Fast break
Why the Buffs won: For most of the day, CU played solid defense, crashed the boards and limited turnovers, while converting Oregon’s turnovers into points.
Three stars:
1. CU’s Aaronette Vonleh: Posted the third double-double of her career with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while also having two blocks and a career-best four steals. Seven of her rebounds came on the offensive glass.
2. Oregon’s Phillipina Kyei: Quiet first half, but she finished with 12 points and a game-high 17 rebounds, including five offensive rebounds.
3. CU’s Tameiya Sadler: Came off the bench to score seven points, dish six assists and come up with two steals in 27 minutes.
Up next: CU visits Washington State on Friday at 8 p.m. MT.
EUGENE, Ore. – Colorado has had much better days than Sunday, but head coach JR Payne will never complain about a win in the road.
The third-ranked CU women’s basketball team fought through shooting woes to roll past Oregon 61-48 at Matthew Knight Arena.
Aaronette Vonleh posted her second double-double of the season, with 16 points and 10 rebounds in helping the Buffs (17-3, 7-2 Pac-12) bounce back from Friday’s loss at No. 25 Oregon State.
“Really proud of how we responded after Friday night’s game,” Payne said. “We were all very disappointed with how we performed Friday. Not to take anything away from Oregon State, but we were very frustrated and disappointed with ourselves in the Friday night game.
“I think a mature group can look ourselves in the mirror and say, how could we have been better and what are we going to do about it? We’re not going to cry about it, we’re not gonna pout; we’re gonna fix it and really lean into each other to be better next time out. I thought we did that today.”
CU led by as many as 21 points, but Oregon (11-11, 2-7) made things interesting in the fourth quarter. A 13-2 Ducks run, sparked by Phillipina Kyei and Grace VanSlooten, sliced CU’s lead to 50-43 with 4 minutes, 56 seconds to play.
The Buffs responded with a 6-0 run, however. Frida Formann had four points in that surge and added a 3-pointer with 1:49 to go to bump the lead to 14.
“It was stressful for me,” Payne said of Oregon’s rally. “Even in that run, I thought they hit tough shots. Those pull-up jumpers, those are really tough shots that (VanSlooten) was making. We sort of withstood the run and made enough of our own to keep it at bay.”
In addition to Vonleh’s 16 points, Formann finished with nine, but it was a quiet day offensively for most of the Buffs. CU got important contributions off the bench, however, from Tameiya Sadler (seven points, six assists) and Charlotte Whittaker (eight points, three rebounds).
Overall, CU shot just 34.6% (27-of-78), its second-lowest percentage of the season, but also had a season-high 20 offensive rebounds. Vonleh, who is from nearby West Linn, Ore., had seven offensive boards.
“Netty is just so good and still has so much room to grow,” Payne said. “Really great for her to be able to play in front of her family. Her mom and her grandmother and a lot of people here, which is always great to be able to do that. I know she’s enjoyed being close to them here, as well.”
Defensively, the Buffs held Oregon to just 17.4% (4-of-23) shooting in the first half. The Ducks didn’t hit a field goal in the final 13:58 of the half and CU went into intermission with a 31-11 lead. It was the lowest-scoring half for a Buffs’ opponent since Arizona had 10 in the second half on Feb. 23, 2014.
In the second half, however, the Ducks went 14-of-34 (41.2%) and outscored the Buffs 37-30.
“I thought our defense was phenomenal in the first half, not as great in the second half,” Payne said. “I think when we really are focused defensively guarding as a team – we talk a lot about, like Grace VanSlooten, no one’s going to stop her by themselves, but collectively we can make her work for her buckets, things like that. So I thought we defended really well as a team.”
It was enough to get the Buffs back in the win column.
“Our conference is so good, you have to have a short memory,” Payne said. “We talk about this a lot, but good or bad, you have to have a very short memory because the next team can beat you if you don’t. So, I was really proud of how we responded.”
No. 3 Colorado 61, Oregon 48
COLORADO (17-3, 7-2 Pac-12)
Sherrod 2-4 0-0 4, Formann 4-10 0-0 9, Miller 2-9 1-1 5, Vonleh 7-17 2-4 16, Nolan 2-11 0-0 6, Sadler 3-10 0-1 7, Smith 2-5 0-0 4, Wetta 1-5 0-0 2, Whittaker 4-7 0-0 8. Totals 27-78 3-6 61.
OREGON (11-11, 2-7 Pac-12)
Basham 1-4 0-0 2, Gray 2-13 8-12 13, Williams 1-7 0-0 2, Kyei 5-9 2-2 12, VanSlooten 8-19 0-0 16, Chamberlin 1-4 0-0 3, Wagner 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Hamel 0-0 0-0 0, Rambus 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-57 10-14 48.
Colorado 13 18 14 16 – 61
Oregon 8 3 17 20 – 48
3-point goals – Colorado 4-18 (Nolan 2-7, Formann 1-6, Sadler 1-2, Miller 0-2, Smith 0-1), Oregon 2-16 (Gray 1-4, Chamberlin 1-4, Williams 0-5, VanSlooten 0-3). Rebounds – Colorado 52 (Vonleh 10), Oregon 41 (Kyei 17). Assists – Colorado 22 (Wetta 7), Oregon 5 (VanSlooten 2). Steals – Colorado 11 (Vonleh 4), Oregon 3 (Chamberlin 2). Turnovers – Colorado 9, Oregon 15. Total fouls – Colorado 15, Oregon 9. Fouled out – None. Attendance – 2,517.