Friday, January 13
Boulder, Colo.
7:00 PM
Colorado
11-5, 1-4Pac-12
53
vs
65
California
14-3, 2-3Pac-12
1
2
3
4
F
California
13
12
24
16
65
Colorado
16
18
12
7
53
Alexis Robinson chases a loose ball Friday night against California.
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
Anigwe Leads No. 24 Cal Past CU, 65-53
January 13, 2017 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
Bears center scores 29 – 25 in second half – to thwart Buffs’ upset bid
BOULDER – The Colorado women's basketball team held California's Kristine Anigwe in check for a half Friday night, but doing it for 40 minutes was too much to ask.
Limited to four points in the first half, Anigwe – the Pac-12 Conference's No. 2 scorer at 23.3 points a game – awoke for 25 in the second half to lead the No. 24 Bears to a 65-53 victory at the Coors Events Center.
"They obviously had a concerted effort to get the ball inside in the second half," CU coach JR Payne said. "I thought she scored in transition, I thought she scored on offensive rebounds, I thought she scored one-on-three at times. She is that player. She is capable of going for 50 like she's done already once this year. At best, you just hope to contain her and keep her off the glass but she's phenomenal."
The Buffs (11-5 overall, 1-4 Pac-12) led 34-25 at halftime, but Anigwe and the Bears (14-3, 2-3) outscored them 19-1 to open the third quarter and took a 44-35 lead.
CU rallied with an 11-2 run, tied the score at 46-46 and trailed only 49-46 at the end of the quarter. But the Buffs were outscored 9-2 in the first six minutes of the final period, fell behind by 10 (58-48) and never got closer than 5 points until the final buzzer.
"I just told the team, I don't have anything magical that's going to make anyone feel any better," Payne said. "The truth of the matter is, in this conference, you have to play for 40 minutes. You have to play for 40 minutes."
Anigwe led all scorers with 29 points and added a game-best 11 rebounds. Three Buffs reached double figures, topped by Alexis Robinson's 18. Kennedy Leonard added 13 and Haley Smith 10.
In breaking a three-game losing streak, the Bears denied the Buffs their first win over a ranked team in the regular season since CU joined the Pac-12.
HOW IT HAPPENED: After leading by as many as 7 points (16-9), the Buffs were up 16-13 after one quarter, shooting 44 percent from behind the arc and limiting Anigwe to only two points on a pair of free throws.
CU defended the 6-4 Anigwe primarily by rotating 6-4 Zoe Correal and 6-2 Bri Watts on her and occasionally doubling down on her with a second defender in the paint.
Robinson hit two of the Buffs' four first-quarter treys, with Makenzie Ellis and Smith getting the other two.
After a pair of Leonard free throws to open the second quarter (18-15), Robinson drained her third trey of the half and followed that with a steal and a layup. With 7:44 left before halftime, CU had its largest lead – 23-15 – to that point.
A half minute later, Anigwe worked free and finally scored her first basket, bringing the Bears to within 23-17. They pulled to 23-20 on a Jaelyn Brown 3-pointer, but the Buffs launched an 11-2 run – Leonard scored 9 of the 11 – and opened a 34-22 lead.
An Asha Thomas trey 15 seconds before the break set the halftime score at 34-25, but the Buffs went to their locker room feeling good about their first half.
In addition to limiting Anigwe to four points and three rebounds, CU finished the first half hitting 6 of its 15 3-point attempts (40 percent) and going 8-of-8 from the free throw line.
Robinson (13 points) led all first-half scorers, with Leonard getting 11 points of her team's 18 points in the second quarter, including going 6-of-6 at the foul line. In a loss last season at Cal, CU didn't score in the second quarter.
The Bears outshot the Buffs 42 percent-27 percent in the first two quarters, but CU's 6-3 edge in 3-pointers, eight free throws to Cal's two, and committing only three turnovers – tying a season low – helped provide the 9-point halftime edge.
But that disappeared in the blink of an eye – Anigwe's. For all of CU's first-half success in making her a non-factor, Anigwe resurfaced in the third quarter.
Cal opened the period with a 9-0 run, featuring seven straight points by Anigwe that pulled the Bears to 34-32. They tied the score at 34 on a layup by Thomas, who hustled to snag a rebound off her own missed shot and converted it to a layup.
