Colorado
21-8,11-7Pac-12
Washington State
18-13,7-11Pac-12
No. 13 Buffaloes Fall at Home on Senior Day
March 02, 2024 | Women's Basketball
Will be the No. 5 seed in next week's Pac-12 Tournament
BOULDER – No. 13 Colorado struggled to the finish on Senior Day, falling 72-63 to Washington State at the CU Events Center on Saturday.
The loss, just the third at home this season for the Buffaloes, drops the team to 21-8 overall and 11-7 in the Pac-12. Washington State (18-13, 7-11 Pac-12) splits the season series with CU, moving to 7-6 on the road.
CU finishes fifth in the Pac-12 standings and plays No. 12 Oregon in the first game of the Pac-12 Tournament next Wednesday in Las Vegas.
"I don't have a lot to say," head coach JR Payne said after the loss. "I'm disappointed with the outcome of the game. I hate to have a game like that on Senior Day because it should be a joyous day where we can celebrate these incredible women, which we still did and still do. After all, they are that remarkable. But, [I] was disappointed with the outcome but also very proud of our team for its composure and I'm happy to be able to celebrate these incredible women on our team."
Colorado had three players finish in double figures, led by Jaylyn Sherrod, who made her school-record 128th career start on Saturday. The fifth-year point guard scored 18 points, going 11-for-12 from the free-throw line to pace the Buffs in her final regular season game in the Black & Gold. Aaronette Vonleh (15) and Frida Formann (10) rounded out CU's top scorers.
"Jaylyn and I have really grown up together in some ways," Payne reflected. "As she mentioned, she came here as a 17-year-old kid, and we threw her into the fire very quickly at a young age. She wasn't like basketball-wise ready for what we were doing, throwing her into the fire, but she was always mentally ready. Always so fearless and tough. I'll never forget for as long as I coach, our first Pac-12 game at Oregon. They had Sabrina [Ionescu] and all those guys and we lost I think by 56 points. The commentator put a microphone in front of her face right after the game and said 'Welcome to the Pac-12, what do you think?' The first words out of her mouth were, 'Well they still have to come through Boulder.' Of course, they were significantly better than us at that time. Just the fearlessness in that statement is in her DNA. We've been through a lot together. Lots of wins. Lots of big moments. Lots of key moments. Lots of developing. Lots of long and hard talks, and challenging each other to be great. These guys are all like my daughters and I've been with Jaylyn the longest so she's like my oldest kid. It won't really be sad until the season's over. But yeah, just disappointed we couldn't get the win for them on Senior Day."
Colorado shot 36.2% (21-58) on the day and got an 87.5% (14-of-16) effort from the line. The Cougars shot 27-of-60 (45.0%) from the field and shot 5-of-7 (71.4%) from the deep in the fourth quarter propelling them to a hard-fought win on the road.
"Like JR said, none of our goals are unattainable at this point," Sherrod added. "Nobody's looking at it as if we can't do it. I don't think that's the case. Today was just tough. I thought we played really well, they [WSU] just hit shots down the stretch like that. With us talking about the themes that we've been talking about the past few weeks, I don't think today's game was totally different from Utah or OSU when we just weren't executing. The team gets hot in three minutes there's really nothing you can do about that. We got hot in the first half, but that's just how basketball goes. I'm not really hanging hats on this game. We all feel the crunch time of it. We all know that this team can be really special. That's still on the table. Nobody here is writing us off. So you just got to go out there and handle business."
Eleonora Villa led the Cougar offense with 20 points, scoring nine points in the final frame. Astera Tuhina totaled 14 points with 12 coming in the second half after going 4-of-4 (100%) from deep to keep the Buffaloes on the ropes late in the game.
Colorado celebrated the team's departing seniors after the game. Sherrod, Sophie Gerber, Charlotte Whittaker, Quay Miller, Maddie Nolan and Tameiya Sadler all concluded their regular season careers at CU on Saturday.
How It Happened
Both teams traded leads throughout the first half and defense proved to be the focus point for both teams in the second quarter. Colorado held the Cougars scoreless for nearly half of the second quarter while going on a 7-0 run to claim a 26-18 lead. Colorado outscored WSU 16-10 in the quarter and finished the half shooting 10-for-29 (34.5%) from the field helped by a 9-of-10 effort from the free throw line while WSU was 10-for-27 (37%) on field goals.
The Buffs started fast in the second half as Sherrod made her eighth and ninth free throws followed by a Maddie Nolan 3-pointer to give the Buffs their largest lead of the game, 36-26.
The teams battled back and forth but ultimately Colorado prevailed finishing the quarter on a 6-0 run capped with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Sherrod to give the Buffs a three-point lead, 50-47, heading into the final frame.
Washington State quickly made back-to-back three-pointers to start the fourth, jumping back in front, 53-50. Miller and Nolan answered back with 3s of their own to give the Buffaloes the lead once again. Nolan continued to stay locked in, draining a deep 3 as time expired on the shot clock to help the Buffs stay ahead, 59-56, with 4:11 to play.
WSU closed the afternoon with a decisive 16-4 finish, including a 14-0 spurt in the final three minutes. Tara Wallack, Villa and Tuhina each had key 3s in the run as the Buffs finished the quarter 0-for-6 from the field.
Up Next
Colorado heads off to the Pac-12 Tournament next week in Las Vegas. The Buffs will take on No. 12-seeded Oregon to open the tournament.
Notes
CU is now 11-15 all-time against WSU…The Buffs led the contest for 22;17...The game had eight lead changes and seven ties...Sherrod moves into third on CU's all-time list for free throws made with 427, passing Mandy Nightingale and Shelley Sheetz…Sherrod's 11 free throws made givers her 106 this season, a new career-high…Sherrod moved into 14th all-time with 1,417 career points…Formann moved into 21st all-time list with 1,267 career points…The Buffs were outscored 46-27 after taking the 36-26 lead at the 8:48 mark of the third quarter...CU's bench outscored WSU 8-6…CU tied WSU for points in the paint 28-28…CU outscored WSU in fast-break points 15-5...Miller finished with 10 rebounds, recording her 11th game of the season with 10 or more boards...She is now one rebound shy of 900 for her career...Sara-Rose Smith played in her 100th career game and recorded her 400th career rebound.
