The No. 17 University of Colorado women’s basketball team beat the Alcorn State Braves in the Buffs’ home opener Friday night, 83-33.
The Buffs took the lead early in the first half and never looked back, with that lead expanding to 28 by halftime. At the game’s end the Buffs led by 50 points, 17 more points than the Braves managed overall. The Buffs managed to keep a steady rotation, with 11 players racking up 13 minutes or more of playing time.
“We had a lot of players play a lot of minutes and really play together well both on the offensive end and the defensive end,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said.
Redshirt freshman forward Lauren Huggins led the Buffs with 16 points, 15 of them coming from three-point shots, of which she hit five of 10.
“I’m just in the right place at the right time,” Huggins said. “[My teammates] are hitting me and I’m hitting open shots.”
“She works hard at it,” Lappe said of Huggins’ shooting performance. “The shots that she’s been taking in games are the exact shots that she’s been taking in practice.”
Defensively the Buffs were dominant, holding the Braves to 14 points in the first half. Overall the Braves shot only 20 percent from the field and turned the ball over 21 times, both testaments to the Buffs’ aggressive defense.
“I liked our mental preparation,” Lappe said of the Buffs’ dominant defensive performance. “That’s kind of a trademark of our past teams and so it’s good to see this team really take pride in understanding what we wanted to do defensively.”
It was a night of milestones for the Buffs, as Lappe and junior guard Lexi Kresl both had achievements of note. Lappe moved into sole possession of third place on the Colorado women’s basketball all time wins list with 66, while Kresl hit her 100th career three- pointer and broke 500 career points.
The Buffaloes take on Iowa next Wednesday, Nov. 20th, in Boulder. Tipoff is at 8:30 p.m.
Contact CUIndependent Staff Writer Sam Routhier at Samuel.routhier@colorado.edu.
