Quick break
Why the Buffs misplaced: Regardless of taking part in good protection all evening, the Buffs might by no means maintain any rhythm offensively. They completed with a season low in factors and their lowest area objective share (.286) in over a yr.
Three stars:
1. UCLA’s Kiki Rice: The Bruins’ level guard had a game-high 20 factors, together with 9 rebounds, 4 assists, three blocks and two steals.
2. UCLA’s Charisma Osborne: Completed with 14 factors, together with a large 3-pointer with 88 seconds to play.
3. CU’s Jaylyn Sherrod: Led the Buffs with 10 factors and 7 rebounds. She additionally had 4 assists and 4 steals.
Up subsequent: CU returns residence to host Washington on Thursday at 7 p.m. (Pac-12 Community).
LOS ANGELES – A four-game string towards ranked opponents gave the Colorado ladies’s basketball crew a possibility to make an announcement and a transfer within the Pac-12 standings.
The Buffaloes did, nevertheless it wasn’t the assertion or the transfer that they had hoped to make.
No. 13-ranked CU rallied twice on Monday evening, however sputtered late in falling to No. 8 UCLA in a defensive battle 53-45 at Pauley Pavilion.
CU (20-7, 10-6 Pac-12) has misplaced 4 consecutive video games. Though all 4 have been towards high 20 groups, the shedding streak has taken CU from the highest of the standings to a tie for fifth place with two video games to play.
“Our solely thought all the time is to determine issues out,” CU head coach JR Payne mentioned. “Put your head down and work and determine how we will be higher. That’s actually the one answer.
“We’ve got nice gamers, now we have nice coaches, now we have good all-around. We’ve simply acquired to have the ability to actually put our heads down and determine what’s not working and make some changes and get it working once more.”
On Monday, it was the offense that wasn’t working.
In an 87-81 loss to No. 7 USC on Friday, the Buffs have been sensational on offense and lackluster on protection.
“Tonight was the precise reverse,” Payne mentioned.
It was the Buffs’ lowest scoring sport and lowest area objective share (.286) since Feb. 19, 2023, in a 61-42 loss at Arizona.
The Buffs opened Monday by lacking their first 9 photographs. They closed the sport by lacking their final 10. In between, they went 16-of-37 (.432), however these opening and shutting stretches have been important.
“Positively have to determine the best way to be extra constant presently of the yr even towards actually nice groups,” Payne mentioned. “We’ve acquired to have the ability to get stops and scores persistently on the identical evening.”
The unhealthy begin put the Buffs in a 17-7 gap on the finish of the primary quarter. They rallied to attain the primary eight factors of the second quarter – together with back-to-back 3-pointers by Frida Formann – to tug inside 17-15, however UCLA responded with a 10-0 surge to take its largest lead of the evening, 27-15.
Down 29-19 on the half, the Buffs stormed out of the locker room with a 13-2 run to take its first and solely lead, 32-31. Quay Miller had all 9 of her factors in that run.
The Bruins, nonetheless, responded with a 13-3 run to bump the lead again to 9 early within the fourth quarter.
CU pulled inside 46-43 with 5:22 to go, however neither crew might hit a shot after that. UCLA, nonetheless, snapped a 6-minute, 14-second scoring drought (lacking 11 straight photographs) with a 3-pointer by Charisma Osborne with 1:28 to go that made it 49-43. The Bruins then scored the final 4 factors to seal the win.
“Positively we’re a resilient group,” Payne mentioned of the Buffs’ rallies. “It doesn’t matter what, regardless of when, regardless of the place, we’re going to compete and combat and proceed to play exhausting and issues like that. However once more, it’s irritating. … It’s very irritating to make a run and really feel actually good however then they answered with a run and knocked down some large photographs and had a bunch of O-boards within the second half.”
The duty now could be to regroup rapidly, because the Buffs host Washington on Thursday evening.
Notable
Within the newest AP ballot launched Monday, the Buffs dropped two spots to No. 13. It’s their lowest rating since coming in at No. 20 within the preseason ballot. … Six Pac-12 groups are ranked this week. Along with CU and UCLA, Stanford is No. 4, USC is No. 7, Oregon State is No. 11 and Utah is No. 18. … Arizona swept the Pac-12 weekly honors, with Esmery Martinez named participant of the week and Jada Williams named the freshman of the week.
No. 8 UCLA 53, No. 13 Colorado 45
COLORADO (20-7, 10-6 Pac-12)
Sherrod 3-9 4-5 10, Formann 3-10 0-0 9, Miller 4-13 0-0 9, Wetta 1-7 0-0 3, Vonleh 2-6 3-3 7, Sadler 2-5 1-2 5, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Nolan 0-2 0-0 0, Whittaker 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 16-56 8-10 45.
UCLA (22-5, 11-5 Pac-12)
Rice 6-16 7-9 20, Osborne 6-14 0-0 14, Dugalic 1-4 0-0 3, Brown 2-2 0-0 4, Betts 1-4 0-0 2, Jones 3-5 1-2 8, Sontag 0-1 0-0 0, Iwuala 0-0 0-0 0, Jaquez 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 20-48 8-11 53.
Colorado 7 12 16 10 – 45
UCLA 17 12 11 13 – 53
3-point objectives – Colorado 5-17 (Formann 3-7, Miller 1-5, Wetta 1-3, Sherrod 0-1, Nolan 0-1), UCLA 5-16 (Osborne 2-6, Dugalic 1-4, Rice 1-3, Jones 1-2, Sontag 0-1). Rebounds – Colorado 28 (Sherrod 7), UCLA 38 (Rice, Betts 9). Assists – Colorado 9 (Wetta 5), UCLA 8 (Rice 4). Steals – Colorado 15 (Sherrod, Wetta 4), UCLA 7 (Rice, Dugalic, Betts 2). Turnovers – Colorado 15, UCLA 24. Whole fouls – Colorado 15, UCLA 9. Fouled out – Sherrod. Attendance – 5,319.
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