Boulder, Colo. – Cydni Lewis scored a season-high 18 points as the San José State women's basketball team went toe-to-toe with the Colorado Buffaloes all night before falling 76-64 on Thursday night in the CU Events Center.
"We played an exceptional first half," head coach Jamie Craighead said. "And overall it was a tremendous 40 minute effort by the entire team. If I can coach the team we had tonight, with this effort, every game for the rest of the season, I'll be very happy."
In addition to Lewis, Raziya Potter scored 12 points, had three assists and grabbed three rebounds. Danae Marquez added eight points, led the team with eight rebounds and dished out six assists.
In the first quarter SJSU (1-6) outshot Colorado from the field (37.5-to-36.8 percent) and from beyond the three-point line (33.3-to-11.1 percent). However, in what would become the Buffs theme for the night, they pounded the ball inside, outscoring the Spartans 12-to-6 in the paint and took a three-point lead into the second quarter. For the game CU outscored the San José State 46-to-18 in the paint.
Trailing 19-16 after one first period, the Spartans saw Colorado (7-1) reel off nine-straight points to take a 28-16 lead. The Buffaloes' Mya Hollingshed, a 6-4 forward, had six of her game-high 24 points in the run. It looked like the Spartans might suffer another second quarter shooting slump but the team fought through the adversity.
It took San José State more than four minutes to hit a bucket in the second, but when they did they got the three-pointers they needed to get right back into the game. Lewis hit a pair of threes, she had four in the game, and Andrea Kohlhaas added with another. The run got the game back to a manageable three points, 28-25 with 3:15 to go before intermission.
For the rest of the quarter the Spartans answered every CU score. After a Buffs bucket, Lewis hit a pair of free throws. A Colorado three was countered with Lewis' third trey of the period. Following a Colorado bucket with 35 second to go, Fieme'a Hafoka sank a jumper with three seconds to play to send the teams to the half with the Spartans trailing 35-32.
The difference in the game came in the third quarter. Colorado started the period scoring the first seven points to push its advantage to 10, 42-32. SJSU came right back with a 7-0 run of its own. Megan Anderson, who finished with eight points, had five in the run including a three-pointer. She made two threes in the game and moved into 19th place on the program's career list passing Danada Smith. Anderson now has 58 threes for her career. She is one away from tying Myzhanique Ladd for 18th place.
CU then went on an 11-0 run and led by 14, 53-39, with 3:28 to play in the period. The teams traded buckets for the remainder of the quarter with one of the Spartans hoops being a three from Analyss Benally. She hit three in the game, has 75 for her career, and moved ahead of Paris Baird for 14th place in the program's career list.
The game went to the fourth quarter with CU up 58-45 and they pushed the lead to 18 points, 70-52, with 3:59 to go in the game. Potter hit two treys in the games' in the final minutes, but it wasn't enough and the Buffaloes took the win 76-64.
Colorado got 60 of its 76 points from three players. In addition to Hollingshed's 24, Peanut Tuitele, a 6-1 forward, scored 17 and Kennedy Leonard had 19.
The Spartans continue on the road with a game at Nebraska on Saturday. Tip off is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. (CT) in Lincoln.