Forward Brittany Spears charges down court, dodging Oklahoma State Cowgirl Lindsey Keller during Sunday's game. The Buffs lost 74-63. (CU Independent/Lauren Walter)
A cold day in Boulder led to frigid shooting for the Colorado Buffaloes women’s basketball team.
The No. 12 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (16-3, 4-1 Big 12 Conference) handed the Buffaloes (12-6, 2-3) their third loss at home, and third against a conference foe. The Buffs fell 74-63 Sunday at the Coors Events Center.
CU head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said her team would have preferred a different outcome, but they knew they needed to properly prepare and adjust their game when playing a top 15 team.
“I firmly believe that we beat ourselves tonight,” McConnell-Miller said. “We had open look after open look, and we had plenty of opportunities to hit shots.”
Colorado got on the board in the first 26 seconds when Chucky Jeffery nailed a 2-point jumper thanks to an offensive rebound by senior center Courtney Dunn.
The Buffs earned their second, and final, lead with a long 2-point shot by freshman forward Meagan Malcolm-Peck just 1:01 into the game.
But then, the 3-point shot came into play. Five consecutive missed 3-pointers by CU coupled with a pair of 3-point baskets by Oklahoma State sparked a 10-0 Cowgirls run, which gave them a 13-4 lead.
In the first half, the Buffaloes shot a dismal 20 percent from 3-point range and finished the game shooting 17.9 percent from beyond the arc. CU’s 3-point shooting is now 24.8 percent in conference play, ninth in the Big 12.
Despite those numbers, Bianca Smith drilled a pair of 3-pointers, allowing the Buffs to keep the score tight at 15-10.
Thrice, the Cowgirls pushed the lead to 10, and thrice, the Buffs reduced it to five, the last coming on a Brittany Spears lay-up with 4:40 to go in the first half.
After the Cowgirls extended their lead to nine, the Buffaloes narrowed the deficit to 37-35 at halftime with two layups by sophomore guard Alyssa Fressle, a 3-pointer by Smith and two free throws by Dunn.
In the second half, it became largely about who could sink the most threes and make the most free throws.
Two free throws by Dunn and a tight 3-pointer by Spears, assisted by Dunn, helped narrow the Cowgirl lead to two 1:47 into the second half.
For the next four minutes, OSU’s lead bobbled in single digits until Tegan Cunningham’s lay-up pushed the lead to 10.
But the Buffs continued to fight and once again dwindled the lead to three points with assistance from a 3-pointer by junior guard Kelly Jo Mullaney and a free throw by Jeffery.
Unfortunately, it was as close as Colorado got as OSU’s Andrea Riley made sure the score would never be that tight again.
Riley scored seven of her game-high 26 during a pivotal four-minute stretch as Oklahoma State went up by 10. Riley also led the Cowgirls with 11 assists and seven rebounds.
The last 90 seconds of play seemed to be some of the hardest for the Buffs. Although Spears finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, she fouled out of the game and received a technical foul for breaking the plane and touching an OSU player who was trying to in-bound the ball.
After the game, McConnell-Miller said the team was ”asleep too often” when Riley had possession of the ball and her sharp game play was something the Buffs weren’t used to.
“Nothing surprised us,” McConnell-Miller said. “I mean we knew what Andrea Riley was capable of. If we were to do something different on the defensive end, I thought we didn’t adjust to Tegan Cunningham as well as we should have.”
Cunningham shot 8-of-15 and scored 21 points.
Despite the loss and her own personal health issues, Dunn had an impressive showing. Dunn was under a breathing machine during the game because of hyperventilation, but it didn’t seem to hurt her play on the court.
Recording her second double-double of her career, Dunn’s 16 points tied her career-high and she grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds.
Even with her impressive stats, Dunn said she was disappointed that shots she typically makes in practice didn’t fall during the game, and that the team was handed another loss.
However, the Buffs seemed eager to bounce back from the loss and improve their 30.6 field goal percentage against Oklahoma State.
“Overall, we’ve got room to grow,” McConnell-Miller said. “If shooting is our biggest concern, then that’s something we can work on and get better at.”
Looking forward, the Buffaloes will work to do better and get a road win when they head to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the Kansas Jayhawks at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“We’re going into Kansas on Wednesday,” Smith said. “We have no choice but to take the positives from this game, whatever they may be, and get better in these next two days of practice and get a victory in Lawrence.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Marlee Horn at Marlee.horn@colorado.edu.
