It didn’t seem like it was that long ago that women’s basketball in Boulder was on the rise and destined as a team to be reckoned with in the Pac-12. However, when the Pac-12 schedule came around the herd crumbled. The Buffs lost another close game at home Friday evening.
Head coach JR Payne speaking on behalf of the performances of herself and her team after the tough loss:
"“I’m disappointed with the outcome. I thought we played a much better game than we did last time we played on Sunday, but we got beat on the glass again. That’s always tough and then I thought when the offense was doing well, the defense was struggling, when the defense was great the offense was struggling. We weren’t able to really put together much flow tonight. I thought we got good looks, we got to the free throw line a lot. That was fantastic, we shot really well at the free throw line. We miss a bunch of bunnies at the basket. Which is tough. Too many boards for them I thought we just didn’t what we had to do to win the game. But certainly a better outing than Sunday.”“I’m disappointed with the outcome. I thought we played a much better game than we did last time we played on Sunday, but we got beat on the glass again. That’s always tough and then I thought when the offense was doing well, the defense was struggling, when the defense was great the offense was struggling. We weren’t able to really put together much flow tonight. I thought we got good looks, we got to the free throw line a lot. That was fantastic, we shot really well at the free throw line. We miss a bunch of bunnies at the basket. Which is tough. Too many boards for them I thought we just didn’t what we had to do to win the game. But certainly a better outing than Sunday.”"
It was very hard to get things going to get any kind of a lead this game. The Buffs only shot 22 percent in the first half. It’s a tough stat to have to expect to win again. The arms have just gone cold in Boulder. You could say it is the toughness of the Pac-12 but Colorado has lost that energy and will to win, in a way they weren’t playing before when the wins were plentiful.
Mya Hollingshed led the way again with 10 points and 5 rebounds. Guard Tameiya Sadler racked up 10 points as well with a few assists. Jaylyn Sherrod was the only other starter to come close to double digits with 7 points and a couple assists. Quay Miller did what Quay Miller does, coming off the bench with another great performance. Scoring 14 points and 4 rebounds, with a couple of steals for her Buffs.
The lack of offensive performance and unbalanced attack on both the offensive side and defensive side of the ball is something Coach Payne knows they have to fix. She remarked she knows they can’t keep letting these games slip, they have got to fix it. That they do. She is a head coach that likes to stick with day to day basketball, but at a certain point you have to want your team to get to bigger stages in basketball as well.
Coach JR Payne when asked about how frustrating these losses are:
"“You have no idea how frustrating it is. We literally don’t sleep. It’s so frustrating. I didn’t coach a perfect game, the guys didn’t play a perfect game. None of us expected any of us to be perfect. But we have got to do a better job at executing the game plan, we have got to do a better job of being on balance and finishing at the basket. We’ve got to do a better job of communicating what coverage we’re in. I mean it’s unbelievably frustrating.”“You have no idea how frustrating it is. We literally don’t sleep. It’s so frustrating. I didn’t coach a perfect game, the guys didn’t play a perfect game. None of us expected any of us to be perfect. But we have got to do a better job at executing the game plan, we have got to do a better job of being on balance and finishing at the basket. We’ve got to do a better job of communicating what coverage we’re in. I mean it’s unbelievably frustrating.”"
Quay Miller believes the team is getting too complacent and too comfortable. As each game comes the importance of winning is going to be higher and higher. Colorado has no more room left for errors and complacency or their shot of any kind of tournament run will wither and wither with each loss. Time is ticking now. This team is way to good and way too talented and has too great of a head coach to be in this position. The Buffs are back at in again on Sunday afternoon playing the Washington Huskies for another home battle at the Coors Events Center. We hope to see JR Payne and company find that warrior spirit they had in them earlier this season.