Women’s basketball closes the regular season with loss at No. 10 Arizona State

In the final game of their regular season Sunday afternoon, the University of Colorado women’s basketball team lost to No. 10 Arizona State, 59-46.

Coming off of a strong 66-51 win over Arizona Friday night, the Buffaloes posted an impressive first half on Sunday afternoon against one of the nation’s highest ranked teams. At halftime the Buffaloes were only down 22-21 to the Sun Devils, who are ranked tenth in the nation and in second place in the Pac-12 standings.

The Sun Devils pulled away in the second half, stifling Colorado’s offense and limiting the Buffs to only nine made field goals in the half. Colorado’s leading scorer was senior guard Lexy Kresl, who was the only player for the Buffaloes to manage double-digit scoring with 12 points. Kresl was also the only Colorado player to make more than one free throw, she was a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe.

In the contest, Colorado turned the ball over 19 times, and Arizona State managed to accumulate 15 points off of those turnovers. Sophomore forward Sophie Brunner led Arizona State with eight steals. Junior guard Katie Kempen led the Sun Devils with 15 points.

With the loss, the Buffs end the season with an 0-5 record against ranked teams.

Freshman center Zoe Correal had a team-high three blocks for Colorado, and the Buffaloes out-blocked the Sun Devils five to zero with sophomore wing Haley Smith and Kresl also contributing one block each.

Colorado finishes the season ninth in the Pac-12 with a conference win-loss record of 6-12, and an overall record of 13-16. They are set to play USC in the first round of the 2015 Pac-12 Tournament, who due to tie-breakers will be the tournament’s eight seed over Colorado. Colorado played USC twice this season and lost both games, most recently losing 66-51 in Los Angeles on February 8.

Colorado will play on Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m. at Key Arena in Seattle. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.

Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Editor Sam Routhier at Samuel.routhier@colorado.edu