With the Buffs still looking for their first second-half points, Anigwe scored again inside, Courtney Range got a layup off a turnover, and Anigwe hit four free throws to push the Bears' run to 17-0 and their lead to 42-34.
The Buffs finally got their first third-quarter point on one-of-two Haley Smith free throws with 4:18 left in the period. Less than a minute later, they got their first field goal of the period on a Makenzie Ellis layup, cutting Cal's lead to 44-37.
And a stunning turnaround was underway.
CU proceeded to outscore Cal 11-2, pulling into a 46-46 tie on Robinson's triple from the right corner with 43 seconds left in the quarter. But with three-tenths of a second to play, Mikayla Cowling's 3-pointer gave the Bears a 49-46 advantage heading into the final quarter.
But the Buffs would score only seven fourth-quarter points, and Anigwe wouldn't stop.
TURNING POINT: After tying the score at 46-46 with an 11-2 run late in the third quarter, the Buffs were outscored 19-7 the rest of the way – including 16-7 in the fourth quarter.
CU STANDOUTS: Robinson hit 4-of-9 3-point attempts and finished with a team-high 18 points . . . . Leonard had a team-best four assists to go with her 13 points . . . . Smith finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
KEY STATISTICS: After playing one of their best first-halves of the season, the Buffs had trouble starting in both the third and fourth quarters. They were outscored 19-1 to open the third and 7-2 to open the fourth . . . . CU finished with only nine turnovers and had 12 steals . . . . The Buffs were outscored 32-18 in the paint . . . . The Bears shot 48 percent from the field (24-of-50), the Buffs 27 percent (18-of-66) . . . . CU was 8-of-26 from 3-point range (31 percent).
WHAT IT MEANS: The takeaway for the Buffs: A one-half performance won't win any games in the Pac-12 – and as Payne said, "It doesn't get any easier." Only a 40-minute effort will produce a 'W' on Sunday against No. 13 Stanford, an opponent CU has not beaten since joining the Pac-12.
NOTEWORTHY: Friday's game marked the first time this season that the Buffs lost when leading at halftime; they were 11-0 . . . . Cal's 12 blocked shots tied for the most by a CU opponent in any conference game (Baylor also had 12 in a 2010 contest) . . . . The Buffs' 27.3 field goal percentage was a season low . . . . CU's nine turnovers were fewest since having only eight in its win over Colorado State.
QUOTEWORTHY: "The first few minutes we went away from everything we were doing . . . we weren't sticking to our principles." – Haley Smith on Cal outscoring CU 19-1 to open the third quarter
"I'm proud of our effort . . . we never gave up or rolled over . . . this team never folds." – Buffs coach JR Payne
"Stanford is good, big, and shoots the ball well … they're playing faster than they have." – Payne on the Cardinal, the Buffs' Sunday opponent
NEXT UP: The Buffs return to the CEC on Sunday afternoon to play No. 13 Stanford (2 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) in the first game of a men's/women's doubleheader. The CU men face No. 25 USC at 6:30 p.m.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Colorado Head Coach JR Payne
General
"I just told the team, I don't have anything magical that's going to make anyone feel any better. The truth of the matter is, in this conference, you have to play for 40 minutes. You have to play for 40 minutes. You can have the best half of your lives, you can shoot 70 percent from the floor, outrebound, and not turn the ball over. If you don't come out ready to go in the second half then it can all go away. This conference is just too good. The other hard thing is, it doesn't get any easier. A day and a half from now, we play Stanford. I don't even know what they're ranked but they are really good and always are. I think we just need to learn that we should gain confidence from the fact that we can play with these teams. We can beat Cal – but we can't beat them unless we play for 40 minutes. I think that's the biggest takeaway that I get from this game. I am really proud of our effort. Alexis' rebounding in the first half was phenomenal. We never gave up. We never rolled over. These teams are just too good to kind of play in spurts and give up big runs like that. At some point on that run, you have to dig your heels in and get a stop and a score. You can't let anyone go on a run like that.
General
"I think that's one thing that's very commendable about this group and what we've been through historically and also this year – is that we never fold. We have a semi-young team but this team never folds. Haley plays big minutes a senior – but this team never folds. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are, who are opponent is, big run, small run, whatever it is. We didn't finish the game off the way we wanted to but I think that's something I am really proud of our team for that."
