Recap: @UNCBearsWBB Offensive Struggles as Bears Fall to Colorado State

Sunday, December 10

Greeley, Colo

2pm

University of Northern Colorado

6-3

Colorado State

6-3

Colorado State

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Rob Trubia

12/10/2017 8:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Northern Colorado's offensive struggles led to a 55-44 loss to CSU Sunday afternoon

By: By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado women's basketball was unable to overcome a 2-point second quarter and a poor offensive fourth quarter as they fell to Colorado State 55-44 inside Bank of Colorado Arena Sunday afternoon. The loss is the first of the season for UNC at home and moves the team's record to 6-3 on the season. CSU improved its record to 6-3 with the win.

(12/10/2017) WBB vs CSU

CSU started the game in a 2-3 zone on the defensive end and the Bears worked the ball inside to Courtney Smith who went 4-of-5 from the field in the quarter scoring eight points. While Smith was hitting her shots, the rest of the team shot 3-for-11 during the quarter. UNC and CSU traded baskets throughout the first stanza until Colorado State used an 8-0 run to take the lead near the end of the quarter. The Rams held a 17-16 advantage when the quarter ended.

The Bears offense went ice cold in the second quarter, going 1-for-13 during it, leading to just two points for the team. UNC's first and only basket came at 4:34 mark by Kianna Williams. CSU ended up cooling off offensively too shot just 38.5% from the field but outscored UNC 10-2 in the second to go into the half up 27-18.

Following the poor shooting in the second, Northern Colorado responded well during the third quarter breaking the Rams zone and making them switch to a man-to-man defense. It was a 6-0 from UNC that caused the CSU to change up its defense. Good ball movement led to easy baskets from Savannah Scott and a pair by Kianna Williams during the run that pulled UNC within three at 33-30. All three baskets were assisted on.

Northern Colorado and Colorado State proceeded to trade baskets the rest of the quarter, except for small 4-0 run from the Bears to close out the quarter and trail 36-34 going to the fourth.

After an Annie Brady jumper increased the CSU lead to four to begin the fourth, freshman Tiarna Clarke drained a 3-pointer to cut the Bears deficit down to just one with 8:31 remaining in the game. The Rams went on a 7-1 after that though and kept UNC at arms-length away for the remainder of the game to go on to its 55-44 win over Northern Colorado.

What They Said
Head Coach Kamie Ethridge

Overall thoughts on the game
"We started the game well and then CSU adjusted a little bit and we tried to do a few things before to combat it. We were unable to make shots in the second quarter when we had plenty of good looks that just didn't go down. We played unbelievably well in the third to get ourselves back into the game and made them get out of their zone which is what we wanted. When that happened we didn't run our man offense well and made bad decisions leading to a poor quarter. I am proud of our defense holding them to 55 points, it's just disappointing we did not run our offense the way I know we can and score more points to pick up the win."

Did you want to see a more aggressive approach from the team when the offense was struggling?
"It felt like we did that more other times this season than we did tonight. It's the same old story for us against a little longer team bothering us. I thought our turnovers in the first half against their zone were actually over aggression and in the third quarter, we were better about it. We also had wrong people in the wrong places to run our offense, it was just a bad fourth quarter all around offensively for us."

Junior Center Courtney Smith

About what caused the offensive lulls?
"We were hesitant on the offensive end and even passing up good looks for some reason. Whenever we had offensive lulls it was because weren't taking those open shots. In the third quarter we shot them out of the zone and CSU went to the man defense and we struggled with it having been focused on our zone offense all first half."

Sophomore Guard Krystal Leger-Walker

On how to attack the zone early and CSU's defense
"We all knew it was a fine line between chucking up the first open shot we had and a good shot. They were sagging off of us and wanting us to shoot, but we had to make the right decision of if it was a good shot or not."

What the halftime message was after a 2-point second quarter.
"The message was just to come out with good energy and keep having confidence. We did that in the third quarter and made it a game, but then the fourth quarter happened."

Game Changer
Colorado State shut down Northern Colorado's offense by keeping them to one shot per possession as they struggled to shoot from the field. The Rams ended up outrebounding UNC 37-25, including 32 defensive rebounds with six offensive rebounds for UNC. The Bears did not record a single offensive board in the first half.

Stat to Know
While UNC struggled to make baskets and get into its offense at times on Sunday when they did it was because of good ball movement, cuts and screens. The Bears finished the game with 17 assists on 18 made baskets. Krystal Leger-Walker led the team with a career-high 10 assists.

Game Notes
- Only one Bear finished the game in double figures scoring, which was Courtney Smith. Smith, scored 14 points on 7-of-15 shooting while also grabbing seven rebounds and blocking a shot in 32 minutes played.
- Krystal Leger-Walkers strong passing ability was on display on Sunday as she dished out a career-high 10 assists. To go along with the assists Leger-Walker scored nine points grabbed a pair of rebounds and a steal.
- CSU shot 50.0 percent from the field compared to UNC's 32.7 percent. The Bears went just 3-for-21 in 3-point shooting.

What's Ahead?
Northern Colorado hits the road to close out non-conference play taking part in the Roo Holiday Classic hosted by UMKC on December 19 and 20. The Bears will take on the host Roos on the 19^th and then face Liberty in Kansas City on the 20^th. Both games start at 12 pm MT.

UNC is not home again until the New Year for the second week of Big Sky play when they host Montana and Montana State on December 4 and 6, respectively. Tickets to those games and all UNC women's basketball games are on sale now at UNCBears.com/tickets, by visiting the UNC Box Office or by calling 970-351-4849.