The Colorado women’s basketball team is spending its Thanksgiving week in the U.S. Virgin Islands at the Paradise Jam tournament, trying to back up its new No. 3 ranking.
Through two games, the Buffs have passed with flying colors, beating up on Cincinnati in their first game on Thanksgiving before trouncing Kentucky, 96-53, in game two Friday.
“Really pleased with how we’re playing,” head coach JR Payne said postgame. “We’ve gotta be more consistent, we have too many sort of up-and-down moments, but we need to be more consistent as we continue.”
CU got off to a slow start in Friday’s contest, and Kentucky took advantage, jumping out to a 9-2 lead in the first few minutes before the Buffs woke up. They responded by outsourcing the Wildcats 23-5 over the rest of the initial frame. Kindyll Wetta led the charge defensively in the early going, flying around and notching three steals off the bench before the first quarter ended.
The Wildcats battled back in the second quarter as Colorado got a little bit sloppy, cutting the Buffs’ lead down to just three with 90 seconds to go in the first half. But Colorado closed the opening 20 minutes out strong, putting together an 8-0 run to take a 45-34 lead into halftime. Jaylyn Sherrod beat the first-half buzzer with a tightly contested 3-pointer, and she let the Kentucky bench know about it.
Sherrod’s fire seemed to ignite Colorado coming out in the second half, as they wasted no time expanding the lead. After a Kentucky free throw to start the third, Colorado reeled off 12 points in a row, pushing the lead to 22 and never looking back. The Buffs would go on to outscore the Wildcats 51-19 over the final 20 minutes, taking home a resounding 43-point victory.
“I think truly down the stretch of the second quarter, I think it was Jaylyn just being really aggressive,” Payne said. “To the basket and then hit the corner three before the half ran out. I thought we were trying to be more aggressive, I thought the foul count, I don’t know what the discrepancy was, but it felt pretty significant throughout the first half. So later in that half we were just trying to be aggressive and get downhill.”
Aaronette Vonleh continued her stellar start to the season, leading the way with a game-high 19 points. Vonleh was one of five Buffs in double figures in this one, along with Sherrod, Wetta, Tameiya Sadler, and Quay Miller. The Buffs moved and shared the ball extremely well all afternoon, finishing with 22 assists on 37 baskets and just 12 turnovers.
“Our assist numbers per field goal are really, really high, which we haven’t had in the past,” Payne said. “We’ve had good offense and obviously really good defense over the years, but the sharing of the ball and being able to make the extra pass, being able to finish bunnies and things like that are growing our assist numbers, which you love to see.”
Colorado was very active on the defensive end in the game as well, especially in the backcourt. This showed up in the stat sheet, where Wetta and Sadler both recorded five steals. The Kentucky offense was out of sync all afternoon, turning the ball over 27 times and never settling into the rhythm and flow of the game.
On the Kentucky side, guards Eniya Russell and Maddie Scherr led the team with 14 and 13 points, respectively. The Wildcats made just one three on the afternoon, and struggled to get anything going against a much bigger Colorado front line.
The Buffs are back in action Saturday for their third and final group game at the Paradise Jam. After cruising through their first two games, Saturday’s top-10 clash against No. 10 NC State should be their toughest test of the week to date. Tipoff from the Virgin Islands will be at 11 a.m. MST.
