WACO, Texas – Typically, the Colorado women’s basketball team isn’t one to back down after falling into a hole.
On Saturday, the Buffaloes once again proved their mettle with some big rallies, but they couldn’t put together a third.
Fueled by a run late in the third quarter, Baylor beat the Buffs 76-62 Saturday at Foster Pavilion.
The Buffs (10-4, 1-2 Big 12) trailed by as many as 19 points late in the game as they finished an 0-2 week at Texas. They also lost to No. 11 TCU on Wednesday.
“Proud of the way our team fought,” CU head coach JR Payne said. “We lost double figures twice. I brought it back to three points. I brought it down to four points. This shows that this team has a lot of fight. But they were better than us in the part of the match that mattered the most.
Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had a double-double (16 points, 10 rebounds) to lead Baylor, while former Buffs star Aaronette Vonleh had 15 points and three steals against her former team.
CU was led by Jade Masogayo’s 13 points and six rebounds and an impressive performance off the bench from true freshman Grace Oliver (seven points, nine rebounds).
The Buffs led throughout the first quarter, but fell behind 35-26 late in the second. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Kindyll Wetta and Johanna Teder cut Baylor’s lead to 35-32 at intermission, but CU was outscored 12-4 in the first 3:08 of the third quarter.
Over the next 3:40, CU went on an 8-0 run to fall within 47-44. But that changed quickly.
Baylor’s Jada Walker made a 3-pointer while the Buffs were whistled for a foul off the play. Bella Fontleroy made both free throws to convert a five-point play for the Bears. A minute and two CU turnovers later, Baylor’s lead was back to 12.
“I think the biggest change in the game was the five-point game; when we got it down to three points, and then it’s just a dagger,” Payne said. “But that’s no excuse. I mean, it’s a five-point game. We went from three to eight, and the match is not out of reach at this point.
“We have to be able to take something negative like that and reset, refocus, make sure we’re on the same page and keep moving forward. We can’t let something like that derail us.”
However, CU never fully recovered from that stretch and trailed by at least 10 points over the final 12 minutes.
After a humiliating 23-point home loss to Oklahoma State on Wednesday, Baylor got back on track. Now, the Buffs will look to do the same as they return home to face Central Florida on Wednesday.
“This year, everything is just new for us – new trips, new teams, new opponents, new faces, new styles of play – and we’re just going to have to accept it, learn from it and move on to something else,” Payne said. said. “I think we have the team that can compete with any team in our conference, but it’s a very good conference, and so having a short memory, as to what we did well, what is -what we didn’t do well, we have to learn how to fix it, and then we have to move on and prepare for the next one because everything comes so quickly.
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