No. 8 Colorado vs No. 12 Utah | Pac-12 | 12.30.23

BOULDER – Colorado vs Utah


The eighth-ranked Colorado women's basketball took down No. 12 Utah 76-65 in a highly anticipated Pac-12 matchup to start Pac-12 play at the CU Events Center on Saturday.

Written by Colin Wagner | CU Athletic Communications Associate

A crowd of 7,383 fans witnessed the victory to set the highest regular-season attendance for a Colorado women's basketball game since 2002.

"Special shout-out to Buff Nation for coming out like they did," head coach JR Payne commented after the win. "That means everything because most of us have been here a long time and worked really hard to build a program that everyone can be really proud of, on and off the court. To have that many people here supporting us is awesome."

The Buffaloes (11-1, 1-0 Pac-12) were faced with an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter but managed to outscore the Utes (10-3, 0-1 Pac-12) 23-4 in the final 8:18 of the game to pick up the win.

Jaylyn Sherrod played a key role throughout the game, scoring a career-high 34 points, 13 of which came in the fourth quarter. She added four rebounds and four assists while racking up six steals on the defensive end.

"I can't speak for everybody but I just went in with the same mentality that I had the whole game which was to be aggressive," Sherrod said. "Nothing really changed. Basketball is a game of runs and Utah is a great team. We talked about it all week, like they're going to go on the run. They're just built like that offensively, but it's about how you withstand it and how you come back from it."

Sara-Rose Smith had her best game as a Buff, recording her first career double-double with 11 points and 12 boards. Her 12 rebounds were a CU-high while she also tied season-highs in points and steals.

From start to finish, Aaronette Vonleh battled it out with Utah's Alissa Pili in the paint. Although Pili totaled 27 points, Vonleh and the Colorado defense held her to 10 points in the second half. On the offensive end, Vonleh put up 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field.

In the third quarter, the Colorado defense gave up 21 points, but in the fourth, the Buffs bounced back outscoring the Utes 25-11, which translated into Colorado's highest-scoring quarter of the game.

Colorado's switch to a full-court press proved to be a difference-maker in the final quarter.

"Coach T [Toriano Towns] runs our defense," stated Payne. "Kindyll and Jaylyn were together and then Sarah-Rose was playing that safety over the top. We have a little bit more depth right now. So being able to utilize that and force them to have to speed up a little bit and make them work even to catch the ball when you have to do that for a long time it's really tiring. And I thought our team did a really good job of that."

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Buffs jumped out to a quick 39-35 lead to start the second half, forcing a Utah timeout. After the break, Sherrod hit a baseline jumper followed by a transition 3 from Formann to give Colorado a seven-point lead at 44-37, its largest to that point.

The Utes responded with 10 unanswered points to go up 47-44 before Smith cashed in on a corner 3 to tie it at 47-47. Utah managed to convert its last three field goals of the third quarter to go into the fourth with a slim 54-51 lead.

Utah extended its lead to eight, 59-51, to force a Colorado timeout with 8:37 remaining in regulation. The Buffs started to storm back by feeding the ball to Vonleh in the paint. Colorado tied the game at 61 all after Sherrod made a circus AND-1 layup approaching the six-minute mark.

Shortly after, Sherrod cruised down the middle of the court for another layup, putting the Buffs up 65-61 and forcing a Utah timeout. The layup made it a 12-0 scoring run for Colorado.

The Buffs finished the game on a 23-4 run with Sherrod totaling 13 points in run on the way to the 11-point victory.

Colorado claimed a 16-15 lead after the first quarter and went into the locker tied at 33-33.

Sherrod and Pili went back and forth all afternoon with Pili leading the tug-o-war at the half with 17 points.

KEY MOMENT

Pili was forced to leave the game at the 7:41 mark of the fourth quarter with Utah leading 61-57. The Buff took advantage and went on a quick 4-0 run over the next 1:40 capped off by a mid-air adjustment by Sherrod on an AND-1 layup to tie the game at 61-61 as the momentum shifted to Colorado.

NEXT

The Buffs will play their first conference road game at Arizona on Friday, January 5 at 6 p.m. MT.