On the play of Bri Watts
"Bri has been playing more, more, and more as the season has gone on. She's one of our best post players – she just hasn't had a lot of time on the floor. She's one of our smartest post players. She's our best passer. She actually has a very high IQ and is someone we have been asking to have a bigger role in the last several weeks."
On the minutes of Monica Burich
"We just had moved Haley to the four. To be honest, it's hard to take Haley off the floor. She does so many things offensively, defensively – she's our best rebounder. It's hard for me as coach to take her off the floor so she was more at the four in the first half."
On looking forward to Stanford
"They are good, they're big, they can shoot the ball, and they're experienced. They have everything you want in a basketball team. They have size, perimeter players, post-players, they can rebound. They are playing a lot faster than they have historically. Last year they sped up a little bit – this year they are playing even faster. I don't know how the altitude affects a team that is very seasoned and mentally tough. It's not as big of a factor against those teams. They are good. Every team is good. Next Friday our opponent will be good, next Sunday they'll be good. The personnel just changes out but they are a very good team."
Colorado Players
Alexis Robinson, So., G
On Overcoming Slow Start in First Quarter
"It was pretty big. But, I always think as a team, we had a lot of confidence. That is why the first couple of misses did not really affect us. We just kept shooting... Shooters shoot so we just did not stop shooting. "
On Cal's Third-Quarter Run
"Like Coach said, you have to play for all 40 minutes. Them getting to the point to where they are beating us is us not playing. I really do not know what to say. I am really upset right now."
On Turning Around the Conference Record
We just have to take it one game at a time. We cannot try to get four right away. We just have to focus on Stanford, try to beat them and get on a one game win streak.
Haley Smith, Sr., G/F
On Cal's Second Half
"Coach [JR Payne] just talked about this in the locker room how kind of n those first few minutes we went away from what everything that we were doing that was making us be successful in the first half, both offensively and defensively. So I think that we were not sticking to our principles and playing inside-out like we had talked about, stopping them in transition, boxing them out, not letting them get a second chance opportunities, keeping [Cal's Kristine] Anigwe a non-factor as we had in the first half . We just kind of went away from what we were doing successfully in the first half."
On Not Folding as a Team After Big Cal Run
"I think that was definitely big, but we have to be able to dig our heels and push back instead of trying to contain them, or playing not to lose instead of playing to win. So I think in that case it matters. We need to be able to go on our own run and take control of the game again, as opposed to letting them run away again."
Limited to four points in the first half, Anigwe – the Pac-12 Conference's No. 2 scorer at 23.3 points a game – awoke for 25 in the second half to lead the No. 24 Bears to a 65-53 victory at the Coors Events Center.
"They obviously had a concerted effort to get the ball inside in the second half," CU coach JR Payne said. "I thought she scored in transition, I thought she scored on offensive rebounds, I thought she scored one-on-three at times. She is that player. She is capable of going for 50 like she's done already once this year. At best, you just hope to contain her and keep her off the glass but she's phenomenal."
The Buffs (11-5 overall, 1-4 Pac-12) led 34-25 at halftime, but Anigwe and the Bears (14-3, 2-3) outscored them 19-1 to open the third quarter and took a 44-35 lead.
CU rallied with an 11-2 run, tied the score at 46-46 and trailed only 49-46 at the end of the quarter. But the Buffs were outscored 9-2 in the first six minutes of the final period, fell behind by 10 (58-48) and never got closer than 5 points until the final buzzer.
"I just told the team, I don't have anything magical that's going to make anyone feel any better," Payne said. "The truth of the matter is, in this conference, you have to play for 40 minutes. You have to play for 40 minutes."
Anigwe led all scorers with 29 points and added a game-best 11 rebounds. Three Buffs reached double figures, topped by Alexis Robinson's 18. Kennedy Leonard added 13 and Haley Smith 10.
In breaking a three-game losing streak, the Bears denied the Buffs their first win over a ranked team in the regular season since CU joined the Pac-12.
HOW IT HAPPENED: After leading by as many as 7 points (16-9), the Buffs were up 16-13 after one quarter, shooting 44 percent from behind the arc and limiting Anigwe to only two points on a pair of free throws.
CU defended the 6-4 Anigwe primarily by rotating 6-4 Zoe Correal and 6-2 Bri Watts on her and occasionally doubling down on her with a second defender in the paint.
Robinson hit two of the Buffs' four first-quarter treys, with Makenzie Ellis and Smith getting the other two.
