Game thread- WOMEN'S BBALL ends non-conference play on the road at Marquette (Wednesday, 12/21/22, 11:00 AM MT; )

[AztecBuff]

Men's basketball (9-3 overall, 0-1 in the Pac 12) finish off non-conference play early tomorrow evening as they host the Marquette University Golden Eagles (9-2 overall, 2-1 in Big East play) tomorrow morning (Mountain time).

The game is scheduled to be shown on the Pac-12's Mountain channel.

Go Buffs!

Preview - https://cubuffs.com/news/2022/12/20...visit-marquette-in-non-conference-finale.aspx

"
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Colorado women's basketball hit the road again this week to wrap up the non-conference schedule. The Buffaloes will take on Marquette on Wednesday, before breaking for the holidays.

Colorado (9-3, 0-1 Pac-12) is coming off a 35-point win against Alcorn State on Sunday. CU has put together eight wins over 20 points or more this season, with five of those being at least 30-point margins. Even with the number of large leads this season, head coach JR Payne still sees plenty of room for improvement.

"We've played great quarters and halves, but I don't know that we've played a great game," Payne explained. "There are always areas to be improving and areas that we need to grow and be better in order to compete against teams like Marquette or Oregon or anybody in the Pac-12. Our consistency is where we need to continue to grow."

Wednesday will be the Buffs' sixth away game and seventh game away from Boulder (neutral vs Louisiana) in the non-conference season. The amount of travel in the non-conference season has been the most since playing six games away from the CU Events Center 2001-02 season (two neutral). Despite the constant coming and going the Buffs haven't shown any signs of fatigue.

"We just had our two best practices of the year in the last two days," Payne noted. "I expect us to be 100% locked in on what the job at hand is."

Marquette (9-2, 2-1 Big East) offers up a Pac-12 quality test for CU as the team stares down the upcoming conference season. The Golden Eagles have marquee wins this season over then-No. 3 Texas and Gonzaga and are a perfect 6-0 on their home floor.

"These guys are good," Payne added. "They return a lot of great players. They have a lot of players that have vastly improved from last year to this year. They are definitely a Pac-12-type team. They've got great size, athleticism, skill and they have depth. They have everything you need to be a top-25 team."

The Buffs and Golden Eagles met last year in Boulder with the Buffs earning a 69-53 win. Jaylyn Sherrod totaled 17 points and had six steals in the win.

Cory Lopez and Carol Callan will have pregame coverage starting at 10:30 a.m. MT on the Colorado Radio Network, the Varsity App and CUBuffs.com/Listen. The game will be streamed online through FloHoops.com.
"
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A little more on the Golden Eagles:

Roster - https://gomarquette.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster
Stats -

2022-23 Women's Basketball Cumulative Statistics

The official 2022-23 Women's Basketball cumulative statistics for the Marquette University Golden Eagles

gomarquette.com

Schedule - https://gomarquette.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule
Their preview article - https://gomarquette.com/news/2022/1...ses-non-conference-play-vs-colorado-wednesday

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Media links:

Live video - Looks like game video coverage is only available for those who have a subscription to FloSports. For anyone who does, looks like a stream will be available at https://www.flohoops.com/teams/6969962-marquette-womens-basketball .

Live Stats - https://gomarquette.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary

Live audio - Looks like a free audio stream will be available at https://cubuffs.com/watch/?Live=2737&type=Live .

Games notes - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2022/12/20/13_Marquette.pdf

 

[buffgal]

I am about a mile from Marquette now. Go Buffs!

I think it will be a tough game for the Buffs. I don't know what kind of crowd Marquette draws. but I can't imagine they will get a big crowd for a noon game on a week day.

 

[AztecBuff]

Around 3 hours until the opening tip.

 

[AztecBuff]

Going out on a limb and saying it was a pretty good 1st half for the Buffs!
(As I type this, it's now 41-15 with ~8 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.)

 

[AztecBuff]

Way to go Buffs!

 

[buffgal]

The entire game was fun. I'm so happy I got to attend this game as I seem to bring bad luck at road games. I had thought this game would be tougher than it was. Marquette had no answer for CU's defense. I have no idea if Marquette had sick or injured players, but it was never close. In the first half, their 3's were not even close to going in. They were air balls or balls that hit the backboard but were not close to the basket.

Sherrod, Miller and Vronesh played great.Formann was her steady self.

I do wish we could hit free throws. No, they didn't matter today but they do matter over the season.

I was behind the bench and Coach T was all over the players about silly fouls. He told them in the 3rd quarter, they only way Creighton get backs in this is at the free throw line and you are putting them at the line.

Had a nice visit with former assistant coach LaTonya Watson. We go back to her first time with CU. Didn't realize she was back in the athletic department on the academic side. She's in Milwaukee to spend Christmas with her 96 year old grandma. Been a long time since I've talked to her.

