Starting fast is a good start.
That was the message from first-year CU women’s basketball coach Linda Lappe on Sunday at the Coors Event Center after her Buffaloes parlayed another big early lead into another win, this one a 78-67 victory over visiting Tennessee-Martin.
After trailing, 4-2, CU reeled off 12 straight points, nine coming off 3-pointers from forward Brittany Spears and guards Britney Blythe, and Chucky Jeffery. The Buffaloes (3-1) would never trail again, but after going up by as much as 15, led by just eight at the half and six after the start of the second half.
“It’s typical for this time of year in not being able to play a full 40,” Lappe said. “We have to work to get to that point, though. And we have to work to get to that point fairly quickly. I like our starts, and I think as long as you can start like that, you’re putting a lot of pressure on the other teams to come back.”
Spears and Jeffery almost did play a full 40, logging 37 minutes each, with Jeffery scoring a game-high 25 points. The sophomore hit 10 of 17 field goals and was 2-for-3 from behind the 3-point line.
Spears, a senior, added 20 points, giving her 1,611 for her career, and moving her to sixth on CU’s all-time scoring list. She also pulled down 12 rebounds for her 24th career double-double.
It’s on the defensive end that the Buffs need the most work, Lappe said.
Tennessee-Martin, of the Ohio Valley Conference, had three players score in double figures, with guard Heather Butler leading the way with 18. Freshman guard Jaclissa Haislip finished with 17 points, and drained three 3-pointers, despite having Jeffery and 6-foot-2 forward Meagan Malcolm-Peck in herface most of the night.
The Buffs were impressive on defense at points, scoring 18 points off 19 Skyhawks’ turnovers, but failed to maintain that intensity from the opening whistle to the final buzzer.
“When we’re communicating, and we’re on it mentally, we can be a really good defensive team,” Lappe said. “A lot of it comes down to the mentality of wanting to defend. Sometimes when you’re scoring a lot of points, sometimes it’s hard to get that mentality, but we gotta have it, and we gotta have it soon.”
“Our offense generates from our defense,” Jeffery added. “Like coach said, we were playing defense hard at the beginning of the game, then once we get comfortable, we slack off a little bit. We can’t do that.”
Haislip, meanwhile, said she didn’t see much slacking from the Buffs, mentioning that CU’s man-to-man defense was the toughest test the Skyhawks (2-2) have seen so far this season.
“We’ve seen man, but not as athletic, up-in-you man as they came out and played,” she said.
After outscoring the Skyhawks, 11-6, to open the second half, CU went cold on offense. After Butler hit a 3, then sank two free throws, pulling the Skyhawks to within 11, Lappe called a timeout.
Haislip scored on a cut to the basket to pull the Skyhawks within nine, but then Jeffery drained her second 3-pointer and junior forward Julie Seabrook got an easy lay-in to put CU up, 60-46.
The Skyhawks never got closer than eight points after that. The Buffs didn’t shoot as well in the second half, hitting 42 percent from the field after going for 47 percent in the first half, but rebounded much better.
After getting outrebounded 19-14 in the first half, CU finished with 38 boards to Tennessee-Martin’s 34, and held the opposition to just 10 offensive rebounds, eight below its season average.
Skyhawks coach Kevin McMillan said the three quick 3-pointers from CU at the start of the first half set the tone for the game, and his team was never able to catch up.
“If you can make 3’s on us, that’s fine, we just want you to make them contested and they had three or four good looks in the first half, real quick, that only one of them I thought was halfway contested,” he said. “There’s 12 points, and you’ve dug a hole. I thought we did a pretty good job battling back, but in the second half we did the same thing. We dug another 15-point hole.”
Colorado 78, Tenn.-Martin 67 TENN.-MARTIN 67
MIN FG 3PT FT Rb PF TP
Hawn 21 1-4 0-1 1-2 3 4 3
Butler 39 5-14 2-5 6-8 7 1 18
Newsome 20 5-7 0-2 2-4 0 2 12
Haislip 39 6-14 3-8 2-2 10 5 17
Reedy 10 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 1 0
Hall 19 0-3 0-3 1-2 1 4 1
Swaim 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Weatherly 23 1-2 1-1 4-5 3 3 7
White 6 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 0 3
Bryant 8 1-1 0-0 1-2 0 1 3
Crawford 9 0-2 0-1 1-2 4 2 1
Glenn 4 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 2
Totals 200 21-52 7-24 18-27 34 42 67
Assists (13): Hall 4, Butler 3, Newsome 3, Reedy 2, Haislip.
Turnovers (19): Butler 5, Hall 3, Hawn 2, Newsome 2, Haislip, Reedy, Swaim, Weatherly, White, Crawford, Glenn.
Blocked shots (1): Newsome.
COLORADO 78
MIN FG 3PT FT Rb PF TP
Seabrook 24 2-4 0-0 4-5 4 4 8
Spears 37 6-13 2-5 6-7 12 3 20
Blythe 26 1-4 1-3 2-2 1 1 5
MM-Peck 32 1-5 0-3 2-2 2 3 4
Jeffery 37 10-17 2-3 3-6 8 3 25
BWilson 19 2-10 0-0 1-4 5 2 5
AWilson 14 2-2 0-0 3-3 3 3 7
Hargis 11 2-3 0-0 0-0 1 2 4
Totals 200 26-58 5-14 21-29 38 21 78
Assists (12): Spears 4, Jeffery 3, A. Wilson 2, Blythe, M. Malcolm-Peck, Seabrook.
Turnovers (17): Spears 4, Jeffery 3, A. Wilson 3, Malcolm-Peck 2, Seabrook 2, B. Wilson 2, Blythe.
Blocked shots (2): Spears 2.
Halftime score: Colorado 39, Tenn.-Martin 31.
Technical fouls — Tenn.-Martin team.
Attendance — 1,112.
