Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Editor Alissa Noe at alissa.noe@colorado.edu
Colorado women’s basketball head Coach Linda Lappe earned her 100th career victory on Thursday night over the Northern Colorado Bears, 63-41. She achieved the feat in just six years at CU.
Lappe said that the win didn’t feel much different than the other 99, except for possibly the first.
“I don’t really look too much at milestones,” Lappe said. “The only thing that I really take a chance to do is really to congratulate all the players and staff members that I’ve had that have made that possible.”
Senior forward Jamee Swan made history during the game as she moved up in the all-time CU women’s basketball rankings for double-doubles. After finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds on the night, she now sits at 12th in Colorado history with 11 career double-doubles.
Her two blocks created a lot of energy for the Buffs, however, possibly more than her offensive and defensive effort. The Bears weren’t going to get away with easy layups in her house.
Junior guard/forward Haley Smith was a force of nature on Thursday night, scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Buffs had shot 49.1 percent from the field, but struggled from the three, as they only made 2 of their 10 shots. The Bears were pitiful from the floor, only garnering 22.6 percent of all their shots and 14.3 percent of their triples.
“[Coach Lappe] was just talking to us in postgame about how we had a great offensive game last game and this one was a great defensive game, so just putting those two together will just really just have us a solid game for our next game against Kentucky,” Smith said.
It was something the coach highlighted after the game.
“You win with defense, and I think it just shows you that we were able to win by a large margin because of our defense,” Lappe said.
Although they didn’t play offense as well as they did in their first game of the season, the Buffs excelled on the defensive side of the ball.
“We kind of had a little bit of some stagnation on offense and didn’t score quite as well tonight, but that’s something that’s easy to fix,” Smith added. “We have some great offensive players and so we have no worries about that. And so, you know, just having this in our belt and just having that confidence about we can lock down ‘D,’ we can guard triple threat players is really good for us.”
The first quarter started off a little slow for both teams, with no scores for the first two minutes, but the Buffs got the early lead off of a sequence of shots from Smith and freshman guard Kennedy Leonard. From the moment that first basket swished through the net, the Buffs never looked back. The Bears never caught up.
Smith shined for the Buffaloes throughout much of the first half, who led 15-7 by the end of the first quarter. Smith alone had seven points while none of her other teammates scored more than two.
Though the offense started off icy for both teams, the Buffs shot 40 percent from the field by the end of the first 10-minute period, whereas UNC shot 12.5 percent. The stalled offense early on for the Buffs may have resulted from Lappe’s decision to bench freshman phenom guard Kennedy Leonard early in the first after she picked up two quick fouls.
Heading into the second quarter, the Buffs extended their lead to 17 points with a nice two-point jumper from freshman guard Alexis Robinson with four minutes left in the half. It didn’t get much better from the Bears standpoint; Colorado led 36-15 when the buzzer sounded for the break.
The light at the end of the tunnel got even dimmer for the Bears after the half.
With 5:30 left in the third quarter, the Buffs continued to trample the Bears as they amassed a 21-point lead, 42-21. Though UNC started to fight back, the deficit proved too great for them to overcome.
At the end of the third quarter, the Buffs led 45-30.
The Buffs started off the second half shooting a little worse, going 30.8 percent from the field and zero percent from downtown. On the other side of the court, the Bears fared a little better than they did in the first half. They went 33 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from beyond the arc.
Colorado continued to extend the lead and buried the Bears.
The Buffs head to No. 13 Kentucky this Sunday to take on their first big test of the season. They’ll brave the Wildcats at noon on the road.
“I think it’s going to be really fun,” Smith said. “I know we’re all super excited just to have that big time feel and have lots of fans. We have lots of fans coming out. Alexis Robinson, she’s from Kentucky, she’s going to have some family out there, so we’re really excited about that.”
