CU women’s basketball: Buffs run over Rams

Rivalries are always that much sweeter when the opponent gets demolished.

There was no love lost in the first half of a CU-CSU double-header as CU’s women basketball team beat the Rams 73-49 at the Coors Events Center in Boulder.

CU improves to 7-2 for the second consecutive season, while the Rams fall to 5-3.

“Well that was a whole lot of fun,” Head Coach Linda Lappe said. “CSU is a good team and I thought our players came out and had a really good focus and executed what we wanted to do.”

The Buffs executed indeed, with sophomore guard Chucky Jeffery putting up 21 points and 13 rebounds to give her fifth double-double of the season.

Two other players came just short of double-doubles in the win.  Junior forward Julie Seabrook had 10 rebounds and 7 points and senior forward Brittany Spears had 20 points and 9 rebounds.

Spears said she was excited to have a good team win in her last game against Colorado State, especially since she said the team gave the game away in last year’s matchup.

Lappe said the team showed its confidence and attitude by not letting CSU get anything easily.

“When we’re focused on what we’re doing, we’re quick, we’re athletic, we communicate,” Lappe said.

CSU shot just 30 percent from the field and a dismal 12.5 percent from 3-point range in the game.

The game belonged to the Buffs from the very beginning. The Buffs started on a 10-2 run, and held the Rams to just 16 points in the first half.

The Buffs had an equally hot start to the second half, going on a 10-0 run to give CU a 36-16 lead with 17:36 remaining.

The Buffs said that both their offense and defense stepped up in the second half.

“Our offense came around in the second half like we knew it would,” Lappe said.

Jeffery earned 19 of her 21 points in the second half and attributes it to everyone picking up their energy.

“We came out and we didn’t let up,” Jeffery said. “We started playing defense and then my game started coming and got my defense going.”

The Buffs are off until Dec. 18 when they face USC, but they hope to carry the momentum from this big win.

“When we’re done with finals, then we can just focus on basketball,” Jeffery said. “We just practice and get our minds right for when we go to California.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Marlee Horn at marlee.horn@colorado.edu.