CU women’s basketball loses to #18 UCLA

By Grayson O'Roark in Basketball, Front Page, Sports on Feb 1, 2013 23:13 / comments

First Half:

Poor shooting from the field has the Buffs struggling to find points as they trail 29-15 at the half to the UCLA Bruins in Los Angeles. Sophomore Lexy Kresl, the lone bright spot for Colorado, shot 3 of 6 for six points while the rest of Colorado is shooting 20 percent from the field.

UCLA has found solid production from Markel Walker who shot 3 of 3 with 9 points with the rest of the team shooting 44 percent.

Colorado showed signs of desperation at times as they shot 1 of 8 from beyond the 3 point arch. The Buffs struggles can also be partially attributed to the normally reliable senior Chucky Jeffery shooting 1 of 7 with only 3 points.

The Bruins have also thoroughly controlled the glass as they have out rebounded Colorado 24-14. With UCLA’s Jasmine Dixon pulling down 7 of them.

UCLA took full advantage of Colorado’s shooting struggles as they cruised to a 62-46 victory in Los Angeles. The Buffs finished the game shooting 28 percent from the field, shooting only 15 percent from long range.

Second Half:

The Bruins were led by Markel Walker’s 17 point, 12 rebound double-double which included shooting 6 of 6. As a team, UCLA shot 55 percent and got to the line nine times while controlling the paint.

UCLA out-rebounded the Buffs 43-26, showing dominance on both ends of the court

The Bruins committed 29 turnovers, a staggering stat that the Buffs were unable to take advantage of. This loss gives Colorado a record of 4-5 in the Pac-12 and leaves the Bruins sitting in third place at 7-2.

The future does look better for the Buffs as they will not play another game against a ranked opponent for the rest of the season. Colorado has four of their final eight games at home hosting Oregon State, who sits at 9-12, next Friday, Feb. 8 and Oregon on Feb. 10.

Monday’s new rankings will determine if a rough loss at #18 UCLA will put #22 Colorado out of the top 25.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Grayson O’Roark at Grayson.oroark@colorado.edu.