Thursday, February 23
Seattle, Wash.
9:00 PM
Colorado
15-13, 5-12
46
at
79
Washington
26-4, 14-3
1
2
3
4
F
Colorado
18
9
12
7
46
Washington
20
18
21
20
79
Washington native Haley Smith led CU with 16 points Friday night against No. 11 UW.
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
No. 11 Huskies Put Early Bite On Buffs, Pull Away In 79-46 Win
February 23, 2017 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
CU closes out regular season on Saturday at Washington State
SEATTLE – Falling behind early and playing catch up for four quarters proved disastrous here Friday night as the Colorado women's basketball team suffered its worst loss of the season.
The Buffaloes were buried 79-46 by No. 11 Washington in Alaska Airlines Arena in their next-to-last regular-season Pac-12 Conference game.
CU (15-13 overall, 5-12 Pac-12) trailed UW (26-4, 14-3) by 11 points at halftime but were down 20 entering the fourth quarter. The Huskies' 14-0 start to open the final period killed any Buffs' hopes of a miracle finish.
"It just felt like the wheels kind of fell off (in the second half)," CU coach JR Payne said. "We lost shooters, we turned the ball over. Our turnovers led to quick buckets for them. We really got out-rebounded pretty heavily and the combination of all of those things was tough to overcome against such a great team."
UW center Chantel Osahor scored the game's first 10 points, dropping the Buffs into a night-long hole they never escaped. The nation's leading rebounder (14.8 rpg) had a double-double by halftime and finished with 24 points and 20 boards.
Kelsey Plum, the nation's leading scorer (30.9 ppg), added 25 points for UW.
Haley Smith led CU with 16 points and was the only Buffs player in double figures.
HOW IT HAPPENED: With Osahor scoring UW's first 10 points – including a pair of treys and a conventional 3-point play – the Huskies took a quick 10-0 lead.
A blowout looked to be taking shape but the Buffs wouldn't allow it -- not yet. Finally finding their shooting stroke and tightening up their defense, they steadily closed the gap and by quarter's end trailed only 20-18.
CU opened 0-of-3 from the field but after a timeout at 7:28 the Buffs went 7-of-10 from the field, with Smith scoring six points in an 8-3 run to close out the period.
The Buffs opened the second quarter no more effectively than they did the first, allowing the Huskies a 9-0 run and falling behind 29-18 before Bri Watts finally scored for CU with 6:38 left in the half.
A brief surge brought the Buffs back to within six points (33-27) but the Huskies outscored them 5-0 in the half's final 2 minutes and restored an 11-point lead (38-27) at the break.
Plum seemed content to dish rather than score in the first half, contributing four of UW's seven assists while adding nine points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 free throws.
But Osahor more than picked up the slack, totaling a double-double – 19 points, 10 rebounds – by halftime. She hit 7-of-12 from the field, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.
Hitting half of her eight first-half field goal attempts, Smith led the Buffs with 8 points. CU shot 37 percent (10-of-27) in the first two quarters, committed 9 turnovers and was out-rebounded 23-18.
The Buffs haven't let double-digit deficits deflate them in past games, but in this one they couldn't allow the Huskies another 10-0 or 9-0 run to open the third quarter.
It wasn't that bad – but it was bad enough. UW outscored CU 11-4, opening an 18-point lead (49-31) and once again sentencing the Buffs to another steep hill climb for the rest of the night.
The Huskies opened the final quarter with a 14-0 run and led by as many as 33 points before the final buzzer.
TURNING POINT: After a sub-par start that found them trailing 10-0, the Buffs regrouped and trailed only 20-18 at the end of the first quarter. But horrid starts in each of the next three periods – 9-0, 11-4, 14-0 – made the night miserable for CU.
CU STANDOUTS: Smith's 16 points came on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, including 2-of-5 from long range. She added six rebounds but didn't shoot a free throw.
KEY STATISTICS: CU's top two scorers – Kennedy Leonard and Alexis Robinson – combined for 12 points and shot a combined 3-of-17 from the field. They were 1-of-7 from 3-point range, with Robinson hitting that trey . . . . The Buffs were out-rebounded 49-37 and surrendered 15 second-chance points . . . . UW scored 19 points off of CU's 14 turnovers . . . . The Buffs shot 26 percent from the field (17-of-66), the Huskies 42 percent (27-of-64) . . . . UW made 10 3-pointers, CU 6 . . . . The Huskies scored 30 points in the paint to the Buffs' 16.
