No. 8 CU Buffs shake off rust, roll past UNC – The Denver Post

Colorado basketball fans have a tradition of standing until the Buffaloes hit their first basket of a game.

It’s not often that the fans have to stand through a timeout, but on Thursday, the women’s basketball team kept them on their feet longer than expected.

When the crowd was finally able to sit, they settled in for another dominant victory by the eighth-ranked Buffaloes, who cruised past Northern Colorado 78-56 at the CU Events Center.

CU trailed 14-0 before finally scoring 4 minutes, 26 seconds into the game, but the Buffs (10-1) never flinched as they wrapped up non-conference play with a rout.

“We don’t want to start like that, but we kind of joked about it like, ‘Oh, we’re just keeping it interesting for the fans and we’ll go on a run later,’” junior guard Kindyll Wetta said. “We don’t really get too high or low and we just know that we’re going to figure it out eventually and so we don’t get too worried.”

Delaynie Byrne drained three consecutive 3-pointers for the Bears (4-5) to start off the game, prompting CU head coach JR Payne to call a timeout just 2:44 into the game.

Byrne finished with 21 points and CU still trailed 35-28 after UNC’s Tatum West converted a three-point play with 3:44 to go in the second quarter.

From that point, it was all CU.

The Buffs closed the first half on a 13-0 run, while UNC had turnovers on eight consecutive possessions.

At the time of West’s three-point play, the turnovers were even at six. From that point on, UNC had 22 turnovers to CU’s five. CU finished with 17 steals.

“That’s something that we just continue to rely on,” Wetta said of the defense. “We know that’s kind of our foundation that we’re built on and so when we’re down by 15 in the first quarter, that’s what we resort to. We know that we can turn good defense into offense.”

Several Buffs stepped up to contribute to the rally, but the charge was led by senior point guard Jaylyn Sherrod. She had all 16 of her points in the first half, with a 3-pointer late in the first quarter and 13 points in the second. She had nine points in CU’s half-ending 13-0 run.

“I told the team it’s honest to goodness, it’s this simple: everything for us aggressive is good. Everything that’s not aggressive is bad,” CU head coach JR Payne said. “I mean, it seems silly, but it is honestly that true. … (Sherrod) was aggressive during that spurt. That’s why she scored. She got up a lot of shots yesterday, so I think she was confident coming in.”

While Sherrod led the team in scoring, she had plenty of help.