The Colorado women’s basketball team thought that its three-month Pac-12 gauntlet prepared it for absolutely every kind of team it could end up squaring off with in the NCAA Tournament.
The Buffs were wrong.
They had a tricky matchup to deal with in their tournament opener Friday, playing against a 12th-seeded Drake team that is unique in its style of play and hadn’t lost a game in over a month. The Bulldogs play at one of the fastest paces in the country, make a ton of 3s and run a tricky matchup zone defense.
It took the Buffs a while to fully get going, but Colorado solved the puzzle eventually, pulling away from the Bulldogs in the second half and closing out an 86-72 win to move into the second round.
“I was very nervous about this game,” coach JR Payne said. “Not that I didn’t think we were capable, it’s just such a different style. We have not played a team like Drake all year. So I’m really proud of how our team prepared. It’s hard to prepare for a team you’ve never seen before, so I thought that was great. Executing the game plan really, really well, like when I look at a couple things we talked about: really trying to be aggressive inside and really trying to do a great job on the glass because they’re such a good rebounding team. We did a really good job in those two areas and those were huge priorities for us.”
Things didn’t exactly start how the Buffs envisioned on Friday in Manhattan, Kansas. Drake came flying out of the gates with the first nine points of the contest in the opening 2 minutes. Before the Buffs could even get their feet under them, the Bulldogs had raced to an 11-3 lead and a disgusted Payne was out at halfcourt asking for a timeout.
Whatever Payne said during the early break, it worked. Led by Aaronette Vonleh and Jaylyn Sherrod, the Buffs stormed out of the timeout with a 10-0 run of their own to take their first lead of the day. The Bulldogs halted the momentum, and the contest stayed close for the rest of the quarter, but Tameiya Sadler closed it out in style. The senior picked off a Drake pass, took it the other way and layed it in at the buzzer to put Colorado up 24-21 after one quarter.
Colorado carried that momentum from its first quarter comeback into the beginning of the second, using its size and speed edge over the pesky Bulldogs to its advantage time and time again. Vonleh especially was having her way with the much smaller Drake frontcourt, controlling the offensive glass and finishing around the rim with ease. The Buffs started the quarter with five consecutive points, and a Sadler 3 pushed the lead into double digits for the first time.
At this point, it felt like a story that had been written over and over in past NCAA Tournaments. The frisky underdog started hot before the bigger, stronger and faster team took over and ran away with it. But Drake had a few more punches ready to throw.
Star point guard Katie Dinnebier, the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, took over down the stretch of the first half. Dinnebier responded to the Buffs’ strong start with eight straight points after their deficit stretched to 10 to get the Bulldogs back into it. Later in the half, Dinnebier splashed another triple to cut the lead down to just one, and it seemed like Drake was back on track. The Buffs steadied themselves before halftime, scoring the final four of the half to take a 46-41 lead into the locker room.
Payne was certainly not happy with the defensive effort in the first half, even against a juggernaut offense, and her halftime message got across. The Buffs came out of the half face guarding Dinnebier and denying her the ball, and the Bulldogs’ offense suffered as a result. Drake started the second half 1-for-7 from the floor with four turnovers in the early going, while the Buffs started to impose their will.
“I thought our communication was better in the second half,” Payne said. “We talked about that a lot. There were several possessions in the first half, you know, maybe just a guard-guard screen that we could’ve switched, maybe we called it but the other person didn’t hear it so somebody’s wide open under the basket. So we really just prioritized our communication, playing underneath our player, and the team just did a really, really great job in the second half.”
Colorado was clicking offensively as well, starting the half on a 14-3 run behind the dominance of Vonleh and the scoring punch of Kindyll Wetta. Weta capped the run with a fastbreak layup and a short pull-up jumper in the lane. Drake finally stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer by Taylor McAulay, but the Buffs continued to roll offensively, taking a 71-53 lead into the fourth.
Drake tried to find a big run in the fourth quarter to close the gap, but the Bulldogs weren’t clicking offensively the same way that they were in the first half. Dinnebier started the quarter with a pair of buckets, but a four-minute scoring drought following that effectively ended their chances, as the Buffs coasted to the finish line.
Vonleh led the Buffs with 18 points and 10 rebounds, collecting her third double-double of the season. She won the matchup against star center Anna Miller decisively on both ends, holding the MVC Defensive Player of the Year to just three points and three rebounds. Sherrod also had 16 points and eight assists for the Buffs. Wetta was great on the defensive end and added a ton of offensive production for Colorado off the bench, scoring a career-high 16 points.
“So unbelievably proud of Kindyll for her aggressiveness, the way she caught and shot without thinking about it,” Payne said. “Her defense is always incredible–I’ve said to many that I think she's one of the best defensive players I’ve ever coached–but to see her that aggressive and confident offensively was brilliant.”
The Buffs dominated this game on the interior from start to finish. Colorado scored 54 points in the paint in this one, gave up just 32 and dominated on the glass, winning the rebounding battle 39-18 while grabbing over half of its missed shots (15 out of 29).
Dinnebier finished with a game-high 24 for Drake to go along with seven assists, but her co-stars who excelled all season didn’t have that same impact. In addition to Miller’s struggles in the matchup against Vonleh, All-MVC performer Grace Berg was limited to just seven points and turned the ball over six times.
Next up for the Buffs is No. 4 seed Kansas State, who will be playing in front of a likely sold out home crowd at Bramlage Coliseum. That one will tip off on Sunday at noon MST and be broadcast on ESPN.
