Colorado Edges Nebraska In Final Seconds

For Immediate Release, January 31, 2009 By Riley Bright, CU Sports Information Student Assistant   BOULDER—Brittany Spears connected on a baseline layup with five seconds remaining in the game to complete a furious Colorado comeback as the Buffaloes beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers 75-73 Saturday afternoon at the Coors Events/Conference Center.   The game was full of runs by both teams. The Buffaloes scored the first five points, but the Cornhuskers responded with an 18-3 run to open a 10-point lead. Bianca Smith scored a 3-pointer for Colorado with Spears right behind her with another two to get the Buffs within five (18-13) with 11:55 remaining in the first half. Spears led the Buffs with 25 points and nine rebounds while Smith added another 21 points, all of which came from beyond the arc as she matched her school record seven three pointers in the game.   It is the second time this season that Smith has scored over 20 and the seventh time for Spears.   Nebraska went on another 7-0 run to build a 12-point lead when once again Smith gave the momentum back to the Buffs.  She hit three of her five first half 3-pointers in a one minute span to allow Colorado to crawl back to within six at 28-22.   Nebraska's Cory Montgomery, who had a team-high 24 points and nine rebounds, had an answer to Smith, hitting a 3-pointer of her own to spark the Huskers on a 14-4 run for a 42-28 lead with just under two minutes left.   Despite committing 18 first half turnovers which led to 19 Nebraska points, the Buffaloes narrowed the gap to eight at halftime when Kelly Jo Mullaney drove the length of the court for a layup as the buzzer sounded.   The Buffs came out in the second half looking like a different team. CU cut its turnovers down to eight in the second half and wasted no time, cutting the deficit down to three with a 7-2 run to open the half.   "Most importantly they started to take care of the basketball," head coach Kathy McConnell Miller said. "{They} had the confidence that we could win."   Nebraska built its lead back up to eight (50-42), but when Smith hit her record-tying seventh 3-pointer at 12:03, it tied the score at 58 and neither team would build a lead of more than three the rest of the contest.   Moments later, Kara Richards scored on a layup to give CU the lead at 62-61, their first since an 8-6 advantage early in the first half.   From the 10-minute mark on, the lead changed six times with two ties thrown in. The Buffaloes held onto the lead for two minutes before the Cornhuskers tied it up at 68 with 4:45 remaining.   That didn't stop the Buffs from answering right back as Mullaney gave CU a 70-68 lead on a jumper with the shot clock winding down. After a Yvonne Turner free throw, Spears gave CU a 72-69 lead on a layup at the other end.   Montgomery hit a pair of free throws to pull Nebraska to within one and the Huskers regained the lead at 73-72 as Turner converted a steal into a bucket on the other end with only 1:20 remaining.   With 49 seconds left in the game, Spears went to the line to tie the game up 73-73. A turnover by Turner on the other end gave Colorado the ball to set up Spears' game winner.   Colorado shot 55 percent in the game, its best mark this season in the Big 12 and second-best percentage of the season.   Richards finished with 14 points and six rebounds while Mullaney had 10 points and four rebounds off the bench.   Dominique Kelley had 16 points while Turner had nine points, seven assists and four steals. Colorado returns to action on Wednesday, Feb. 4, as the Buffaloes travel to play the University of Kansas at 6 p.m. MST at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.   Colorado-Nebraska Quotes     Colorado Head Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller   General "It was a tale of two halves. There is no doubt that we came out with a sense of purpose. We came out with energy. We made adjustments on our press breaker. Most importantly they started to take care of the basketball and had the confidence that we could win. The message I'd like the players to take home with them is that this is a tough league and they need to be proud that they fought and came out with a victory after some pretty tough times in the first half. They put together a second half that they can be proud of."   On winning despite having 26 turnovers "When we had the ball in our hands, when we are able to execute I thought we did a really good job of taking the ball to the rim and taking high percentage shots. That's what Nebraska does to you. And like I told my staff at the half, If you think Dominique [Kelly] and Yvonne [Turner] are going to get tired in the next 20 minutes it just doesn't happen. That's what they're going to do to you. We tried to simulate that type of pressure the last two days, and Texas Tech put it on us. God bless Britney [Blythe] and [Alyssa] Fressle, and Kelly Jo [Mullaney] they did the best they could getting it up the court with two people on them. It's hard to win when you turn the ball over that many times, but we were efficient when we broke their pressure."   