KANSAS CITY, Mo. – While its largest lead of the afternoon was just four points, Colorado Buffaloes women’s basketball (20-11) outlasted the Arizona Wildcats (19-13) for its second win in the Big 12 tournament on Thursday, 61-58.
Propelled by freshmen Kennedy Sanders’ 14 and Tabitha Betson’s 16 points, Colorado took the three-point dub despite a rough start. This win lifted the Buffs to their fourth consecutive 20-win season for the first time since 2000-2004, setting up a date with the No. 1-seeded TCU Horned Frogs on Friday.
“We’ve shown our resilience all year long,” head coach JR Payne said. “This is a very, very resilient group and I think that it is the biggest strength of our team.”
The Buffs picked up where they left off yesterday, turning the ball over six times, and Arizona converted them into 12 points of a 14-3 run. Starting guard Kindyll Wetta also picked up two quick fouls. CU cut the deficit to seven after a Jade Masogayo layup and Sara-Rose Smith second-chance bucket to end the first.
After Arizona’s early 11-point lead, the Buffs outscored the Wildcats 23-12 to even the score by halftime. In her second game back from a foot injury, Smith helped the Buffs find their rhythm on offense with seven points and three rebounds while also helping to figure out Arizona’s full-court press.
CU took care of the ball between the end of the first and the start of the second quarter, with just one turnover over an 11-minute span. The Buffs took their first lead after a fading 3-pointer by Johanna Teder late in the first half.
While seven points by Betson kept CU within reach in the third, the Wildcats hot shooting (62.5%) and rebounding (9-3) gave them an eight-point lead heading into the fourth. CU had 10 minutes to save its season.
Sanders got the Buffs back in the game in the fourth, scoring seven of her 15 points to give the Buffs their first lead of the second half. Arizona’s Jada Williams’s eight fourth-quarter points kept the Wildcats neck-and-neck.
Four unanswered points from Lior Garzon gave the Buffs a two-point lead with 1:30 remaining, and two clutch intentional foul free throws from Wetta gave Colorado some breathing room. After Betson split a pair from the line to give the Wildcats a chance down by three in the final seconds, Skylar Jones’s 3-point heave just missed and was rebounded by Smith.
The Buffs had just one turnover and shot 53.3% from the field in the fourth quarter en route to the three-point win.
Colorado now aims to topple the Big 12's regular season champions. Tip-off against the No. 8 TCU Horned Frogs (28-3) is set for Friday at 1:30 p.m. MT (ESPNU).
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