In a battle of teams that had yet to notch a Pac-12 win Wednesday night, one was sure to escape with their first conference win of the season. Senior guard Lexy Kresl made sure that team was Colorado, as she led the University of Colorado women’s basketball team past the University of Utah Utes, 77-72, in overtime at home in the Coors Events Center.
Kresl’s 26 points were a team high, and included five points in the overtime period, which also led the team.
After the two teams traded leads, keeping it close in the first half, Colorado pulled away to end the period up 38-31. But Utah quickly shrank that lead with six points at the beginning of the second half, and from there the Utes played catch-up on the Buffaloes for the entirety of the half. It wasn’t until senior forward Taryn Wicijowski made two free throws with 1:24 left that Utah was able to tie the game at 63-63, and the score would remain knotted in that way until the end of regulation.
With just over one second left in the second half, Colorado had a chance to inbound the ball from full-court. On the attempt, sophomore forward Haley Smith managed to get a shot off before the end of regulation, but the shot missed the mark despite hitting the rim.
Smith was a perfect 11-of-11 on free throws on the night, and finished with 15 points.
Senior forward Jen Reese had a quiet night, and coming off a loss to UCLA where she had a career-high 30 points, she managed only six in 42 minutes for Colorado Wednesday night.
In the overtime period, the teams found themselves trading leads again for the first couple minutes before Colorado’s three seniors, Kresl, Reese and forward Jasmine Sborov, went a combined six-of-eight at the free throw line to put the Buffaloes up 75-70. Smith closed out the game with her last two free throws with five seconds remaining, putting the game out of reach for Utah at a score of 77-72.
“I liked how our team came out tonight, our intensity, our aggressiveness and our confidence,” Colorado head coach Linda Lappe said after the game.
Colorado’s bench outscored Utah’s 18 to six, including freshman guard Brecca Thomas’ 11 points for Colorado.
“I thought our bench did a fantastic job,” Lappe said “They got an extra day of drill work and they really took that and got better. They carried it into practice yesterday and carried it into the game.”
This win is Colorado’s first since December 21 against Wyoming, and ends a five game losing streak for Colorado.
“Its our first win in conference and we worked hard for this,” Reese said, “We deserve it, since we have been working hard all season.”
For the third straight year Colorado will play Utah in consecutive games in the regular season. They travel to Salt Lake City this Sunday, tipoff is at noon.
Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Editor Sam Routhier at Samuel.routhier@colorado.edu and follow him on twitter @samrouthier.
