Preview:
This is a very dangerous game. Remember that Colorado took us to overtime and could well have beaten us in Maples:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...t=colorado
If we play comparably to how we played in that game, we will lose at altitude. None of our players can go 40 minutes in Boulder. Key in this game will be getting and keeping an early lead, and bench play. Colorado is 63 in RPI and 15-9.
Since we eeked out our win against Colorado at Maples, Colorado has not done as well as Utah. They beat Cal, then lost at home against the two Oregon schools, and unlike Utah they lost on the road against both Washington schools. On Friday they did beat Cal again, with 5 players scoring 9 points or more.
Colorado is a tough match-up for us. They discombobulated Williams, and we could not guard their freshman phenom Sherrod. We also got badly outrebounded by them. Our offense slowed to a crawl at times. Ultimately we went to a zone and that helped our defense, and then the offenses on both teams opened up in the 4th as players got tired. Let's hope Tara has an alternative game plan this time around.
Overview:
The full Colorado defense focused on shutting down Lexie, and succeeded, but Williams made up for it with a career 29 point day, capped by a trey at 14 seconds, a steal at 4 seconds, and a half court trey as time expired to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Flow of the game:
The game started wonderfully, with four made treys in a row, and we zipped out to 15-6 lead halfway through the first quarter. But Colorado's defense began to clamp down and aided by a lot of non-calls they were able to discombobulate Lexie and render her offense inert. Multiple players scored a basket or two on our side, but there was no reliable offense apart from Williams as we took a 37-29 lead into halftime.
Colorado outplayed us in the third quarter. Their defense continue to focus on Lexie, and she was visibly struggling. We knew from the pregame interview that Tara had instructed the team to drive on the basket--you cannot defeat the Colorado defense by taking jumpshots alone. Lexie was trying, and repeatedly drove, but was bodied and hacked and only rarely got the benefit of a foul call. She wound up 1/14 for the game, and more importantly 0/10 from in close, going 0/7 for layups. With 2:50 in the third Colorado tied the game with two of their ample free throws, and we were lucky to finish up the quarter ahead 51-50 after a Prechtel layup.
The fourth also did not start well for us. We missed our first five shots, and Colorado took a 54-51 lead before Lacie tied the game with a trey--her only points of the game. Fingall and their Emma Clarke exchanged treys, then Tuitele gave Colorado a 62-59 lead on her own trey--and we sat on that score until at 3:06 Colorado scored on a layup to take a 5 point lead. At this point in the game there was really no indication that we were going to be able to reverse the Colorado momentum. We had been outscored 14-8 in the first 7 minutes of the quarter and nothing was coming easily.
With all the offensive heroics that were to come, we should note that we did not give up a field goal to Colorado the rest of the way. Williams and Fingall both managed layups to cut the lead to 1, and at 30 seconds we started fouling. Colorado made only 2 of 6 freethrows down the stretch to give Colorado a 3 point lead, although it looked very bleak when they got the defensive rebound off of one of those misses. With 14 seconds left, Williams hit a trey to tie the game. Then, as time was winding down, Williams cut between two Colorado players to steal the ball and she let it fly, with a big, high arcing shot from a few feet over the half court line. The buzzer went off while the ball was in the air, and it swooshed through the net for the win. The team mobbed Kiana Williams on the floor, and we survived another cardiac game with Colorado.
Performances:
As a team, we should have won the game fairly easily, except we scored 5 points off of free throws while Colorado scored 17. Rebounds, turnovers, blocks were all about even. We shot 39% to their 41%--we were shooting much better than Colorado in the first half but our shooting dramatically fell off in the second, as their defense took hold. But we made 14 treys to their 7.
On defense we were mediocre. Hollingshed is their leading scorer and she managed 19 points. Sherrod torched us at Stanford, and we held her down 10 points. Colorado had 4 players in double digits--meaning they were able to defeat the scouting report by asking other players to step up and score.
Williams was far and away our offensive star today, with a career high 29 points, making 7/13 treys, and taking not a single free throw.
Fingall was the only other player in double digits with 13, but not as one might expect--she made 3/4 from long range and was 1/2 with her layups.
Our remaining points were scatterd widely with no one with more than 6. Most disconcerting was Lexie, who was 1/14 and missed 7 layups. My impression is that she was the focus of the Colorado defense and was also hurt by the way the refs called the game. But having been thrown off, she began to take some poor shots and miss some easy ones--as she did with a fast break layup.
Dodson played 15 minutes, scored 6, but picked up 3 quick fouls.
Conclusion:
Did we deserve to win this game? Given the lopsided officiating, I would say we did. However, it is disconcerting that after Colorado took us to overtime at home, that we were not prepared to put them away early--especially considering we had Dodson back to help. Hopefully this will extirpate any remnants of complacency before the toughest home stand of the year.
