Freshman center Rachel Hargis goes up over Missouri's Christine Flores during the first half of the Buffaloes' 58-48 victory over the visiting Tigers on Saturday night at the Coors Events Center. (CU Independent/Patrick Ghidossi)
The Buffs women know how to hold off a strong offensive threat.
The Colorado women’s basketball team (11-7, 2-3 Big 12) held the Tigers (9-10, 1-4 Big 12) to 28% from the field on route to a 58-48 win. They allowed the lowest point total from a Big 12 competitor since playing Missouri last year at home.
Senior guard Britney Blythe was a key defender for the Buffs, holding Missouri’s leading scorer RaeShara Brown to only 5-of-16 from the field.
The CU offense showed up, too. Senior forward Brittany Spears scored a team season-high of 26 points against the Tigers and contributed 13 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season. Freshman guard Brittany Wilson, earning her first career double-double, added 11 points and 12 rebounds.
The Buffs also enjoyed the return of sophomore guard Chucky Jeffery, who had been out for two games due to a concussion.
Colorado started strong, gaining a 12-2 lead in the first six minutes of the game and holding onto it for most of the first half. They lost momentum, though, and stopped finding the net in the final minutes. Meanwhile, the Tigers scored 12 points off of 10 CU turnovers and went on a 16-2 run to gain the lead with 1:44 left. The Buffs were down 27-23 at the half.
The scoring rut didn’t last long into the second half, though. Spears scored 11 of Colorado’s first 15 second-half points, and she contributed three more before the final buzzer. Spears’s streak gave the Buffs a 32-21 lead early in the half.
“It was a team effort,” Spears said in a news release. “We were passing the ball, moving the ball around. I was just getting open because they were setting good screens.”
The Tigers brought the score to within one point of the Buffs with about 8:30 left, but they never regained the lead. Offensive efforts by Spears, Seabrook, and Wilson helped Colorado pull away, making the final score 58-48.
The Buffs now stand at 2-3 in the Big 12. The Buffs take on another conference opponent, Kansas State University, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Caryn Maconi at Caryn.maconi@colorado.edu
