Colorado Comeback Falls Short At Colorado State

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Whitney Law scored a career-high 22 points, but it was not enough as Colorado State held off a furious second half comeback by Colorado and defeated the Buffaloes, 86-83 Wednesday night at Moby Arena in Fort Collins.

Colorado (2-3) had a two point lead at halftime (35-33), but it slipped away under a steady offensive performance from the Rams (3-1) who had four players score in double figures led by Vanessa Espinoza who had a game-high 23 points.

CSU led by as much as 14 in the second half and held an 11-point advantage with just 2:13 remaining. Law, who came off the bench and was playing in her first game since spraining her ankle against Northern Iowa, scored eight of her 22 points in the final two minutes and cashed in on a 3-point play with just under a minute left that cut the Rams' lead to 83-81. 

On the next possession, CSU's Marilyn Moulton scored on a put back off a Sara Hunter miss, to put the Rams back up four with 0:23 left. Law hit a pair of free throws on the other end to get the lead back down to two. Anna Nedovic fouled Moulton who hit one of two foul shots with 13 second left for the final margin as CU was unable to get off a potential game-tying shot on its last possession.

Colorado also had four players in double figures, Law (22), Jackie McFarland (19), Lauren Lubin (15) and Nedovic (11).  Lubin's points were a career high and Nedovic turned in her best performance on the scoreboard of the year.

CSU jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the first 3:18 and hitting 4-of-5 from behind the arc to start the game.  The Rams had made just 25.7 percent of their 3-point attempts in their first three games.  

Colorado chipped away at that lead behind eight points from Law and six boards from Lubin who had 10 rebounds on the night, her second career double-double and second in as many games.

The Buffaloes persistence paid off as they took the lead 21-20 midway thought the period on a Nedovic 3-pointer. The rest of the first stanza was back and forth as Colorado State tied the score three times just to have CU re-take the lead. 

The Buffs will be back in action on Saturday, Dec. 3, as they take on Creighton in Omaha Neb. at 2 p.m. MST.