Colorado
4-1
Missouri State
0-5
Colorado Rolls To 87-59 Win Over Missouri State
November 28, 2014 | Women's Basketball
BOULDER ? Haley Smith scored a career-high 18 points as Colorado's offense was firing on all cylinders in an 87-59 win over Missouri State in the first round of the Omni Hotels Classic Friday evening at the Coors Events Center.
Senior Lexy Kresl added 17, hitting five 3-pointers as the Buffaloes (4-1) hit 80 points for the second time in three games.
Colorado moves on to face Colorado State in Saturday's championship game at 7:30 p.m. Colorado State (3-1) defeated TCU 76-62 in the tournament opener. Missouri State (0-5) will face TCU (3-2) in Saturday's consolation at 5 p.m.
"I really liked our effort tonight," coach Linda Lappe said. "I thought we played a complete game, both offensively and defensively. We had great production from our starters, had great production from our bench."
The Smith-Kresl duo were simply on fire. Smith was 6-of-9 from the field, in continuation of a three-game stretch where she's made a whopping 73 percent of her attempts (19-of-26). Kresl hit five of her first six 3-point attempts, settling in for a solid 6-of-13 night from the field which included seven rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.
"My teammates are hitting me for open shots," Smith said. "I don't feel like I'm having to create; I'm just hitting the ones that are open."
It helps that Smith's shot selection mirrors that of every practice this season, and her teammates are taking notice, if the opposition has caught on yet.
"Haley deserves everything she's getting,"Kresl said. "I see her shooting every day in the gym.? That shot that you see her hit 7-of-8 in the game; she hits them in practice and shoots them every day.? We are trying to figure out when someone is going to start guarding her, but that's ok with us."
Colorado shot 43 percent and hit a season-high nine 3-pointers. The Buffaloes put up 50 points in the second half on 46 percent shooting, thanks to momentum that actually began in the final minutes of the first period.
Smith and Kresl had eight points each as the Buffaloes built a 16-9 lead. But Missouri State stayed close, and tied the game at 18-18 on a Kenzie Williams free throw.
Kresl's third 3-pointer of the half and a Zoe Correal layup pushed CU's lead back to five, but the Lady Bears answered again, tying the score at 27-27 with 3:35 remaining.
For the second straight game Colorado made a strong run at the end of the first half to seize momentum.
The Buffaloes started getting stops and were able to get the ball quickly down the floor in transition. Colorado broke the tie with four straight free throws and then after a MSU turnover, Jasmine Sborov drilled a 3-pointer from left baseline to give Colorado a 34-27 advantage.
Free throws gave Colorado a 37-27 lead at halftime and the Buffaloes came out of the locker room fast and furious. Colorado had three offensive rebounds on the first possession, the final one ending in a Jamee Swan put back basket. Then, Jen Reese had a great steal on the other end, which ended in a transition layup by Swan off a nice no-look feed from Sborov that capped off a 14-0 run.
"That's really big in any game, just ending the half with momentum," Kresl said. "Then the other team goes into the locker room kind of doubting themselves.? The last four minutes of the first half and first four minutes of the second half are really big."
Liza Fruendt stopped CU's run with a 3-pointer to pull MSU back to 41-30, but Colorado kept on rolling.
Kresl hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Lauren Huggins added her first of three second half treys as Colorado led 50-32 with 15:06 remaining.
A 10-2 Missouri State run, aided by five points from Fruendt, closed Colorado's lead to 12 at 56-44 with 8:16 remaining. But Colorado quickly ended that run as Swan converted on a 3-point play, and scored on another fast break bucket, off an alley-oop pass from Smith, that sparked a 20-1 run that gave CU a 76-46 lead to end the Lady Bears' night.
Swan scored 14 points and had eight rebounds. Correal also had personal-best eight rebounds to tie Swan for the team lead. Colorado dominated the glass, outrebounding Missouri State 53-36 and committed a season-low 10 turnovers.
Fruendt finished with 17 points to lead the Lady Bears.
The Buffaloes now have a quick turnaround to face Colorado State, a matchup most had hoped for.
"We're excited to get to play them," Lappe said. "We play them every year, and they have a great team, they are very well coached and have nice players and keep getting better every single year. They'll give us some good looks, but we're excited.
"We really hope that it will be a great crowd, hopefully the best one we've had this year. We want the energy in this place to be fantastic, and hopefully some CSU fans will come down as well. That's one of the reasons why we thought it would be great to have them in the tournament, to really increase the atmosphere of the Omni Classic."
