Boulder – Colorado point guard Whitney Houston opened the 20th Coors Classic by singing the national anthem, and it was only fitting she closed the two-day event Saturday night by keeping the Buffs in harmony with her stage, er, floor presence.
A quick, 5-foot-5 freshman from Memphis, Tenn., Houston scored 11 points and handed out six assists in CU’s 78-65 victory over Charlotte before 1,130 at the Coors Events Center.
Houston sparked a 15-0 run to open the second half by penetrating the lane and feeding Aija Putnina and Jasmina Ilic with bounce passes that resulted in easy layups.
“We came out after halftime with a lot of energy and really attacked on the offensive end,” CU coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said. “Whitney is really tough to guard in the open court.”
Doing anything to help her team, Houston converted two foul shots with 58 seconds remaining to halt a comeback spurt by Charlotte (3-3).
“It felt good,” Houston said, “especially not getting a lot of turnovers.”
Colorado improved to 4-2 with a pair of victories in the Coors Classic, the first 4-2 start for the program in three years. The Buffs defeated Nevada 80-60 on Friday night.
Junior forward Jackie McFarland led CU with 24 points and added 10 rebounds. Putnina, a 6-3 freshman from Latvia, also contributed a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Perhaps still adjusting to the absence of 6-4 Kara Richards, CU was hurt early by 6-5 center Danielle Burgin, who hit 5-of-6 shots for Charlotte in the first half. But CU played better help defense after the break.
Richards was diagnosed Thursday night with a fracture of her left foot and is out four to six weeks. A similar fracture on the same foot forced her to sit out last season.
Putnina, who played high school basketball at Regis, has filled in nicely. After playing sparingly in the first four games, she recorded 12 points and 13 rebounds against Nevada.
“That’s what we saw in preseason practices from Aija,” said McConnell- Miller.
In Saturday’s first game, Hanna Zavecz scored 23 points and Justyna Podziemska recorded a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds in leading Wyoming (5-1) to an 80-71 victory over Nevada (3-2).
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
