Buffs Ready For Tough Postseason Road Challenge

BOULDER - South Dakota State may be a new foe for Colorado women's basketball, but head coach JR Payne is no stranger to the Jackrabbits. The two teams will square off on Sunday in the second round of the WNIT in Brookings, South Dakota (1 p.m. MT tip-off | TV: Midco Sports Network | Radio: AM 1190 KVCU).

The Jackrabbits
Payne and her staff are familiar with SDSU (23-8 overall, 12-4 Summit), having been a conference rival when she was head coach of Southern Utah. SUU was a member of The Summit League in Payne's first three seasons there, before moving to the Big Sky Conference in 2012-13.

"The first time we played them, we said, 'that's the team we want to be,'" Payne said after Thursday's 66-52 win over UNLV in the first round. "I admire [head coach Aaron Johnston]. I love his program. I love his teams.

"They're really tough, they're big, they're disciplined, they do their job. They defend, they rebound. They're just a really good, disciplined team. Not flashy, not fancy--they just all do their job."

Johnston has led the South Dakota State program for the past 17 years. He has built SDSU into a perennial national power, despite coming from a mid-major conference, with this being the 11th consecutive postseason appearance for the Jackrabbits. Just as impressive, Johnston has a had a winning record in all 17 seasons, despite leading a transition from NCAA Division II to Division I during his tenure.

SDSU narrowly missed an NCAA Tournament appearance this year, which would have been the eighth since joining Division I. In the penultimate season in Division II, Johnston guided the Jackrabbits to a national championship.

Payne believes SDSU was deserving of another NCAA berth this year, as the Jackrabbits come in with a record of 23-8 and had an RPI of 38 when the tournament field was announced on Monday.

"Their RPI was really high and they beat a lot of really good teams," Payne said. "Every year they're capable of being an NCAA Tournament team and this year is no different."

Despite facing a tough team in the second round of the WNIT, CU is excited to get away from the Pac-12 for the time-being.

"It's really different for our team to have to learn a completely brand [opponent]," Payne. "All of the Pac-12 schools, we pretty much know who they are. Even without a scouting report, our team kind of [knows] who they are and what they do. But these are totally different teams [in the WNIT]. Our team doesn't know anything other than when they went online and Googled South Dakota State last night. That's kind of fun to get back into that grind from a preparing standpoint."

The scouting report shows SDSU has four starters averaging over 10 points per game, led by 5-foot-8 sophomore Madison Guebert at 15.2 points per game. She shoots over 43 percent from 3-point range and 85 percent at the line. Seniors Kerri Young (13.8 ppg, 3.5 apg) and Clarissa Ober (10.3 ppg, 8.1 rpg) and juniors Ellie Thompson (13.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and Alexis Alexander (5.3 ppg) round out the starting five. Rebounding will be key for CU as the Jacks average more than five rebounds per game than their opponents.

The Crowd
The x-factor in Sunday's matchup will be the crowd. Playing in the Pac-12 certainly helps prepare the Buffs for a rowdy crowd, but SDSU drew 2,610 fans on Thursday night in its win over Northern Illinois, despite its men's team playing a first-round NCAA Tournament game the same day.

CU looks at the lively atmosphere as an advantage.

"I think it will be great," Payne said. "Their fans love basketball, whether it's men's basketball or women's basketball. Now that their men's team is finished playing, I would anticipate there would be a huge crowd because that community loves the game. They'll want another game to watch so they'll come out and support [the women's team]."

Payne and senior Haley Smith both viewed the win on the road at No. 24 California earlier this season as a confidence-booster for playing in a hostile environment. The Bears drew 3,024 fans that afternoon and, similar to the design of SDSU's Frost Arena, Cal's Haas Pavilion sits the fans right on top of the court and the team benches.

"We've played in a lot of tough places with big crowds and I would assume it would be kind of like Cal, where it was 3-to-4,000 people and they're all kind of on top of you," Payne said. "But I think as long as we stick together as a team, we're capable of handling that type of environment."

"I think having energy in a game, no matter whether it's for you or against you, I think that elevates play no matter what," Smith said. "So I think we're excited to go someplace where there's a lot of fans and there's going to be great energy in the gym. I think what's really important is that we know our game plan and know how we're going to execute it. It's probably going to be tough to hear. We're probably going to have to be a bit more autonomous on the court, maybe not be able to hear the coaches as much. [It'll be really important] to know the game plan and make sure we're executing on the floor."

In the Cal game, CU led for the entire game--many times by double digits--but the Bears clawed back within two points with two minutes remaining. That's when the Buffs stepped up and fed off the crowd's energy. Kennedy Leonard buried a 3-pointer with one minute left and the shot clock expiring to put CU up by five. She then calmly sank two free throws with 10 seconds left to keep the margin at five, and Smith came up with a steal on Cal's final possession to close out the road win.

"I think the last few minutes of the Cal game might have been one of the toughest [environments we've seen all season] because the fans were all on their feet," Smith said. "They were being really loud. I remember Kennedy coming down the court towards the end of the game, trying to call a play. Luckily we have hand signals for all of the plays so we were able to see what she was calling, but I saw her yelling and I could not hear at all what she was saying. That was probably the toughest in the fact that there was a little adversity with them coming back and the game getting really close with two or three minutes left."

The Fourth Quarter
Speaking of the fourth quarter, Leonard has owned the fourth quarter all season, averaging 5.4 of her 17.0 points during the final frame. Since scoring a school-record 22 points in the fourth quarter against Wyoming on Dec. 21, she's been averaging 6.2 points in the fourth quarter. Thursday's win over UNLV was no different as she had 10 points in the fourth, including making two 3-point field goals and hitting all four of her free throw attempts.

The Buffs also seem to have solved their third-quarter woes from the first half of the conference season. Last night CU outscored UNLV 25-19 in the third and it was the second consecutive game with 25 points in the third quarter. In fact, the Buffs shot 61.1 percent from the field last night during the third quarter, including guards Leonard and Alexis Robinson shooting a combined 6-of-8.

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Players Mentioned

Kennedy Leonard

Alexis Robinson

Haley Smith