Fast break
Why the Buffs won: CU won because it hit shots (44.9%), rebounded extremely well and did just enough down the stretch to overcome a plethora of mistakes against the worst team in the conference.
Three stars:
1. CU’s Lior Garzon: Overcame a slow start to finish with a game-high 21 points, 18 of those in the second half.
2. CU’s Jade Masogayo: Finished with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists.
3. Houston’s Eylia Love: Scored 11 points and racked up seven steals, the most ever by a CU opponent in a conference tournament game.
Up next: The Buffs will face Arizona in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday (12:30 p.m. MT, ESPN+).
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – There is no requirement to play pretty basketball in the postseason. Sometimes, it’s not even necessary to play particularly well.
That’s a good thing for the Colorado women’s basketball team, which certainly didn’t collect style points on Wednesday, but did earn a victory, 66-58, against Houston in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament at T-Mobile Center.
“The message in the locker room was at this time of the year, you win the game,” CU head coach JR Payne said. “Everybody uses the phrase, ‘survive in advance,’ and we certainly survived, and we certainly are advancing.”
The ninth-seeded Buffaloes (19-11) overcame a whopping 33 turnovers – the second-most by a CU team in the last 40 years – to knock out 16th-seeded Houston (5-25).
Lior Garzon had 21 points and Jade Masogayo 14 to help the Buffs move into Thursday’s second round against Arizona.
Turnovers have been an issue for much of the season for the Buffs, but they reached a new low against the Cougars.
CU led by 18, 50-32 with 9:46 to play, but then committed 14 fourth-quarter turnovers as it struggled against Houston’s pressure. The Cougars sliced the CU lead to five, 63-58, on a Laila Blair four-point play with 25.6 seconds to play.
“They just kind of sped us up at the end,” Masogayo said. “They were pretty aggressive defensively, so we just have to clean up when it comes to that.”
Payne praised Houston’s aggressiveness but said that was aided by poor decision-making on passes by the Buffs at times.
“We definitely got rattled,” she said. “I mean, I can’t hide the fact that we were pretty rattled. I also think in some ways, maybe that’s a blessing, because maybe we now can really focus on that, because we certainly will see pressure tomorrow as well.”
Until the frantic finish, the Buffs were in control most of the day. They shot the ball well (44.9%) and crushed the Cougars on the boards (48-22). They also got a clutch performance from Garzon, who scored 18 of her points after halftime, including going 6-for-6 at the free throw line in the last 50 seconds.
“Lior is our best free throw shooter, but down the stretch, those were really, really important free throws,” Payne said. “You have to be able to shed all the frustration of whatever is going on and be able to focus and knock that down and Lior did a great job of that.”
The only active Buff to play in this tournament before this year, Garzon was just 1-for-6 from the floor in the first half, but went 5-for-8 after intermission.
“At halftime I just had a talk with myself, just like, ‘The team needs you right now; it’s time to step up. Take your emotion out,’” said Garzon, a transfer from Oklahoma State. “They always tell me they don’t really care if I miss a shot, just play hard. I feel like in the second half I just went out there confident and like, ‘OK, this is the time to go. There’s no tomorrow.’ So, that was the difference for me.”
Because Garzon and Masogayo, in particular, stepped up, there will be a tomorrow for the Buffs.
“I think most teams that play in the first round, or whatever their first game is, there’s definitely opportunities for jitters, whether it’s just new court, new balls, a lot on the line, wanting to perform well,” Payne said. “We for sure got that out of our system and we’ll be ready to play tomorrow.”
Colorado 66, Houston 58
HOUSTON (5-25)
Merchant 4-11 1-4 9, Cooke 4-14 1-2 13, Blair 5-16 3-3 15, Love 4-13 2-6 11, McFarland 0-3 0-0 0, Augmon 5-7 0-0 10, Bostock 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-64 7-15 58.
COLORADO (19-11)
Garzon 6-14 6-6 21, Masogayo 7-9 0-0 14, Wetta 1-2 0-0 2, Betson 2-6 1-2 6, Teder 1-5 4-6 7, Johnson 1-1 4-4 6, Powell 0-4 0-0 0, Oliver 1-1 0-0 3, Sanders 2-5 0-0 4, Nworie 1-2 1-1 3. Totals 22-49 16-19 66.
Houston 12 8 12 26 – 58
Colorado 19 10 20 17 – 66
3-point goals – Houston 7-20 (Cooke 4-7, Blair 2-8, Love 1-3, Merchant 0-1, Augmon 0-1), Colorado 6-15 (Garzon 3-5, Betson 1-4, Teder 1-3, Oliver 1-1, Powell 0-1, Sanders 0-1). Rebounds – Houston 22 (Merchant 6), Colorado 48 (Oliver 7). Assists – Houston 12 (Blair 6), Colorado 15 (Wetta 6). Steals – Houston 16 (Love 7), Colorado 8 (Garzon, Teder, Sanders 2). Turnovers – Houston 17, Colorado 33. Total fouls – Houston 16, Colorado 16. Fouled out – Cooke, Love, Wetta. Attendance – 4,617.
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