Buffaloes Battle Back, Beat Bruins 61-59

Down by nine points with just over six minutes to play against UCLA, No. 12 Colorado women's basketball seriously faced the prospect of being 0-2 in Pac-12 play with the daunting Bay Area schools coming into Coors Events Center next week.

Then Linda Lappe's club flipped the switch.

"We weren't getting rebounds, and UCLA was first to all the 50-50 balls," Lappe told AM-760. "I just noticed a different demeanor from our team. We knew as a coaching staff that if that wasn't going to change, we weren't going to win the game. We were able to flip the switch, which we do a lot in practice, so I knew that they could do it."

Colorado went on an 18-7 run over the final 6:01, defeating the Bruins 61-59 at Pauley Pavilion.

After the Buffs went into the locker room with a 30-22 lead, Arielle Roberson took a feed from Lexy Kresl and scored from the right side to extend the CU lead to ten. From there, UCLA made a 10-0 run to tie the game.

A Lauren Huggins three gave Colorado the lead back at 39-37 with 11:42 to play, but the Bruins responded with an 11-0 run to take a nine point lead.

Jen Reese hit several clutch shots down the stretch, none bigger than a long two-pointer with 1:55 to play, giving CU a 55-54 lead. Jamee Swan scored what may have been the two biggest points of her young career with 33 seconds remaining. Swan received the ball near the baseline on the right side. She faked a jumper, got her defender in the air, and drove to the hoop for a layup, providing the Buffs with a 57-54 lead.

Reese scored 15 points off the bench. Jasmine Sborov took what the defense gave her, tallying 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Swan went 4-of-5 from the floor, scoring nine points in her third straight start.

Next up for the Buffs are No. 23 California on Friday night and No. 4 Stanford on Sunday afternoon.

Notes

Colorado's bench outscored UCLA's bench 20-4... This is Colorado's first victory over UCLA in Pac-12 play, as the Buffs lost an overtime heartbreaker at Coors in 2012 and got throttled 62-46 at Pauley Pavilion last year...

Player of the Game

Jen Reese - Reese nailed jumpers when nothing was going CU's way on the offensive end of the floor.