BOULDER — For all the good the Colorado women’s basketball team has produced this season, the knock on the Buffs has been that they haven’t really beaten anybody good.
On Thursday night, coach Linda Lappe’s squad finally got that signature win, knocking off Southern Cal 69-67 at the Coors Events Center.
“I think it was the only thing that we were missing,” Lappe said. “Now we’ve proved that we can play with the best of them, as long as we keep getting better.”
Chucky Jeffery buried a pair of free throws with 1.2 seconds left to snap a tie and send the Buffs (15-4, 4-4 Pac-12) to their second straight win.
“Most nerve-wracking thing ever,” said Jeffery, who had 19 points. “I just had to calm down. When they blew the whistle (for the foul), everyone went crazy and I was just like, ‘Whew, I’ve got to breathe.’ It was all about confidence, stepping up to the line and knowing you’re going to knock down those shots.”
USC (10-8, 5-3) never got off another shot,
and the Buffs celebrated the win.
While it might seem odd to place such significance on a win over a 10-8 team, the Trojans aren’t an average 10-8 team. They came into the season ranked No. 23 in The Associated Press top 25 and they’ve taken on some of the nation’s elite, going 1-5 against teams currently ranked. USC came into the week with an RPI ranking of 22. CU was No. 89 in the RPI.
Throw in that USC beat the Buffs twice last year — including in the quarterfinals of the WNIT — and this one tasted sweet.
“We fought the whole game, and it was just a whole team win and it was solid,” Jeffery said. “It was huge for us.”
CU has seemingly put its midseason funk in the past. The Buffs lost three in a row, all in rough fashion, before beating Arizona on Sunday and Thursday’s win.
It wasn’t just the win that made Lappe happy, it was how the Buffs got it. They outrebounded the Trojans, withstood their hot-shooting first half and minimized turnovers.
