Buffs Upset No. 16/15 Sooners

BOULDER - It had been awhile since Colorado had beaten Oklahoma in women's basketball - so long, in fact, that first-year CU Coach Linda Lappe remembers it from a player's perspective.

Flashback: 2003 Big 12 Conference postseason tournament quarterfinals . . . Lappe, a persevering CU senior, scores 13 points and has six assists in a 73-68 Buffs win.

Keep that score in mind, and fast forward to Wednesday night. No. 16/15 OU visited the Coors Events Center to play a CU team wallowing in an ugly three-game losing streak, but not self-pity.

Lappe's suddenly revitalized Buffs stopped their skid and ended an eight-game drought against the Sooners, stunning OU . . . 73-68. It was CU's second win this season over a ranked opponent, but this one came at a most unlikely time, with the Buffs having lost six of their past seven games - including the last three by an average of 27 points.

No matter; CU snapped back.

"To the credit of our team, they've been great," a beaming Lappe said. "They come every single day to work. You really wouldn't really know how the previous game(s) went - except for the fact that we want to work harder and make sure it doesn't happen again."

It didn't happen Wednesday night, although OU made a second-half run and closed to within a point twice in the final 7:15. But CU responded, never losing its lead and stashing away the win by hitting five of six free throws in the final 24.1 seconds.

Sophomore Chucky Jeffery was four-of-four from the line in that stretch, and senior Brittany Spears made one of two. Jeffery finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds - her eighth double-double of the season - and was two assists shy of her second triple-double. Spears scored a game-high 24 points, reaching 20 points for the 40th time in her CU career and overshadowing OU's Danielle Robinson, whose 21 points pushed her past the 2,000 mark (2,002). CU sophomore Meagan Malcolm-Peck added 10 points and eight rebounds.

The Buffs hit a season-best 11 three-pointers, eight of them in a first half that saw them battle back from a seven-point deficit and take a 39-33 halftime advantage. After tying the game at 31-31 on Ashley Wilson's two free throws 2:38 before intermission, CU never lost the lead.

With their two biggest players - 6-foot-4 Rachel Hargis and 6-3 Julie Seabrook - plagued with foul trouble, the Buffs played most of the second half with a smaller lineup. But OU attacked it successfully, extending its defense in the second half and pressuring the Buffs, who committed 18 turnovers (13 in the first half).

Seabrook, who scored CU's first six points on two three-pointers, played a season-low nine minutes before fouling out with 6:05 to play. Hargis played 18 minutes and finished the game with three fouls, as did Jeffery. Three other players finished with two fouls each, but Lappe said her team is learning to be "disciplined in their defense" and avoiding third fouls.

CU outrebounded OU 35-34, but the Buffs were hammered in the paint, 36-14. Still, they found a way.

"Our players stepped up and they responded," Lappe said. "We got defensive stops when we needed to, we scored when we needed to . . . I'm just so happy for our players, that they could get this win against a very good team."

OU Coach Sherri Coale called CU "a young, building program with nothing to lose here . . . we just kind of messed around like we thought (CU) would go away. We were ahead and we think they are going to go away, but they didn't. They kept making plays and I give them credit. They played like the hungrier basketball team."

Despite their recent slump, Jeffery said the Buffs' spirits never sagged: "We know we can play with anybody if we play all together and we all come together and everybody shows up."

Added Malcolm-Peck: "All of those games that we lost by a lot, we had stretches where we right there . . . we know we can play with people, and we just let down. Our emphasis for this game was to come out and play a full 40 minutes. We all came out, had fun and played as hard as we could."

Spears, whose total left her 15 points shy of 2,000, said she and her teammates "knew we had nothing to lose, so we just went out there and played."

The result was her first win over OU in a stellar career - and unless the teams meet in the Big 12 postseason tournament, it was the final chance for the Buffs to defeat the Sooners before heading to the Pac-12 Conference next season.

The Buffs improved to 13-13 overall and 4-9 in the league. The Sooners are 19-8, 9-4.

CU trailed by as many as seven points in the first half, but kept battling, cutting the deficit to a point (27-26) on a pair of Hargis free throws with 5:16 left before the break.

But the best was ahead.

CU fell behind 31-26 on a Carlee Roethlisberger layup with 4:51 left in the half, but that would be OU's last field goal of the half. When Spears canned her third trey of the half, CU launched a 13-2 run that resulted in its six-point halftime lead.

For the Buffs, the key would be opening the second half with as much energy as they closed the first - and they did what was required. After OU's Aaryn Ellenberger hit a three-pointer to open the second half scoring, CU answered with a 6-1 run and led by eight points twice before OU rallied.

Over the next 1:50, the Sooners outscored the Buffs 6-0 and closed to 47-45 on an acrobatic layup by Robinson. But CU toughened up and pushed its lead back to eight (56-48) before Robinson responded on consecutive possessions and Morgan Hook hit a three-pointer to pull OU to within 56-55 with 7:15 to play.

The Sooners stayed within one to three points until Spears canned a three from the right corner to put the Buffs up 61-57 with 4:16 remaining. A little over a minute later, Spears encored from the left wing for a 64-59 lead with 3:06 showing.

And after a Robinson layup, Spears took it inside to send the Buffs up 66-61. Britney Blythe's two free throws with 49.6 seconds remaining sent CU ahead 68-61, but Roethlisberger's straightaway three made it 68-64 and stopped Buffs fans from breathing easier.

After the Buffs used their final timeout with 38.3 to play, Spears was tied up on the inbounds play and Robinson scored her 2,000th career point on a layup. CU's lead was down to 68-66 with 27.9 seconds left.

From there, CU put it away at the free throw line, with Jeffery (four-for-four) and Spears (one-for-two) going five-of-six in the final 24.1 seconds.

After defeating then-No. 17/16 Iowa State 66-60 in overtime on Jan. 15, the Buffs won only two of their next nine games. They've failed to win back-to-back conference games or win on the road, and Lappe said that must be the next step: "We just have to keep the confidence and know we can't be one-hit wonders, we can't be the team that beats Oklahoma and then loses a game that maybe we shouldn't."

Of the Buffs' three remaining regular-season games, two are on the road against teams they defeated in Boulder. They play at Missouri Saturday before traveling to Nebraska on Wednesday. No. 3 Baylor visits the Events Center on Saturday, March 5 in the regular-season finale.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU