Colorado Drops First Conference Game, 55-45 to USC

After battling back from a ten point first half deficit, Colorado women's basketball failed to score in the final four minutes, dropping their first Pac-12 contest 55-45 to Southern California.

"We stopped rebounding the basketball," head coach Linda Lappe told AM-760 after the loss. "They started going into (Cassie) Harberts (an all-Pac-12 forward) and we had key stops - but we couldn't get the rebound."

Colorado struggled mightily on the offensive end of the floor, only shooting 28.3% from the field. CU got to the charity stripe 16 times, but only managed to make nine free throws, good for only 56.3%.

Twin sisters Brittany and Ashley Wilson led the Buffs with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Jen Reese added seven points. Outside of the Wilsons and Reese, no Buff scored more than four points.

"We'll learn from this and be fine," said Lappe. "We have a great group of seniors that provides us with great leadership. This was one of those games where we just didn't play well in numerous spurts, especially the last eight to 10 minutes.

Colorado will get the chance to bounce back on Sunday against UCLA at 8:30 p.m., MST.

Notes

Ashley Wilson scored in double-digits in back-to-back games for the first time in her career Friday night... Colorado falls to 1-2 in Pac-12 openers... USC takes a 5-4 series lead. Linda Lappe has coached five of CU's nine games all-time against USC. She falls to 2-3 against the Women of Troy.

Player of the Game

Cassie Harberts - USC's all-conference post presence came up huge in the final ten minutes, finishing with 19 points on the evening.