In her four seasons with the Colorado women’s basketball team, Peanut Tuitele has established herself as one of the toughest players the program has seen in a while.
Last week, in talking about the physical pain she’s dealt with in her career, Tuitele said, “I’m going to play through it because I put (the team) on my back. As a senior, I want to finish strong, and I want to set an example for them to be strong.”
Tuitele put her toughness on display once again Wednesday night in the Buffaloes’ 86-83 double-overtime win against No. 25 Oregon.
Some life went out of the Buffs (19-7, 8-7 Pac-12) when Tuitele took a hard hit early in the third quarter and fell to the floor. For a few minutes, trainers tended to her before she got up and slowly left the court and went to the locker room.
Oregon followed with a 5-0 run and took a lead for the first time since early in the game.
Although it appeared Tuitele might not return, less than three minutes of game time later, she was at the scorer’s table, ready to check in.
Tuitele’s return re-energized the Buffs, who went on an 8-0 run. She got the assist on the first bucket of that surge and then hit a pair of free throws in the final minute of the third.
For the night, Tuitele finished with 10 points, six rebounds, four blocks and four assists. She did most of that (eight points, four rebounds, three blocks, two assists) after her injury.
“I think Peanut did a great job down the stretch,” junior guard Jaylyn Sherrod said. “I think she gave a lot of key plays that won’t show up in the box score, but Peanut really was a huge factor in getting the victory. I know she took a charge, she kind of stepped up and Peanut, she was fighting through fatigue. … She really toughed it out.”
Thatap been typical of Tuitele’s career, which is winding down heading into Saturday’s senior day matchup against Oregon State.
“I even told her on the bench, ‘Peanut this is what we’ve been working for,’” Sherrod said. “‘This is what you did for four years and this is what you’ve been building on. So letap go finish the game.’ And she did.”
Passing the test
With a 14-point fourth quarter lead and an 11-point lead with 90 seconds to play, CU head coach JR Payne wasn’t thrilled with her team needing to go to double overtime to finish off the Ducks.
It was, however, a significant moment for the Buffs to overcome the adversity and get the win.
“I always say these games provide you an opportunity to really see who are we?” Payne said. “I know we have a bunch of really great young women on our team. I know we play hard. I know we’re tough, we’re fearless. But who are we when your back is really against the wall and itap a must-win and things aren’t going well? We haven’t been in that situation in a little while. Are we going to splinter? Are we going to separate?
“What I saw was all 15 players, all coaches, everyone poured into each other and brought each other together, which is everything you want to see at this point in the season and going into probably more tough games in the coming weeks.”
Confidence
Senior Sila Finau has never been a major scorer for the Buffs, but when she drained a 3-pointer late in the first quarter against Oregon, she got in a groove and finished with a career-high 15 points.
“Obviously, it feels really good,” she said. “You have to be confident in your shot. So once I saw that first shot, that first 3, the second 3 go in, I knew that I was good from there, so I just kept shooting.”
Finau and her teammates have displayed much more confidence offensively in recent games.
The Buffs made 44.9% of their shots against the Ducks. It was the sixth time in the last eight games they’ve hit at least 44% after never reaching even 38% in the first seven games of Pac-12 play.
“I think everyone on our team is really confident right now in their ability to contribute,” Payne said. “They just know when their number’s called, they’re confident and ready.”
