It wasn’t pretty, but Colorado’s moving on.
Colorado’s time in Kansas City on Wednesday ended up being a lot more stressful than anticipated. Despite 33 turnovers, the Buffaloes managed to survive the Houston Cougars, winning by a score of 66-58 to move on to the second round of the Big 12 Championship.
Houston, the far and away worst team in the Big 12 with a conference record of 1-17, stuck around late thanks to some help from the Buffaloes. Colorado was borderline insistent on giving the ball to the Cougars, setting their new season high in turnovers at 33, handing Houston a whopping 29 points off giveaways. CU’s fourth quarter was particularly ugly, turning the ball over 14 times alone in the period and allowing the Cougars to claw back into the game.
How do you still win a game when you have 30+ turnovers, you ask? Easy answer. You completely dominate your opponents off the boards, and that’s just what Colorado did.
CU managed to snag 48 rebounds, as opposed to Houston’s 22, winning the rebounding battle by a decisive margin of +26. If a ball was up for grabs, you can bet the Buffs used their significant size advantage over the Coogs to pull it in.
With Frida Formann and Sara-Rose Smith out due to injury, Jade Masagayo stepped up in a big way to carry Colorado across the finish line. Colorado’s forward proved why she’s one of the most efficient shooters in the nation, making seven of her nine attempts from the floor and cashing in for 14 points and six rebounds.
Lior Garzon proved to be CU’s offensive motor, acting as the deep threat against the Coogs. Garzon drilled three triples and an additional three shots from the floor, along with hitting all six of her attempts from the line, to finish with a game-high 21 points.
After narrowly hanging on to survive Houston, Colorado moves on to round two of the Big 12 Tournament to face the Arizona Wildcats in a do-or-die bubble bash. With both teams on the bubble for an at-large bid to March Madness, the winner of this showdown will boost their resume and the loser will have their hopes of dancing crushed.
Fans can tune into Colorado’s game against Arizona on Thursday at 12:30 pm MT on ESPN+.