After a pair of Leonard free throws to open the second quarter (18-15), Robinson drained her third trey of the half and followed that with a steal and a layup. With 7:44 left before halftime, CU had its largest lead – 23-15 – to that point.
A half minute later, Anigwe worked free and finally scored her first basket, bringing the Bears to within 23-17. They pulled to 23-20 on a Jaelyn Brown 3-pointer, but the Buffs launched an 11-2 run – Leonard scored 9 of the 11 – and opened a 34-22 lead.
An Asha Thomas trey 15 seconds before the break set the halftime score at 34-25, but the Buffs went to their locker room feeling good about their first half.
In addition to limiting Anigwe to four points and three rebounds, CU finished the first half hitting 6 of its 15 3-point attempts (40 percent) and going 8-of-8 from the free throw line.
Robinson (13 points) led all first-half scorers, with Leonard getting 11 points of her team's 18 points in the second quarter, including going 6-of-6 at the foul line. In a loss last season at Cal, CU didn't score in the second quarter.
The Bears outshot the Buffs 42 percent-27 percent in the first two quarters, but CU's 6-3 edge in 3-pointers, eight free throws to Cal's two, and committing only three turnovers – tying a season low – helped provide the 9-point halftime edge.
But that disappeared in the blink of an eye – Anigwe's. For all of CU's first-half success in making her a non-factor, Anigwe resurfaced in the third quarter.
Cal opened the period with a 9-0 run, featuring seven straight points by Anigwe that pulled the Bears to 34-32. They tied the score at 34 on a layup by Thomas, who hustled to snag a rebound off her own missed shot and converted it to a layup.
With the Buffs still looking for their first second-half points, Anigwe scored again inside, Courtney Range got a layup off a turnover, and Anigwe hit four free throws to push the Bears' run to 17-0 and their lead to 42-34.
The Buffs finally got their first third-quarter point on one-of-two Haley Smith free throws with 4:18 left in the period. Less than a minute later, they got their first field goal of the period on a Makenzie Ellis layup, cutting Cal's lead to 44-37.
And a stunning turnaround was underway.
CU proceeded to outscore Cal 11-2, pulling into a 46-46 tie on Robinson's triple from the right corner with 43 seconds left in the quarter. But with three-tenths of a second to play, Mikayla Cowling's 3-pointer gave the Bears a 49-46 advantage heading into the final quarter.
But the Buffs would score only seven fourth-quarter points, and Anigwe wouldn't stop.
TURNING POINT: After tying the score at 46-46 with an 11-2 run late in the third quarter, the Buffs were outscored 19-7 the rest of the way – including 16-7 in the fourth quarter.
CU STANDOUTS: Robinson hit 4-of-9 3-point attempts and finished with a team-high 18 points . . . . Leonard had a team-best four assists to go with her 13 points . . . . Smith finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
KEY STATISTICS: After playing one of their best first-halves of the season, the Buffs had trouble starting in both the third and fourth quarters. They were outscored 19-1 to open the third and 7-2 to open the fourth . . . . CU finished with only nine turnovers and had 12 steals . . . . The Buffs were outscored 32-18 in the paint . . . . The Bears shot 48 percent from the field (24-of-50), the Buffs 27 percent (18-of-66) . . . . CU was 8-of-26 from 3-point range (31 percent).
WHAT IT MEANS: The takeaway for the Buffs: A one-half performance won't win any games in the Pac-12 – and as Payne said, "It doesn't get any easier." Only a 40-minute effort will produce a 'W' on Sunday against No. 13 Stanford, an opponent CU has not beaten since joining the Pac-12.
NOTEWORTHY: Friday's game marked the first time this season that the Buffs lost when leading at halftime; they were 11-0 . . . . Cal's 12 blocked shots tied for the most by a CU opponent in any conference game (Baylor also had 12 in a 2010 contest) . . . . The Buffs' 27.3 field goal percentage was a season low . . . . CU's nine turnovers were fewest since having only eight in its win over Colorado State.
