Miscues cost the CU women’s basketball team its game against Utah. The Utes beat Colorado 61-56 in overtime.
“So it is about bearing down and working through adversity and there was a lot of adversity down the stretch tonight,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said after the game.
Sophomore guard Ashley Wilson drives to the basket during the second half of Saturday night's game against Utah. The Buffs fell in overtime 56-61. (CU Independent/James Bradbury)
Colorado (16-9, 5-9) only gave up two points, both on free throws, in the final seven minutes of regulation but couldn’t find a way to hold onto a lead over Utah (13-12, 6-8). One of the factors that hurt the Buffs was their inability to hit clutch free throws down the stretch.
“It came down to possessions tonight,” said junior Chucky Jeffery, who was 0-3 from the line. “I didn’t hit any of my free throws, so that is disappointing to know, especially because the game can be won or lost by free throws. That’s ultimately what it came down to, because we had effort, we played the entire time.”
As a team, Colorado shot 7-of-13 from the free throw line.
The Buffs have been in a number of close games, coming out on top on many of these occasions. The team believes these pressure-packed moments can help them improve in the future.
“We like to make it hard on ourselves and we’ve done that all season,” freshman Jen Reese said. “It’s just a learning experience for the next four games coming up.”
The Buffs and Utes headed into overtime tied at 50 points each. Lappe said Colorado’s defense was strong at the end of the second, but it let up in the extra period. The Buffs gave up 11 points in the bonus.
“But in the overtime, we gave up too many points,” Lappe said. “I thought we had a couple of key let downs defensively where we just weren’t very smart and that really hurt us.”
The road won’t get any easier for the Buffs as they take on No. 3 Stanford University on Thursday followed by University of California on Saturday.
Statistics and quotes courtesy of the University of Colorado Sports Information Department.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Andy McDonnell at Andrew.mcdonnell@colorado.edu.