Marquette had bussed in kids from lots of Catholic schools. They had brought in food for them so they had lunch and everything right there. Very well behaved kids. A young boy by us really wanted to catch a t-shirt, but he never did. Well, they were giving a pair of Air Jordan's and he won those. That kid was so thrilled. The excitement in his face was fun to see.

Those kids are loud. My watch kept sending me noise alerts.

 

[AztecBuff]

Media after today's win:

Article -




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2022/12/21/womens-basketball-colorado-clips-golden-eagles.aspx

"
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Colorado left its mark at the Al McGuire Center on Wednesday. The Buffaloes led from start to finish and held Marquette to its season-low in scoring in the 71-48 win to close out non-conference play.

Colorado (10-3, 0-1 Pac-12) was led by Quay Miller and her 17 points and seven rebounds. The Buffs' starting five accounted for 65 of the team's 71 points. Aaronette Vonleh contributed 16 points and six boards. Jaylyn Sherrod returned to the lineup with 15 points and eight assists, while Frida Formann scored 13 points.

The Buffs opened the game shooting 72.7% in the first quarter and saw little dropoff the rest of the day. Colorado hit 59.6% from the field (31-52).

"I was very happy with how we played today," head coach JR Payne explained. "I think that's the best basketball we've played in a while. I thought we executed the game plan offensively and defensively. We were able to do some different things with different lineups. I feel bad that we shrunk the bench as much as we did, but that group that was playing was playing well. I felt like we needed to stay with it.

"Excited to go into the break with a great win. I think Marquette is a really good basketball team. They're going to win a lot of games this year and it's good for us to know that we can beat a good team like this on the road."
...

Turning Point
CU's 12-0 run to open the afternoon really was the deciding factor. Marquette got within 10 twice in the first after the run but each time was answered with a CU basket. The Buffs' lead never dipped below double digits after reaching 10-0.

Up Next
The team breaks for the holidays before the start of Pac-12 play. Colorado will resume practice next Wednesday and then head off to Washington State (Dec. 29) and Washington (Jan. 1).

Notes
Marquette's four points in the first quarter were the lowest-scoring quarter of the season for MU…MU's 13 first-half points were also the fewest of the season…Wednesday was the team's ninth win of 20+ this season…CU has held five of its last seven opponents to under 50 points…CU's first 47 points were from the starting 5…Sadler accounted for all six CU bench points…Wednesday was the third game this season Colorado has led from start to finish…Miller passed 500 career points as a Buff (515)…

Quotes
Head coach JR Payne
On the starting five's production
"I think it started two days ago after our last game when we came back to practice. Three different upperclassmen spoke up in the circle. Jaylyn, Quay and Frida just talked about raised levels of effort, focus and intensity. It starts with those upperclassmen setting the tone and everyone else buying into that because it was pretty evident from the jump that we were going to play like that."

On moving into Pac-12 play
"I feel great because we've not seen what we're capable of doing. We've seen that we're capable of executing both sides of the floor against a really good team on their home court. We were able to handle our business and do our job."
"
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Box score - https://cubuffs.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats/2022-23/marquette/boxscore/16123

 

[buffgal]

The young man behind Jada Wynn is the one who won the Air Jordans.

 

[Hidden Fees]

I thot Marquette at 9-2 was gonna be a really tough road game for the Buffs. What am I missing here?

 

[Buffnik]

I thot Marquette at 9-2 was gonna be a really tough road game for the Buffs. What am I missing here?

Nothing. It seemed that JR was even surprised at the level they took their game to yesterday.

 

[MarkW]

Nothing. It seemed that JR was even surprised at the level they took their game to yesterday.

After watching the loss to Utah on TV I was convinced that the Buffs had no shot to defeat Marquette. In that game the Buffs really struggled when Miller andd Vonleh got in foul troble in the second quarter and had to sit, the offense to a stand still as the guards weren't able to manage the game or score from the perimeter. My reaction was that it was going to be a long conference season. Hopefully the team figured things out in this win.

CU's current NET ranking is #35! Not too bad, and the sixth best Pac 12 team in the rankings.

Up next for the Buffs is a trip to the Washington schools in a week.

 

[buffgal]

I talked with Sheetz before the game and she said it would be a tough W. I don't think to win the way they did was expected.

Former assistant Coach LaTonya Watson said the same thing.

Either the Buffs took it to another level (they certainly played better than against Utah) or Marquette didn't play up to normal level of play. Marquette didn't hit a basket until there were under 4 minutes left in the first quarter. Their 3 point shots were not even close. Lots of air balls and hitting the backboard. Not close to the net. They were supposed to be a good 3 point shooting team but didn't hurt us from there.

LaTonya said at the half as long as CU didn't have one of their scoring droughts, we had the W. There was no scoring drought and Marquette kicked their game up to their regular level. We had that big lead and they couldn't catch us.

 

[buffgal]

The staff and Colorado players are still at O'Hare. Their flight to Denver from Milwaukee last night got canceled. To get a flight for that many people, they had to book out of O'Hare and get down there on crappy roads. Hope they get home tonight.