Buffaloes make history, defeat top-ranked Stanford in OT Classic
The last time the University of Colorado women’s basketball team went up against the Stanford Cardinal still lives in the heads of all the players and coaches who were on the court last year in February 2020.
“The last two times we played them we got our hearts broken twice,” said head coach JR Payne, referencing Colorado’s past two meetings with Stanford, the second of which the Buffaloes lost by three points after a Stanford buzzer-beater.
Eleven months later, the feelings and emotions from that game remain, serving as inspiration for a different result. The Buffs earned the outcome, defeating the Cardinals in overtime by a score of 77-72 on Sunday, Jan. 17 at Coors Event Center. According to the Associated Press, this was the program’s first ever win over a top-ranked team, marking the end to Stanford’s 16-game win streak in the matchup.
Mya Hollingshed led the team with a career high 32 points while Frida Formann added five of her 15 in overtime to move Colorado to 6-6 overall and 4-5 in Pac-12 play. After trailing the entirety of the first half, the Buffaloes were able to gain their first lead in the third quarter, and the two teams went back and forth through the fourth. Finding themselves down by two with under a minute left, the hosts needed a big play to make sure they didn’t come up short, and Jaylyn Sherrod was who they turned to, forcing a steal on defense and driving for the game-tying layup with 23 seconds left, making the score 67-67 as the final buzzer sounded.
“We all said it was time,” said Sherrod, who finished with nine points and three assists. “To actually get the victory tonight, it was time. We all just depended on each other.”
It wasn’t over yet, but the Colorado defense stifled the Cardinal in the final five-minute period, doubling them up 10-5, as Formann’s three-pointer with under two minutes left put them on top for good. This was Stanford’s first defeat of the year, giving up the most points, rebounds and the highest shooting percentage to any opponent so far this season.
“I’m just unbelievably proud of this club,” said Payne during her postgame press conference. “I told them there’s a thousand reasons I’m proud of them. We didn’t start out the way we wanted to but our team rallied and really dug in and stayed really positive with each other and with themselves and just continued to compete on every single possession.”
For Colorado, they will get a five-day rest before they hit the court at Arizona State next Friday afternoon. Tip-off will be at 3 p.m. MST, as the Buffaloes look to get over .500 for the first time this season.
