Sherrod takes over, leads Buffs to comeback victory

BOULDER-The No. 25 ranked Colorado Buffaloes women’s basketball team improved to 19-5 on the season after defeating the Washington State Cougars 71-68 in a come-from-behind thriller on Friday night at the CU Events Center.

“I’m so proud of our team,” head coach JR Payne said. “I freakin’ love my team.”

Jaylyn Sherrod led the charge in the second half, scoring 21 of her career-high tying 27 points after the break. 15 of those came in the fourth quarter, when she was perfect, going 5/5 from the field and 4/4 from the free throw line.

“Coming out of halftime I felt like we started to get a little flat and I took that personally…” Sherrod said. “I know my role for this team is just bringing in a lot of energy and tenacity.”

Sherrod’s energy, as it is every time she steps out onto the court, was contagious and her teammates were easily able to feed off her energy.

“[Jaylyn] did a great job of leading by example [and] having high energy,” Frida Formann said. “I think we all did a good job of following.”

The Buffs got out to a slow start but managed to get out of the first quarter tied at 16 despite the lackluster performance on offense. Washington State junior guard Charlisse Leger-Walker got off to a blazing-hot start, scoring nine points and making her first three shots from deep in the opening frame.

Formann, the junior guard, provided a much-needed spark for Colorado in the second quarter. Roughly halfway through the second, Formann nailed three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to ignite the crowd and give the Buffs the lead.

Formann hit four threes on seven attempts en route to 15 points on the night.

The rest of the first half was more back-and-forth between the two sides, who went into the half tied at 33. In the first half, no team had a lead larger than six points.

The third quarter was nothing short of abysmal for Colorado, however. The Buffs scored just 10 points and turned the ball over five times. On the other side, Leger-Walker and junior center Jessica Clarke scored 14 of the Cougars’ 19 points.

The Buffs trailed by as many as 11 late in the third quarter. Sherrod was the only source of offense for Colorado in the third and was the reason why the deficit was just nine points at the end of the quarter and not more.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Buffs came out in a 2-3 zone defense after playing man-to-man all game long. This change put the Cougar offense in a funk, causing them to score just two points in the first five minutes of the quarter, and sparked the comeback.

The zone defense was the reason why Colorado forced five Cougar turnovers in the fourth, each one creating a transition opportunity for Sherrod and the rest of the Buffs. Each steal slowly got the crowd back into the game more and more.

“I just think it was disruptive of [their offensive] flow,” Payne said. “We were able to force a couple turnovers and change the overall flow of their offense.”

The attendance at The Keg was just 2,055 on Friday night, but down the stretch in the fourth quarter, the roars of the crowd were just as loud as they would have been if the game was sold out. Every Buffs fan was on their feet, yelling, screaming, clapping, and doing anything they could to get in the heads of Washington State.

Down 57-55, Washington State’s Astera Tuhina got the ball off an offensive rebound and knocked down a corner three to take back the lead and silence the crowd.

Offensive rebounds were very critical in this ballgame. The Buffs finished with 11 offensive boards, and the Cougars with 14, resulting in 17 and 16 second-chance points for each team, respectively.

Another important aspect of the fourth quarter was head coach JR Payne’s decision to go small in an effort to be able to get out in transition more off of turnovers forced from the zone defense. Aaronette Vonleh and Charlotte Whittaker played a combined zero minutes in the fourth after playing 30 in the first three quarters. Kindyll Wetta, the sophomore point guard and defensive specialist, played in their place in the fourth.

With 1:31 left in the game, the Buffs were down two when Frida Formann made a short jump shot to tie. When she made the shot, Washington State’s Bella Murekate, their starting center, was called for a loose ball foul on Quay Miller, giving her two free throws. The foul was also Murekate’s fifth, ending her night early. Miller made both, giving Colorado a four-point possession in a massive momentum swing.

The Cougars’ Johanna Teder responded with a clutch three-pointer to regain the lead shortly after, 68-67. That was the last of Teder’s three three-pointers, as she finished with 13 points.

The next and final four points of the game were all scored by Jaylyn Sherrod at the free throw line, capping off her heroic performance in the second half.

The Buffs shot 11/11 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter alone, showing how calm and composed the team was throughout their comeback effort. 

Everybody stepped up and hit [their free throws],” Payne said. “I’m really proud.”

With 1.5 seconds left, Washington State had one final chance to force overtime. However, Frida Formann squashed any chance there was, stealing the inbounds pass and dribbling out the rest of the clock. 

The emotion let out by the team after the final buzzer sounded showed how much this comeback effort meant to them, as Sherrod let out a scream of joy at center court. With their backs against the wall, the Buffs rallied and showed why they are one of the nation’s top 25 teams.

“When things get crazy we dig in and stay together… this is such a fun team to coach,” Payne said.

This victory put the Buffs just one game behind first place in the ultra-competitive Pac-12 conference. The Buffaloes’ next game tips off against the Washington Huskies at noon on Sunday at the CU Events Center.