Kindyll Wetta isn’t one of Colorado’s most prolific scorers, but the junior guard has shown a knack for hitting memorable shots.
A year ago, she drained a 3-pointer to knock off UCLA. And on Sunday, she hit a running 3-pointer from just inside the half court line to send the No. 5 Buffaloes into halftime with a six-point lead en route to a 71-59 victory against No. 8 Stanford.
“To be honest, I usually don’t look at the clock,” Wetta said. “But I heard it this time. I was like, ‘OK, well, I gotta shoot it. And then it felt good coming off.”
Wetta’s buzzer-beater gave CU a 36-30 lead at the time, but made head coach JR Payne nervous.
“I was so nervous that the way (the rest of the team) tackled her that she they were going to injure her,” Payne said. “So I was like, trying to break it up, ‘Don’t take her out.’”
Wetta proved to be just fine and while that shot was the highlight, it was part of a great day overall for the junior point guard. CU’s super sub finished with 12 points – on 4-of-5 shooting – along with six rebounds, five assists and four steals. She also blocked a shot for just the fourth time in her career.
Miller shines
In CU’s conference opener on Dec. 30 against Utah, star forward Quay Miller had a rough day, with zero points and two rebounds in only 11 minutes.
The senior has been on fire since. Against Stanford, she scored 13 points and pulled down rebounds, recording her third consecutive double-double.
“Quay’s a veteran,” Payne said. “She’s been around a long time and she also recognizes how important she is to our success and she doesn’t care if it’s points or rebounds or keeping everybody together and communicating. She just wants the group to be successful. But I think she was incredible (against Stanford).”
With Sara-Rose Smith missing her second straight game because of a mild concussion, Miller had to play a lot of minutes this weekend. She played a season-high 33 minutes, 30 seconds vs. California on Friday and topped that with 37:29 on Sunday.
“(A lot of minutes) against some very, very physical play,” Payne said. “I’m sure she’s exhausted. But to have back-to-back double doubles in games like this speaks to her ability to sort of push the fatigue aside and push everything aside and just do what the team needed her to do.”
In the four games since the Utah matchup, Miller has averaged 12.5 points and 10.3 rebounds. In the one game she didn’t have a double-double in that stretch, she fell just one rebound shy.
Unfortunate run-in
Late in the fourth quarter, CU guard Jaylyn Sherrod was fouled in front of the Stanford bench and ran into Cardinal head coach Tara VanDerveer, knocking the 70-year-old legend off her feet.
VanDerveer, who fell into the lap of one of her assistants, sat down for a moment to shake it off, but was OK.
“I didn’t know at first and then once I saw her sit down, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I ran into her,’” Sherrod said. “(I was) just trying to make sure she was OK. Make sure she was good.”
Notable
VanDerveer was aiming for career win No. 1,202, which would have tied her with former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski for the most in college basketball history, men or women, but will have to wait to tie that mark. … Stanford had season lows for points (59) and shooting percentage (.339). It was the second-lowest field goal percentage by a CU opponent this season. … Sherrod moved into sixth place on CU’s all-time list for career steals (243), while Wetta is 18th (156). … CU improved to 6-27 all-time against Stanford, including 2-22 since joining the Pac-12. … The Buffs are now 17-71 against teams ranked among the top eight nationally. Of those 88 games, 24 have come against Stanford.