Colorado Buffs fend off gritty Cincinnati for home victory

Fast break

Why the Buffs won: Their defense was solid throughout the day, holding Cincinnati to 38.9% shooting and forcing 18 turnovers, while the offense was efficient, hitting 44.1% from the floor with just 10 turnovers.

Three stars:

1. CU’s Desiree Wooten: Scored a game-high 19 points, including 10-for-10 at the free throw line. She also had four rebounds.

2. CU’s Anaelle Dutat: Another strong game for the forward, who had 12 points and seven rebounds, along with two assists.

3. Cincinnati’s Caliyah DeVillasee: One of the Big 12’s top freshmen, she had 17 points and five assists.

Up next: CU travels to Baylor for a Big 12 road game Thursday (6 p.m. MT, ESPN+).

Colorado’s Anaelle Dutat drives against Cincinnati’s Reagan Jackson in Boulder, Colorado, on Jan.3, 2026. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)

A glance at the win-loss record before Saturday might have suggested Cincinnati would be an easier opponent for the Colorado women’s basketball team.

The Buffs and head coach JR Payne knew better, though.

Desiree Wooten scored 19 points to lead the Buffs to a 79-68 victory against Cincinnati at the CU Events Center in a game that wasn’t easy.

“Man, that was a battle,” said Payne, whose team improved to 11-4 (2-1 Big 12). “I knew that if we brought our work hats and kind of knuckled up, it was going to be a really tough matchup because these are two very tough, physical, athletic teams. I’m actually really proud of both teams. I thought it was a great matchup, great game.”

Although Cincinnati has struggled to win games, it has battled injuries throughout the season. When healthy, the Bearcats (5-10, 0-3) are one of the most talented teams in the Big 12. They had several of their stars healthy Saturday and gave the Buffs a battle.

“I did make it clear (to the CU players) that this team is one of the more talented teams in the league,” Payne said. “They’ve just been injured. I don’t think they’ve had a single practice with every player on their team yet this year. … We knew that it was a better team than their record, for sure.”

That made the overall performance by the Buffs a satisfying one for Payne. Led by Wooten, six players had at least eight points, seven had multiple rebounds, and the Buffs weathered a strong start and late-game push by Cincinnati.

“We had, again, a very balanced stat sheet, which we love to have,” Payne said. “It’s great for us when it looks like that. … Just proud of how we played. We really competed, and we talked about that before the game. We need to compete on every possession, and I think with absolute certainty we did that, which was great.”

Cincinnati was the more aggressive team at the start, with standout freshman Caliyah DeVillasee — who had missed the previous four games — draining a 3-pointer and hitting a layup to help it to an 11-6 lead.

CU battled back to tie the game at 17-17 by the end of the first quarter, though, and then used a 7-0 run to close the second quarter to take a 45-36 lead into intermission.

“It was super big for us, to get the momentum going into that second half,” said Zyanna Walker, who had 12 points, six rebounds and three steals for the Buffs. “I feel like that helped us, like, start to pull away. It felt good out there. I felt like we were flying around defensively.”

That carried over to the third quarter, as Wooten scored six points in a 14-2 run that built the lead to 59-42.

Cincinnati didn’t buckle, though, cutting CU’s lead to 65-56 by the end of the third. An 8-0 run by the Bearcats pulled them within 73-65 with 3:53 to play before CU closed it out.

“We’ve just been talking about closing out games and playing all four quarters, closing out the fourth quarter especially,” said Wooten, who went 10-for-10 from the free throw line. “Not letting teams even crawl back at that. We were just trying to keep our foot on the pedal. They were coming back, obviously, but we had those timeouts to regroup and stuff like that. So I mean, I think we had it under control the whole time.”

In closing it out, the Buffs improved to 2-0 in conference home games and 9-1 overall at home this season.

“You never want to lose at home,” Wooten said. “It’s your house. You don’t ever want to let nobody come in and take over.”

Notable

Wooten had just the 12th game in CU history with at least 10 made free throws and no misses. … Maeve McErlane had four assists and now has 11 assists to just one turnover in her past two games. … CU guard Claire O’Connor (foot) missed her seventh straight game.

Colorado 79, Cincinnati 68

CINCINNATI (5-10, 0-3 Big 12)

Perry 5-11 0-0 13, Jackson 0-5 5-7 5, DeVillasee 6-14 2-2 17, Torrence 1-7 8-10 10, Thomas 2-2 0-0 4, Crawford 3-7 2-2 9, Alexander 1-3 1-2 3, Byrd 1-3 0-0 2, Ndiba 2-2 1-1 5. Totals 21-54 19-24 68.

COLORADO (11-4, 2-1 Big 12)

Walker 5-13 4-6 14, Greer 1-8 0-2 2, McErlane 0-3 3-6 3, Masogayo 4-6 2-2 10, Dutat 5-7 1-2 12, Gooden 0-1 2-2 2, Wooten 4-10 8-8 17, Nworie 1-3 0-0 2, Crook 4-4 1-2 9, Betson 2-4 2-2 8, Zadel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-59 23-32 79.

Cincinnati                               17        19        20        12        –           68

Colorado                                 17        28        20        14        –           79

3-point goals – Cincinnati 7-19 (Perry 3-5, DeVillasee 3-5, Crawford 1-4, Jackson 0-4, Byrd 0-1), Colorado 4-11 (Betson 2-3, Wooten 1-3, Dutat 1-1, Greer 0-2, McErlane 0-2). Rebounds – Cincinnati 34 (Torrence 11, Colorado 36 (Dutat 7). Assists – Cincinnati 10 (DeVillasee 5), Colorado 15 (McErlane 4). Steals – Cincinnati 5 (Perry, Torrence 2), Colorado 10 (Walker 3). Turnovers – Cincinnati 18, Colorado 10. Total fouls – Cincinnati 24, Colorado 19. Fouled out – Perry. Attendance – 2,406.

from The Denver Post https://ift.tt/ENMZPHb