Longhorns too much for Buffs

Junior guard Kelly Jo Mullaney breaks away in an attempt to catch up with University of Texas during Wednesday night's game in the Coors Events Center. The Longhorns beat the Buffs 74-50. (CU Independent/Matt Lowber)

Continuously demonstrating a lack of energy, aggression and most of all points, the Buffs fell, and fell hard, to the Texas Longhorns 74-50 at the Coors Events Center.

In the first half of Wednesday night’s game, the CU women’s basketball team managed to shoot 33 percent, faring better in the second half with 36 percent.

Their struggles began early: Within the first five minutes, CU was trailing 12-0. They would end the first half trailing 41-21, and while the rest of the game was a slow fight to close the gap, and the game continued to get away from them.

One noticeable improvement was the Buffs’ three-point shooting.

The Buffs improved from shooting 23 percent from the three-point line in the first half to ending the second half with 42 percent accuracy from the three-point line.

Head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said she was frustrated with her team’s lack of points on the scoreboard.

Speaking at the post game conference by herself, players were not available for comment as per the head coach’s request.

“I thought we got off to a disappointing start, definitely not the way we anticipated coming out,” McConnell-Miller said.  “Texas out hustled us, and they were extremely physical and we didn’t respond well to that and we didn’t get off to a good start.”

Although she saw some improvement from her team in the second half, she said she was still not satisfied with the performance, she said.

“At the second half we were considerably better, switching to the zone helped a little bit we got a few more steals I thought we consistently struggled to score because of the physical nature of Texas,” McConnell-Miller said.

Turnovers were another problem for the Buffs. It seemed that when the Buffs had possession of the ball, it was taken from them or slipped to the other team one way or another.

Speaking of freshman guard Chucky Jeffery, who had played 32 minutes and put up 12 points, McConnell-Miller said  she was pleased with her performance, but is expecting more from her older players.

“I just think Chucky is trying to feel her way through this Big 12, she’s going to make a lot of mistakes, but she normally responds with rebounds and doing plays, and hitting open shots.  You know, with her when she is this young in her career, you got to live with those turnovers and she is getting the idea,” McConnell-Miller said.  “Spears on the other hand, she is too far in her career to turn the ball over six times in a game.  We got to get her a little more refocused.”

McConnell-Miller said their main problem is their lack of consistent scoring and go-to players.

“It’s a mentality that regardless what the score is, you have to play every possession like it’s your last and that’s the most disappointing part is how we played in the first half,”McConnell-Miller said. “I think anything could happen, I think that how we respond and how we come back is a sign of what type of team were going to have tomorrow at OU, this summer, and next season.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Gina Yocom at [email protected].