WHAT IT MEANS: CU needs a fast bounce-back on Saturday to rebound from its largest loss of the season, gain a split on the last regular-season road trip and generate momentum for next week's Pac-12 Tournament in Seattle.
NOTEWORTHY: Senior Lauren Huggins scored her first points of the season, hitting a 3-pointer with 4:27 left in the first quarter . . . . CU started the game 0-for-4 from the floor, but made six of its next seven shots, while Washington started 3-for-4, but missed eight of its next nine . . . . CU has lost nine consecutive games to Washington and trails the all-time series 8-12 . . . . The Buffs had not lost the turnover battle in a game since Dec. 30 against USC (lost it 14-12 Friday night) . . . . Chantel Osahor's 20 rebounds were the most against CU since Angie Welle had 23 for Iowa State on Feb. 9, 2002 . . . . CU had not trailed by more than 30 points in a game this season prior to falling behind by 33 Friday night.
QUOTEWORTHY
Colorado Coach JR Payne
On recovering from a slow start in the first quarter
"We came out sluggish, which we don't normally do. We usually come out on fire and aggressive, so we had to call a time out to say, 'what is going on? When we're successful, this is what we do; when we're not successful, this is what we do--we're passive.' And I thought we were passive early, but once we talked about it, we really got better. We started defending more aggressively, we were hitting them more downhill in transition."
On defending Plum and Osahor
"We had to have an aggressive mindset to compete with [Plum and Osahor] and certainly for 40 minutes, it wasn't where it needed to be."
"I thought the first half on Plum was great. But we let her get loose in transition in the second half. When she starts feeling good, you can't corral her. When she gets comfortable and gets going, it's really hard to reign her in. And then Chantel from beginning to end was fantastic. We couldn't keep her off the glass, we couldn't keep her out of the [paint]. She found shooters when we doubled. She scored when we didn't. She's a great player and she's hard to stop."
NEXT UP: The Buffs close out the regular season at Washington State on Saturday (2 p.m., WSU Live Stream, ESPN Radio 1600 am).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
The Buffaloes were buried 79-46 by No. 11 Washington in Alaska Airlines Arena in their next-to-last regular-season Pac-12 Conference game.
CU (15-13 overall, 5-12 Pac-12) trailed UW (26-4, 14-3) by 11 points at halftime but were down 20 entering the fourth quarter. The Huskies' 14-0 start to open the final period killed any Buffs' hopes of a miracle finish.
"It just felt like the wheels kind of fell off (in the second half)," CU coach JR Payne said. "We lost shooters, we turned the ball over. Our turnovers led to quick buckets for them. We really got out-rebounded pretty heavily and the combination of all of those things was tough to overcome against such a great team."
UW center Chantel Osahor scored the game's first 10 points, dropping the Buffs into a night-long hole they never escaped. The nation's leading rebounder (14.8 rpg) had a double-double by halftime and finished with 24 points and 20 boards.
Kelsey Plum, the nation's leading scorer (30.9 ppg), added 25 points for UW.
Haley Smith led CU with 16 points and was the only Buffs player in double figures.
HOW IT HAPPENED: With Osahor scoring UW's first 10 points – including a pair of treys and a conventional 3-point play – the Huskies took a quick 10-0 lead.
A blowout looked to be taking shape but the Buffs wouldn't allow it -- not yet. Finally finding their shooting stroke and tightening up their defense, they steadily closed the gap and by quarter's end trailed only 20-18.
CU opened 0-of-3 from the field but after a timeout at 7:28 the Buffs went 7-of-10 from the field, with Smith scoring six points in an 8-3 run to close out the period.
The Buffs opened the second quarter no more effectively than they did the first, allowing the Huskies a 9-0 run and falling behind 29-18 before Bri Watts finally scored for CU with 6:38 left in the half.
A brief surge brought the Buffs back to within six points (33-27) but the Huskies outscored them 5-0 in the half's final 2 minutes and restored an 11-point lead (38-27) at the break.
