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Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
After two long weeks, Colorado is finally back on track.
For the first time in four games, the Colorado Buffaloes are back in the win column. The Buffs got back on track against the Washington Huskies, beating them by a final score of 68-62.
Colorado desperately needed to win against UW after dropping each of their last four games, all of which were against opponents ranked in the AP Top 25. Washington, fresh off upsetting 11th ranked Oregon State, came into the CU Event Center threatening to increase Colorado’s losing streak to five.
In their last contest on Monday against UCLA, the Buffs had their worst offensive game of the season, shooting only 28.6% from the field. Thankfully, Colorado took the opportunity to get their shooting right against the Huskies.
The Buffs shot 42.3% on 56 attempts from the field and an impressive 45% from deep, making 9 of their 20 three pointer shots. Colorado, usually a team that dominates in the paint, opted to mix things up on Thursday. CU scored only 26 of their 68 points in the paint, taking most of their shots from midrange and deep instead.
Buffaloes guard Maddie Nolan, who started for the first time in three games, led the charge from beyond the arc. Nolan kept getting open behind the three-point line and was nearly automatic when her teammates found her, shooting 6 of 7 from deep and finishing the contest with a season-high 20 points. Frida Formann followed suit, burying 2 three-pointers in a 12 point performance.
Led by Nolan and Formann’s stellar shooting, Colorado was seemingly cruising to an easy victory, maintaining a 15 point lead for a majority of the game. The Buffs hit a bit of a road bump halfway through the third quarter however, when Jaylyn Sherrod got elbowed in the nose and had to leave the game.
Sherrod got checked out in the locker room for about 10 minutes and came back to the bench holding a massive icepack to her nose, with no sign of her reentering the game anytime soon. Without Sherrod, who is the offense’s usual facilitator, the Buffaloes began to unravel.
In Sherrod’s absence, the Buffaloes just couldn’t find their rhythm. They continued taking and missing low percentage shots and turned the ball over 8 times in around 14 minutes. Things reached a critical point around 4 minutes into the fourth quarter when the Buffs seemingly became allergic to the net. Colorado went on an over five minute long scoring drought, allowing the Huskies to make the game competitive again.
CU’s defense did a good job mitigating the damage done by their offense’s scoring struggles, only allowing Washington to score 7 points during that five minute period. With 46 seconds to play, the Huskies cut the Buffaloes’ lead to only 5 points. However, an expected hero stepped in: Jaylyn Sherrod.
Sherrod checked back into the game and gave the Buffs the spark they needed to close things out. During the last 36 seconds of the game with Sherrod on the floor, Colorado shot 4 of 6 from the charity stripe to secure the win. At long last, the Buffs finally snapped their prolonged losing streak.
Colorado’s win on Thursday night firmly keeps them above a four seed in March Madness, meaning they’d get to host tournament games in Boulder. In order to maintain that seed, they’ll need to take down Wazzu in their final regular season game on Saturday. After that, the Buffs will head to Vegas for what is poised to be one of the most exciting Pac-12 Tournaments in recent memory. Despite the regular season coming to an end, the fun is just getting started.
by RylandScholes
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