Buffs beaten by Oregon State for the third time in instant classic
The Achilles' heel for the Colorado women's basketball team over its recent slump has been the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for the Buffs, that trend continued Thursday.
With a chance to likely lock up a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament, Colorado led by 12 points with under 8 minutes to go before it all fell apart once again, as Oregon State mounted a furious rally to force overtime, where they would knock off the Buffs, 85-79, in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals after two extra periods.
It was the Beavers’ third win over Colorado (22-9) this season, as the Buffs have now lost six of their last eight games.
“Tremendous game, pretty indicative of the Pac-12 conference,” Buffs coach JR Payne said postgame. “Two really good teams that battled and competed and executed and made a lot of great plays tonight. I think it was a great basketball game, disappointed with the outcome, but proud of how we played in a lot of ways.”
The Buffs were hungry to avenge those two earlier losses to Oregon State (24-6) and came out of the gates with their hair on fire. After an up-and-down last month, Aaronette Vonleh dominated the early going with a few buckets inside and a couple of nice dishes to her teammates. Colorado got back to its fast tempo from earlier in the season, and it paid off in a big way with a 23-12 lead early in the second quarter.
At that point, Raegan Beers had had enough. With the rest of her team struggling, the star big began to impose her will, beating every coverage that CU tried to throw at her. The Buffs tried playing her straight up -- it didn’t work. They tried fronting, but that didn't work either. They tried double teaming, and that also wasn't effective. By halftime, Beers had cut the CU lead to just 25-22 almost by herself. At the half, she had 16 of her team’s 22 points, and she was shooting 8 for 11 while her teammates were just 3 for 20.
The two teams went back-and-forth to open the second half, but it was the Buffs who made the first move. Colorado closed the third frame on an 11-3 run, capped by a pull-up 3 from Jaylyn Sherrod and a fast-break bucket from Sara-Rose Smith to give the Buffs a 45-36 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
Colorado kept the run going to start the final quarter, and Frida Formann sank a 3 with 7:37 remaining to give the Buffs their biggest lead of the night, 50-38. Then, their fourth quarter demons returned.
The Buffs' tempo disappeared and they got very sloppy with the ball. On the other end, the Beavers began to heat up from the outside, as Talia von Oelhoffen and Timea Gardiner knocked down a pair of 3s to get Oregon State back in it. Those two buckets kickstarted a 13-0 run that put the Beavers back in the lead by one.
From there, it was game on, as the teams continued to throw haymakers back and forth. After Gardiner tied it up with a pair of free throws in the final minute, von Oelhoffen had a chance to give Oregon State a lead. She missed. Then, Sherrod had a chance to win it with a mid-range jumper at the buzzer, but she missed as well and it headed to overtime.
The Buffs jumped out in front in the first overtime with a 3 by Formann, but the Beavers had an answer once again. Scott Rueck took Beers out of the game and ran the offense through freshman point guard Donovyn Hunter, and she delivered. The freshman point guard got to the hoop on back-to-back possessions and finished both times, putting the Beavers back on top by one. Sherrod answered with a quick layup to give CU the lead, and then Hunter found Dominika Paurova in the corner for a momentous 3 for a 63-61 Beavers lead to put the Buffs against the wall with just a few seconds to go.
Sherrod was there to answer the bell. She drove into the lane, faked, pivoted and rolled in a fall-away jumper to even the score once again. Von Oelhoffen’s potential game-winner came up short, and the Buffs and Beavers needed a second overtime.
The Buffs jumped out in front again in the second OT with four quick points from Vonleh, but Oregon State continued to remain resilient. Paurova continued to come up big off the bench, scoring a pair of buckets in the lane to give the Beavers a three-point lead. A Quay Miller offensive foul derailed a chance to tie the game, and Oregon State made 11 out of 12 free throws in the final 50 seconds to put it away.
Vonleh played one of her best games in a few weeks, finishing with 20 points and 4 rebounds. Formann was quiet for much of the day, but finished with 19 points overall, 17 of them coming in the fourth quarter and OT. Sherrod’s final stat line was very impressive: 23 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals, although she did have 7 turnovers.
“Sherrod was just a beast today,” Rueck, Oregon State's head coach, said. “Willing them, drives to the basket, hitting huge shots, tough shots.”
Beers’ final stat line was befitting the all-conference performer that she is, as the star big dominated all day and racked up a game-high 27 points and 13 rebounds. The Beavers’ role players stepped up in a big way, as Gardiner, von Oelhoffen, Hunter and Paurova all scored 13. Hunter was especially impressive, playing 48 out of a possible 50 minutes at point guard and finishing with 9 assists and just 1 turnover.
The Beavers advance to the semifinals where they will play Stanford on Friday night.
The Buffs will now head home, where they will have a long 10-day wait to find out whether they have earned a top-four seed and a host spot in the NCAA tournament. As of now, their NET ranking is 14, and they are 2-2 since being revealed as a No. 4 seed (13th overall) in the final selection committee reveal. They’ll be back in action the following weekend in tournament play.
“We’ve played one of the toughest schedules in the country and been competitive in every single game we’ve played,” Payne said. “We haven’t won them all, South Carolina is the only team that has, but there isn’t a single game we’ve played that hasn’t come down to the wire. And I’m talking about a lot of top-10, top-15 teams, so I certainly think we should be hosting.”