Plum seemed content to dish rather than score in the first half, contributing four of UW's seven assists while adding nine points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 free throws.
But Osahor more than picked up the slack, totaling a double-double – 19 points, 10 rebounds – by halftime. She hit 7-of-12 from the field, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.
Hitting half of her eight first-half field goal attempts, Smith led the Buffs with 8 points. CU shot 37 percent (10-of-27) in the first two quarters, committed 9 turnovers and was out-rebounded 23-18.
The Buffs haven't let double-digit deficits deflate them in past games, but in this one they couldn't allow the Huskies another 10-0 or 9-0 run to open the third quarter.
It wasn't that bad – but it was bad enough. UW outscored CU 11-4, opening an 18-point lead (49-31) and once again sentencing the Buffs to another steep hill climb for the rest of the night.
The Huskies opened the final quarter with a 14-0 run and led by as many as 33 points before the final buzzer.
TURNING POINT: After a sub-par start that found them trailing 10-0, the Buffs regrouped and trailed only 20-18 at the end of the first quarter. But horrid starts in each of the next three periods – 9-0, 11-4, 14-0 – made the night miserable for CU.
CU STANDOUTS: Smith's 16 points came on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, including 2-of-5 from long range. She added six rebounds but didn't shoot a free throw.
KEY STATISTICS: CU's top two scorers – Kennedy Leonard and Alexis Robinson – combined for 12 points and shot a combined 3-of-17 from the field. They were 1-of-7 from 3-point range, with Robinson hitting that trey . . . . The Buffs were out-rebounded 49-37 and surrendered 15 second-chance points . . . . UW scored 19 points off of CU's 14 turnovers . . . . The Buffs shot 26 percent from the field (17-of-66), the Huskies 42 percent (27-of-64) . . . . UW made 10 3-pointers, CU 6 . . . . The Huskies scored 30 points in the paint to the Buffs' 16.
WHAT IT MEANS: CU needs a fast bounce-back on Saturday to rebound from its largest loss of the season, gain a split on the last regular-season road trip and generate momentum for next week's Pac-12 Tournament in Seattle.
NOTEWORTHY: Senior Lauren Huggins scored her first points of the season, hitting a 3-pointer with 4:27 left in the first quarter . . . . CU started the game 0-for-4 from the floor, but made six of its next seven shots, while Washington started 3-for-4, but missed eight of its next nine . . . . CU has lost nine consecutive games to Washington and trails the all-time series 8-12 . . . . The Buffs had not lost the turnover battle in a game since Dec. 30 against USC (lost it 14-12 Friday night) . . . . Chantel Osahor's 20 rebounds were the most against CU since Angie Welle had 23 for Iowa State on Feb. 9, 2002 . . . . CU had not trailed by more than 30 points in a game this season prior to falling behind by 33 Friday night.
QUOTEWORTHY
Colorado Coach JR Payne
On recovering from a slow start in the first quarter
"We came out sluggish, which we don't normally do. We usually come out on fire and aggressive, so we had to call a time out to say, 'what is going on? When we're successful, this is what we do; when we're not successful, this is what we do--we're passive.' And I thought we were passive early, but once we talked about it, we really got better. We started defending more aggressively, we were hitting them more downhill in transition."
On defending Plum and Osahor
"We had to have an aggressive mindset to compete with [Plum and Osahor] and certainly for 40 minutes, it wasn't where it needed to be."
"I thought the first half on Plum was great. But we let her get loose in transition in the second half. When she starts feeling good, you can't corral her. When she gets comfortable and gets going, it's really hard to reign her in. And then Chantel from beginning to end was fantastic. We couldn't keep her off the glass, we couldn't keep her out of the [paint]. She found shooters when we doubled. She scored when we didn't. She's a great player and she's hard to stop."
NEXT UP: The Buffs close out the regular season at Washington State on Saturday (2 p.m., WSU Live Stream, ESPN Radio 1600 am).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Team Stats
COLO
WASH
FG%
.258
.422
3FG%
.261
.370
FT%
.750
.750
RB
37
49
TO
14
12
STL
7
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
16
FGM
7
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
7
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
6
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Pts
5
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G/F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG/F
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