zone towards the end. (We) did a great job with the zone and with switching defenses."
Jeffery and Spears each added 10 rebounds to their stat lines, with Jeffery also accounting for six steals and four assists - half of CU's season-low total. Rest assured that the Buffs' eight assists didn't come close to satisfying Lappe's formula for a successful night.
Said Jeffery: "When we had our little lapse, she told us that we kind of got a little selfish in not hitting open players - and that's their role (to knock down open shots)."
The Buffs opened efficiently and held the lead until Jayhawks sophomore guard Monica Engelman hit a three-pointer with 7:28 left before intermission to push KU in front 21-20.
But from there, the Jayhawks went ahead by as many as six (28-22) before the Buffs recovered with a 9-0 run and temporarily regained their composure and the lead, with a Jeffery layup at the 1:37 mark giving CU a 31-28 advantage.
However, Jeffery's points would be the Buffs' last of the half. The Jayhawks closed it out with a jumper by Aisah Sutherland and two free throws by Carolyn Davis to lead 32-31 at intermission.
The Buffs committed six turnovers in each half - with 12 a season-low total - and forced the Jayhawks into 16, receiving 20 points in return. CU held its own on the boards, allowing KU only a one rebound advantage (39-38).
Jeffery led all scorers with 13 first-half points, but her 6-of-9 shooting from the field wasn't indicative of her teammates' field goal accuracy. The Buffs shot only 39.4 percent (13-of-33) from the field in the first half (36.8 for the night) and might have been fortunate to trail by only one at the break.
So the halftime question became: Did the back-and-forth flow and the visitors' one-point lead offer a preview of the final 20 minutes?
Yes - for the first 7:15 of it. There were two ties and three lead changes until senior center Krysten Boogaard's layup tied the score at 43-43 and ignited a 10-0 KU run.
Freshman guard Keena Mays scored six of KU's 10 point in the spurt, and she wasn't done. When she buried a three-pointer with 9:04 remaining, KU shot ahead 56-47.
The Buffs answered with baskets by Brittany Wilson and Julie Seabrook to cut the deficit to 56-51 - but that was as close as they would get as the fragmentation began.
KU, which had three players in double figures, hit five-of-six free throws in the final 1:07 to seal the win and compound CU's frustration.
"We can't have mental lapses," Jeffery said. "We things go bad we can't break apart or we're just going to keep going down. We just have to have everybody step up. We only have nine of us (on the roster) and everybody has to be mentally ready.
"When things do go wrong we have to mentally uplift each other no matter what's going on. We have to be positive with each other because that's the only way we're going to come back together."
CU plays Iowa State on Saturday (4 p.m.) in the second game of a men's-women's doubleheader at the Events Center. The CU men play Oklahoma State (11:30 a.m.).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
