Colorado looks to summit Mountaineers in Big 12 semifinals
- Various Authors
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
Jake Chau, Xavier Michnewicz
For the first time in 25 years, the Colorado Buffaloes can call themselves Big 12 tournament semifinalists. Still, a peak they’ve yet to summit stands before them in the form of the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Colorado (22-10, 11-7 Big 12) lost to West Virginia (25-6, 14-4 Big 12) in Boulder, Colorado, in their last matchup 61-55. The Buffaloes’ revenge tour continues after beating Baylor, who they also lost to in the regular season.
“I think that's like the good thing about the Big 12 tournament,” junior guard Zyanna Walker said. “Teams that you might have slipped up on during the season, you get another shot at them.”
In Colorado’s loss to the Mountaineers, senior forward Jade Masagayo brought the Buffs within three points in the final minute in a 13-point performance against the Mountaineers.
However, Masagayo has been relatively quiet this tournament after averaging nearly 14 in last year’s tournament. She has just 11 total points through the first two games this year.
The Mountaineers are a very well-rounded team that gets elite scoring, even with no player eclipsing 15 points per game.
West Virginia is a guard-heavy team, running a rotation of junior Gia Cooke and seniors Sydney Shaw and Jordan Harrison.
Cooke leads the team with 14.9 points per game and is a lethal 3-point shooter, hitting on over a third of her attempts this season, while Shaw has been even better, sinking 41.5 percent of her attempts as the best percentage in the conference. That 3-point shooting helps her average 12.1 points per game.
Harrison adds another 12.8 points per game on 45 percent shooting while dishing out 5.4 assists per game.
If the Buffs can limit those shooters and force the Mountaineers to go down low in the paint, they’ll have an easier time.
Down low, they’ll find Kierra Wheeler, who is averaging the second-best field goal percentage in the conference, making over half of her shots. Even for how well-rounded it is, West Virginia concentrates around one player who can take over the game. The Mountaineers are 21-4 when the game’s leading scorer is wearing blue and gold.
With their guard-focused lineup, the Mountaineers often look to speed the game up, looking for steals and forcing turnovers.
Harrison is the mold for it as an absolute ball-hawk who has the most steals in the conference (97), averaging over 3 steals per game. She had Colorado in fits in their last matchup, scoring a game-high 18 points and collecting six steals.
West Virginia is 17-3 when forcing more than 20 turnovers. They force an average of 22.8 turnovers per game, a Big 12 best.
However, the Buffs are 6-2 when turning the ball over more than 20 times themselves.
Where the Mountaineers have found success is capitalizing on those turnovers. Nearly 26 of their 77.6 points per game come from turnovers, while they limit their opponents to just 13.9 points per game off turnovers.
But they live and die by that fast-paced philosophy. Four of West Virginia’s six losses have come when its opponents have scored more points off turnovers than it has.
West Virginia is the best in the conference and a top-20 team nationally in hunting down steals. The Mountaineers average 11.5 steals per game, and when they snatch double-digit steals, they are 17-1.
Walker averages the fourth most in the Big 12 at 2.2 per game.
Colorado has to take care of the ball if it wants a shot at beating West Virginia. In their last matchup, West Virginia won the turnover battle, 17-15, but the Buffs outscored them off turnovers, 17-13.
Still, West Virginia’s field goal defense is a blotch they’ve been trying to cover with excellent offense all year.
While the Mountaineers have the third-best scoring defense in the conference, limiting teams to just 58.6 points per game, they’ve done it by limiting the number of shots a team takes. They’ve let up an average of 16 3-pointers per game, a conference best, but allow teams to hit on 33.7 percent, the second-worst in the conference.
The Buffs have a path to victory, but they have to take care of the ball and create shots in order to do it.
Colorado and West Virginia will go head-to-head for a spot in the Big 12 Tournament championship at 4:30 p.m. MT (ESPN+).