Brittany Spears broke yet another record, but her 21 point contribution wasn’t enough to take the University of Colorado women’s basketball team past the first round of the Big 12 Conference tournament.
The No. 9 seed Buffs fell to the No. 8 seed Kansas Jayhawks 71-45. Kansas swept the Buffs in their three meetings throughout the season.
Spears surpassed Lisa Van Goor (1980-85) on CU’s all-time women’s scoring list, and helped tie the game at 14 all with back-to-back baskets.
Sophomore guard Chucky Jeffery entered the game about three minutes in, but picked up two early fouls and returned to the bench for a 6-minute stretch. The Jayhawks quickly took advantage of one of CU’s stars sitting down and went on a 13-0 run to give them a 27-14 advantage.
CU finished out the first half on an 8-2 run to cut KU’s lead to 29-22 at the break.
With 17:04 remaining in the contest, Spears converted a conventional 3-point play to pass Van Goor’s record and get CU within two at 31-29.
CU had a scoring lull for nearly nine minutes, and KU used a 26-5 run to close out the game.
Kansas moves on to play top-seeded Baylor in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round.
Colorado now waits to see if they will get a WNIT bid, which would send the Buffs to the postseason for the first time since 2008.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Marlee Horn at Marlee.horn@colorado.edu.