This is a very dangerous game. Remember that Colorado took us to overtime and could well have beaten us in Maples:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...t=colorado
If we play comparably to how we played in that game, we will lose at altitude. None of our players can go 40 minutes in Boulder. Key in this game will be getting and keeping an early lead, and bench play. Colorado is 63 in RPI and 15-9.
Since we eeked out our win against Colorado at Maples, Colorado has not done as well as Utah. They beat Cal, then lost at home against the two Oregon schools, and unlike Utah they lost on the road against both Washington schools. On Friday they did beat Cal again, with 5 players scoring 9 points or more.
Colorado is a tough match-up for us. They discombobulated Williams, and we could not guard their freshman phenom Sherrod. We also got badly outrebounded by them. Our offense slowed to a crawl at times. Ultimately we went to a zone and that helped our defense, and then the offenses on both teams opened up in the 4th as players got tired. Let's hope Tara has an alternative game plan this time around.
Overview:
The full Colorado defense focused on shutting down Lexie, and succeeded, but Williams made up for it with a career 29 point day, capped by a trey at 14 seconds, a steal at 4 seconds, and a half court trey as time expired to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Flow of the game:
The game started wonderfully, with four made treys in a row, and we zipped out to 15-6 lead halfway through the first quarter. But Colorado's defense began to clamp down and aided by a lot of non-calls they were able to discombobulate Lexie and render her offense inert. Multiple players scored a basket or two on our side, but there was no reliable offense apart from Williams as we took a 37-29 lead into halftime.
Colorado outplayed us in the third quarter. Their defense continue to focus on Lexie, and she was visibly struggling. We knew from the pregame interview that Tara had instructed the team to drive on the basket--you cannot defeat the Colorado defense by taking jumpshots alone. Lexie was trying, and repeatedly drove, but was bodied and hacked and only rarely got the benefit of a foul call. She wound up 1/14 for the game, and more importantly 0/10 from in close, going 0/7 for layups. With 2:50 in the third Colorado tied the game with two of their ample free throws, and we were lucky to finish up the quarter ahead 51-50 after a Prechtel layup.
The fourth also did not start well for us. We missed our first five shots, and Colorado took a 54-51 lead before Lacie tied the game with a trey--her only points of the game. Fingall and their Emma Clarke exchanged treys, then Tuitele gave Colorado a 62-59 lead on her own trey--and we sat on that score until at 3:06 Colorado scored on a layup to take a 5 point lead. At this point in the game there was really no indication that we were going to be able to reverse the Colorado momentum. We had been outscored 14-8 in the first 7 minutes of the quarter and nothing was coming easily.
With all the offensive heroics that were to come, we should note that we did not give up a field goal to Colorado the rest of the way. Williams and Fingall both managed layups to cut the lead to 1, and at 30 seconds we started fouling. Colorado made only 2 of 6 freethrows down the stretch to give Colorado a 3 point lead, although it looked very bleak when they got the defensive rebound off of one of those misses. With 14 seconds left, Williams hit a trey to tie the game. Then, as time was winding down, Williams cut between two Colorado players to steal the ball and she let it fly, with a big, high arcing shot from a few feet over the half court line. The buzzer went off while the ball was in the air, and it swooshed through the net for the win. The team mobbed Kiana Williams on the floor, and we survived another cardiac game with Colorado.
Performances:
As a team, we should have won the game fairly easily, except we scored 5 points off of free throws while Colorado scored 17. Rebounds, turnovers, blocks were all about even. We shot 39% to their 41%--we were shooting much better than Colorado in the first half but our shooting dramatically fell off in the second, as their defense took hold. But we made 14 treys to their 7.
On defense we were mediocre. Hollingshed is their leading scorer and she managed 19 points. Sherrod torched us at Stanford, and we held her down 10 points. Colorado had 4 players in double digits--meaning they were able to defeat the scouting report by asking other players to step up and score.
Williams was far and away our offensive star today, with a career high 29 points, making 7/13 treys, and taking not a single free throw.
Fingall was the only other player in double digits with 13, but not as one might expect--she made 3/4 from long range and was 1/2 with her layups.
Our remaining points were scatterd widely with no one with more than 6. Most disconcerting was Lexie, who was 1/14 and missed 7 layups. My impression is that she was the focus of the Colorado defense and was also hurt by the way the refs called the game. But having been thrown off, she began to take some poor shots and miss some easy ones--as she did with a fast break layup.
Dodson played 15 minutes, scored 6, but picked up 3 quick fouls.
Conclusion:
Did we deserve to win this game? Given the lopsided officiating, I would say we did. However, it is disconcerting that after Colorado took us to overtime at home, that we were not prepared to put them away early--especially considering we had Dodson back to help. Hopefully this will extirpate any remnants of complacency before the toughest home stand of the year.