In a first game that came down to the last minute, the Colorado women’s basketball team held off North Dakota 68-59 Saturday night at home in the first round of the 2014 Preseason WNIT.
Colorado had just a four-point lead in the game, which served as their regular-season opener, when junior forward Jamee Swan stepped in and stole a pass with 29 seconds left to help seal the win.
“It was just playing fundamentals,” Swan said of the steal, “being in the passing lane and making sure I wasn’t jumping the ball and giving them the back door.”
Swan finished the game with 16 points and six rebounds.
Colorado found themselves down early, trailing North Dakota 11-4 after a multitude of early CU turnovers. But the Buffaloes responded, producing a scoring spurt that tied the game at 14. From there the teams would exchange leads eight times in the remainder of the half, and at the end of the first half the Buffs trailed North Dakota 34-31.
In the first minute of the second half, Colorado scored twice and took a 35-34 lead. That lead grew to 13 with 6:46 to go before North Dakota began chipping away with a 14-5 scoring run that left Colorado clinging to a four-point lead with 2:10 remaining in the game.
“When we came out in second half, we came out swinging and it came out in our favor,” Swan said.
“We told them at halftime if we wanted to win we had to do two things, we needed to rebound, and we needed to out-hustle them,” said Colorado head coach Linda Lappe. “And I thought we did a tremendous job in those two categories.”
Senior forward Jen Reese led Colorado with 21 points, the fourth 20-point game of her career and only one point shy of her career high of 22. Reese also led Colorado with eight rebounds, and shot 52.9 percent (9-for-17) from the field.
“To have North Dakota come in and play like this really is going to help us going on,” Reese said. “That’s probably the best first game we can ever get. We appreciate North Dakota for giving us their all tonight.”
Senior guard Lexy Kresl turned the ball over with 32 seconds left in the game and a four-point Colorado lead, but on the defensive end Swan took possession back with her steal at 0:29.
“That’s where you really count on your veterans,” Lappe said. “They know that at the end of the game, last two or three minutes, it’s about getting stops, it’s about coming up with plays. It’s not always scripted, you can’t always script the last few minutes.”
Some key 3-pointers for Colorado came from sophomore guard Lauren Huggins, who made three of her six 3-point attempts. She finished the game with 11 points. Freshman guard Brecca Thomas and freshman forward Alina Hartmann also made threes for Colorado, and as a team the Buffs shot 41.7 percent on 3-point field goals (5-for-12).
Early in the game, sophomore center Bri Watts came off the bench and made an immediate impact for Colorado, posting three blocks in four minutes. But a non-contact injury to her lower left leg left Watts sidelined for the remainder of the game. The injury didn’t appear to be serious, and she walked off the court without help.
Both teams had 43 rebounds, but North Dakota managed 19 offensive rebounds to Colorado’s 12. Thirteen of North Dakota’s offensive rebounds came in the first half.
North Dakota, who won the Big Sky Conference last year, was led in scoring by senior center Emily Evers, who tied Reese for the game high with 21 points. Evers also led all players with 18 rebounds.
“She’s a great post player — any time you have 21 and 18, that’s a good night,” Lappe said. “And we worked all week on getting her off the glass. She does a tremendous job of getting in great position.”
Colorado will host Western Kentucky at home on Monday in the second round of the Preseason WNIT. The game begins at 7 p.m.
Notes:
Coming into tonight’s game, Lauren Huggins had only attempted four free throw attempts in her career. She attempted five tonight, which exceeds her total for last season and brings her career total to nine. Colorado’s game on Monday directly precedes the men’s basketball game versus Auburn, which tips off at 11 p.m.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sam Routhier at Samuel.Routhier@colorado.edu and follow him on twitter @samrouthier.