On Defensive adjustments "We changed up our defenses. Our players were pretty smart with changing. When we were in zone, they recognized the shooters. We switched up from man-to-man to a zone, took off our full court pressure, a different brand of defense. They understood what we were in when we were in it. In the first half it wasn't great communication."   On the point guard position "I'm sure in the first half, all their heads were spinning with as many as I was running in and out. Without Whitney [Houston] to break pressure, Alyssa [Fressle] is better in the open court. Britney Blythe is better at getting us into our sets. It's a combination of players that are going to play the point guard position, until one emerges as someone you can't take off the floor. I though Kelly Jo [Mullaney] did a good job handling the full court pressure. [Dominique] Kelley and [Yvonne] Turner were the ones that were turning us over and giving us the most pressure. So we were throwing it back to whoever the other guard was on."   On the final play "Somehow I ran out of timeouts, so someone kept calling them and it wasn't me. At that point we had to go with something we knew. The high-low in our continuity offense is what they know. It's something that they run every day and have been running all year. Fortunately, for us it worked. That's the play that they felt most comfortably running without me setting them up."   On the bench's play "With Kelly Jo [Mullaney], as with any player that comes into this level, you've been starting your whole life. It takes a lot to get accustomed to coming off the bench. It's not easy for any player. But we would be much better to get any production from Courtney Dunn, Hannah Skildum, Kelly Jo [Mullaney] or anyone further down the bench."     Colorado-Nebraska Notes   This was the 64th meeting between Colorado and Nebraska, tying the Buffaloes' series with Missouri as the most played in school history.   Colorado snaps a seven-game losing streak to Nebraska, improving its all-time record against Nebraska to 39-25. The 39 wins are the most against any one team in CU history.   The win snapped an eight-game Colorado losing streak when trailing at the half, dating back to CU's 96-90 overtime win over TCU in the quarterfinals of the 2008 WNIT. Colorado overcame an eight-point halftime deficit, its largest comeback achieved since being down 15 at the half in a 66-55 win over Kansas State on Jan. 31, 2007.   Colorado had 18 turnovers in the first half, the most since committing the same number at Texas on Jan. 13, 2007.   Junior Bianca Smith continued her hot shooting from 3-point range, tying school records for 3-point field goals made in one game and one half for the second time in three games. She finished 7-of-10 from downtown, tying a single game mark which has now been done seven times by four players (Kate Fagan twice, Veronica Johns-Richardson and Annan Wilson). Smith has done it three times, doing so against Missouri on Jan. 24 and Texas on Feb. 16, 2008.   Smith was 5-of-6 from downtown in the first half alone. The five 3-pointers equaled a school record that she shares with Kate Fagan and Shelley Sheetz. The number has been achieved a total of five times, Smith has recorded three of the instances doing so against Texas on Feb. 16, 2008 and at Missouri on Jan. 24.   Smith has five games with five or more 3-pointers this season and has hit 50 percent or better in seven of the last 12 games.   Senior Kara Richards had 14 points, her third straight double-digit game. She tied a career high with 10 free throw attempts, matching marks she set against San Francisco (11/10/04) and at Kansas State (2/19/05)   Sophomore Kelly Jo Mullaney had a personal Big 12 high 10 points, also her most since scoring 10 at Virginia on Nov. 24, 2008.   CU had 10 bench points, all by Mullaney, the most for the Buffaloes in Big 12 play this season.   Sophomore Brittany Spears hit the game winning bucket with five seconds remaining, giving her 25 points on the day. She surpassed the 800 point mark in her career, as she entered the game at 793 and now has 818 through 53 career games (15.4 ppg).   Spears has hit the 20-point mark in three of the last four games averaging 20.8 points during that span.   Spears' 25 points and Smith's 21 marked the third time this season two Buffs scored 20-plus in one game. Richards had 25 and Spears had 24 against Colorado State on Nov. 19 and Spears had 25 while Richards had 20 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.   Colorado's 75 points were the most by a CU team in the Big 12 this season – women or men.  The men had scored 72 in an overtime loss to Kansas State on Jan. 24 while the women's previous high was 61 in its win over Missouri, also on Jan. 24.   Colorado wore gold jerseys for the first time this season. The Buffaloes were 3-1 in 2007-08 wearing gold.