Colorado
3-4
Long Beach State
7-1
Colorado Falls 59-42 To Long Beach State
December 06, 2015 | Women's Basketball
LONG BEACH, Calif. - The University of Colorado women's basketball team fell to Long Beach State, 59-42, here on Sunday afternoon at the Walter Pyramid.
The Buffaloes moved to 3-4 overall on the season and are now 2-4 all-time against the 49ers. Long Beach State, winners of four straight, improved to 7-1 for the year.
Colorado and Long Beach State were nearly even on the boards, the Buffs grabbed 42 to the 49ers 40, however the Buffs struggled on offense throughout the game as Long Beach held Colorado to 27 percent shooting from the field (16-of-59) while the 49ers shot 44 percent (22-of-50), and outscored CU 34 to 12 in the paint.
"I thought we had some good looks, especially early," said Colorado head coach Linda Lappe. "I thought we had some good looks late; we had some layups and wide open three's. But they do a nice job of keeping you off balance and we could never really get in a flow."
Junior Lauren Huggins paced the Buffaloes with 11 points, junior Haley Smith had eight and senior Jamee Swan, along with freshmen Kennedy Leonard and Alexis Robinson finished with five points each. Robinson led Colorado with a career-high 10 rebounds, six of which she had in the first half.
Jewelyn Sawyer anchored the 49ers' offense, scoring 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and Raven Benton, Long Beach State's only other double-digit scorer recorded 13 points.
Long Beach State maintained the lead throughout the majority of the game and once it took a 10-8 advantage late in the first quarter, the Buffs unfortunately were never able to capture the lead again. The 49ers led by nine, 30-21 at halftime– their largest advantage of the first half and held anywhere from a seven to 12 point lead until the fourth quarter.
The Buffs, trailing 39-27 with less than a minute to play in the third quarter went on an 8-0 run that carried over to the fourth. Leonard knocked down a 3-pointer as time expired in the third, then came out and nailed a jumper. After Long Beach State missed its shot on the other end of the floor, Huggins snatched the rebound and made a shot from behind the arc, cutting the deficit to four, 39-35, but that is as close as Colorado would come the rest of the game.
The 49ers called a timeout and responded to end the Buffalo threat and take control as they scored 14 of the next 18 points, building a 16-point lead in seven-plus minutes and finished with the 59-42 win.
"We have to be able to adjust in adverse situations. I think that's something we need to execute better," Huggins said. "The different combinations are good, and it will help us prepare for later games. We will probably face this situation a few more times down the road. It's a long season, so getting everyone experienced and getting everyone to play together is helpful."
"You have to make your own luck when things don't go the way that you want it to go," said Lappe. "You can't be out hustled. You have to control the things that you can control. You just have to be solid in different ways. And we missed an opportunity to do that."
The Buffaloes will regroup and look to end its three-game skid later this week when they host Northern Arizona on Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. MST at the Coors Events Center.
