Snapshot: CU Buffs girls 73, California 66
Turning level: Cal tied the sport at 54-54 with 5 minutes, 47 seconds to play and about 23 seconds later, CU’s Tameiya Sadler received a steal and transformed it right into a layup. That sparked an 8-0 Buffs run and so they by no means trailed once more.
Buff of the sport: Quay Miller. She had a career-high 26 factors on 10-of-17 taking pictures and added 5 rebounds.
What’s subsequent?: The Buffs go to No. 4 Stanford on Sunday at 3 p.m. MT.
BERKELEY, Calif. – Colorado girls’s basketball head coach JR Payne by no means anticipated a Friday afternoon go to to Haas Pavilion to be simple.
It didn’t matter that California was eleventh within the Pac-12. Payne had watched the Golden Bears take a number of ranked groups to the wire in latest weeks.
“The very first thing out of my mouth once we began watching movie on Tuesday was I simply checked out all of them and mentioned, ‘That is essentially the most harmful workforce within the league proper now,’” Payne mentioned.
The Twenty fourth-ranked Buffaloes received the battle they anticipated, however prevailed after making a sequence of key performs down the stretch, knocking off Cal, 73-66.
“Yeah, 100% I anticipated the sport to seem like this,” Payne mentioned. “An athletic matchup, numerous backwards and forwards. They’ve gamers which have the boldness and skill to hit actually large pictures when they should, and so they rebound.”
CU (15-3, 6-1 Pac-12) did these issues too, and received its seventh straight after outscoring the Bears 19-12 within the final 5 minutes, 24 seconds.
“Actually happy with our workforce down the stretch of the sport,” Payne mentioned. “We executed some issues. We hit some large pictures … after which, simply to get stops once we wanted to and hit free throws (was large).”
Heart Quay Miller scored a career-high 26 factors to steer the Buffs, getting seven of these within the pivotal fourth quarter. She scored 11 factors within the opening quarter.
“I feel that my scoring got here from my power and everybody’s power, to be trustworthy,” she mentioned.
Cal (10-8, 1-6) hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to take a 46-43 lead into the fourth quarter. It was solely the third time this 12 months CU has trailed going into the ultimate body, but it surely rallied down the stretch.
“We simply got here collectively,” Miller mentioned. “We go into each recreation collectively, we end each recreation collectively. And I feel that’s one in every of our largest issues, to stay collectively by way of adversity. That’s one of many essential issues that JR talks about is simply being gritty and having toughness. I feel that’s what we did, simply got here collectively, understood the project and executed.”
The sport was tied 4 separate occasions within the fourth quarter earlier than the Buffs’ protection compelled three turnovers and turned these right into a 8-0 run to take a 62-54 lead.
Jaylyn Sherrod drilled a 3-pointer after which buried two free throws to increase the result in 10 with 1:39 to play and CU held on from there.
Cal had simply 14 turnovers, however 5 of these got here within the fourth quarter and CU transformed these into eight factors.
“We simply understood that we would have liked to lock in defensively,” Miller mentioned. “That’s the place it begins so we will begin pushing in transition. It’s not exhausting for us to show our protection up as a result of we’re a defensive workforce. As soon as we do this, all the things begins falling in our manner.”
The Buffs took a 26-16 lead early within the second quarter on a Miller 3-pointer, however then the offense cooled, letting Cal again within the recreation.
It was a good recreation all through the second half because the Buffs had some defensive lapses and piled up turnovers. Of the Buffs’ 15 whole turnovers, 11 got here within the second half. CU countered by that, nonetheless, by taking pictures 59.1% from the ground after intermission.
Within the fourth quarter, the Buffs scored 30 factors — a season excessive for one quarter — by going 9-for-11 (81.8%) from the ground and 10-for-10 on the free throw line.
With the win, the Buffs remained in a first-place tie within the Pac-12 with the winner of Friday’s matchup between No. 4 Stanford and No. 8 Utah.
“I feel it was a should win,” Payne mentioned. “This recreation was simply an absolute vastly vital recreation for lots of various causes. To have the ability to win down the stretch in a tricky setting, tons of children and it was loud and issues like that. It helps you later down the highway if you’re gonna must do it once more.”
No. 24 Colorado 73, California 66
COLORADO (15-3, 6-1 Pac-12)
Sherrod 4-10 6-6 15, Jones 0-2 0-0 0, Formann 1-7 4-4 7, Miller 10-17 3-4 26, Vonleh 6-10 1-2 13, Sadler 3-3 2-2 8, Wetta 1-2 0-0 2, Wynn 1-3 0-0 2, McLeod 0-1 0-2 0, Whittaker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-55 16-20 73.
CALIFORNIA (10-8, 1-6)
McIntosh 5-11 0-1 12, Martin 3-11 0-0 9, Lutje Schipholt 7-11 3-5 17, Curry 5-14 0-0 13, Tuitele 0-4 0-0 0, Onyiah 2-7 3-4 7, Ortiz 1-3 0-0 3, Langarita 2-4 0-0 5. Totals 25-65 6-10 66.
Colorado 22 12 9 30 – 73
California 16 13 17 20 – 66
3-point targets – CU 5-15 (Miller 3-6, Formann 1-5, Sherrod 1-3, Wynn 0-1), Cal 10-23 (Martin 3-8, Curry 3-6, McIntosh 2-5, Ortiz 1-2, Langarita 1-2). Rebounds – CU 39 (Vonleh, Sadler 8), Cal 35 (Onyiah 8). Assists – CU 13 (Sherrod, Wetta 3), Cal 16 (McIntosh 6). Steals – CU 9 (Formann 3), Cal 6 (McIntosh, Onyiah 2). Turnovers – CU 15, Cal 14. Complete fouls – CU 18, Cal 18. Fouled out – Vonleh. A – 2,394.