QUOTEWORTHY: "The first few minutes we went away from everything we were doing . . . we weren't sticking to our principles." – Haley Smith on Cal outscoring CU 19-1 to open the third quarter
"I'm proud of our effort . . . we never gave up or rolled over . . . this team never folds." – Buffs coach JR Payne
"Stanford is good, big, and shoots the ball well … they're playing faster than they have." – Payne on the Cardinal, the Buffs' Sunday opponent
NEXT UP: The Buffs return to the CEC on Sunday afternoon to play No. 13 Stanford (2 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) in the first game of a men's/women's doubleheader. The CU men face No. 25 USC at 6:30 p.m.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Colorado Head Coach JR Payne
General
"I just told the team, I don't have anything magical that's going to make anyone feel any better. The truth of the matter is, in this conference, you have to play for 40 minutes. You have to play for 40 minutes. You can have the best half of your lives, you can shoot 70 percent from the floor, outrebound, and not turn the ball over. If you don't come out ready to go in the second half then it can all go away. This conference is just too good. The other hard thing is, it doesn't get any easier. A day and a half from now, we play Stanford. I don't even know what they're ranked but they are really good and always are. I think we just need to learn that we should gain confidence from the fact that we can play with these teams. We can beat Cal – but we can't beat them unless we play for 40 minutes. I think that's the biggest takeaway that I get from this game. I am really proud of our effort. Alexis' rebounding in the first half was phenomenal. We never gave up. We never rolled over. These teams are just too good to kind of play in spurts and give up big runs like that. At some point on that run, you have to dig your heels in and get a stop and a score. You can't let anyone go on a run like that.
General
"I think that's one thing that's very commendable about this group and what we've been through historically and also this year – is that we never fold. We have a semi-young team but this team never folds. Haley plays big minutes a senior – but this team never folds. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are, who are opponent is, big run, small run, whatever it is. We didn't finish the game off the way we wanted to but I think that's something I am really proud of our team for that."
On the play of Bri Watts
"Bri has been playing more, more, and more as the season has gone on. She's one of our best post players – she just hasn't had a lot of time on the floor. She's one of our smartest post players. She's our best passer. She actually has a very high IQ and is someone we have been asking to have a bigger role in the last several weeks."
On the minutes of Monica Burich
"We just had moved Haley to the four. To be honest, it's hard to take Haley off the floor. She does so many things offensively, defensively – she's our best rebounder. It's hard for me as coach to take her off the floor so she was more at the four in the first half."
On looking forward to Stanford
"They are good, they're big, they can shoot the ball, and they're experienced. They have everything you want in a basketball team. They have size, perimeter players, post-players, they can rebound. They are playing a lot faster than they have historically. Last year they sped up a little bit – this year they are playing even faster. I don't know how the altitude affects a team that is very seasoned and mentally tough. It's not as big of a factor against those teams. They are good. Every team is good. Next Friday our opponent will be good, next Sunday they'll be good. The personnel just changes out but they are a very good team."
Colorado Players
Alexis Robinson, So., G
On Overcoming Slow Start in First Quarter
"It was pretty big. But, I always think as a team, we had a lot of confidence. That is why the first couple of misses did not really affect us. We just kept shooting... Shooters shoot so we just did not stop shooting. "
On Cal's Third-Quarter Run
"Like Coach said, you have to play for all 40 minutes. Them getting to the point to where they are beating us is us not playing. I really do not know what to say. I am really upset right now."
On Turning Around the Conference Record
We just have to take it one game at a time. We cannot try to get four right away. We just have to focus on Stanford, try to beat them and get on a one game win streak.
Haley Smith, Sr., G/F
On Cal's Second Half
"Coach [JR Payne] just talked about this in the locker room how kind of n those first few minutes we went away from what everything that we were doing that was making us be successful in the first half, both offensively and defensively. So I think that we were not sticking to our principles and playing inside-out like we had talked about, stopping them in transition, boxing them out, not letting them get a second chance opportunities, keeping [Cal's Kristine] Anigwe a non-factor as we had in the first half . We just kind of went away from what we were doing successfully in the first half."
On Not Folding as a Team After Big Cal Run
"I think that was definitely big, but we have to be able to dig our heels and push back instead of trying to contain them, or playing not to lose instead of playing to win. So I think in that case it matters. We need to be able to go on our own run and take control of the game again, as opposed to letting them run away again."
Team Stats
CAL
COLO
FG%
.480
.273
3FG%
.375
.308
FT%
1.000
.750
RB
41
32
TO
20
9
STL
7
12
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
18
FGM
7
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
13
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
6
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
3
Pts
5
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
C
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG/F
/ Women's Basketball
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