Payne's No. 22 Buffs Come up Short in OT Loss to Oregon State

CORVALLIS, Ore. - In a back-and-forth overtime thriller, the Colorado women's basketball team fell to Oregon State 69-66 Monday afternoon at Gill Coliseum.

Colorado fell to 13-2 with a 2-2 mark in Pac-12 play. The Beavers improved to 8-4 and 1-1 in conference play.

One team made shots and the other one didn't," commented head coach JR Payne. "That's probably a super accurate statement because the boards were pretty even and we did some really good things defensively. But they made shots when they needed to and we did not."

Quay Miller was the leading scorer for CU with 18 points followed by Mya Hollingshed and Frida Formann each with 13. Hollingshed led in the rebounding category with 11 boards, marking her 20th career double-double. 

Colorado stormed back in the fourth quarter after being down five early in the period. Oregon State's Ellie Mack connected on a tightly contested jumper in the lane with seven seconds left in regulation to tie things up and bring the game to overtime. In the overtime period, neither squad could get in a rhythm, but the Beavers hit one more shot than CU with a 3-pointer from Talia von Oelhoffen and escaped with a narrow victory.

"There's definitely no shortage of competitive spirit," said coach Payne after the game. "We competed defensively and just didn't have enough movement offensively."

Von Oelhoffen led the Beavers with 17 points and Mack followed with 16.

How it happened
Jaylyn Sherrod got the scoring going with a pull-up jumper to put the Buffs ahead 2-0. Both sides exchanged baskets in the first quarter and struggled to find a consistent flow on offense as Oregon State held a slight 7-6 lead with 4:26 left in the first quarter.

Colorado then put together an impressive 6-0 run fueled by four points from Miller and a layup by Tayanna Jones and the Buffs took a 12-7 advantage. OSU bounced right back though and put together a 7-1 run of their own to end the period, including a layup from Jelena Mitrovic as time expired, and the Beavers owned a narrow 14-13 lead heading into the second quarter.

In a sloppy second period, the Buffs took a 22-19 lead midway through the quarter. As the half came to a close, the Buffs struggled and went over four minutes without a field goal as Oregon State took a 24-23 lead with just under a minute left. Jones put an end to the CU drought as she sank a layup through contact to give the Buffs a 25-24 advantage. However, the Beavers would be the ones with the lead at the break as Mack drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing and gave OSU a 27-25 halftime lead. 

AJ Marrote hit a quick running layup to start the second half and the Beavers lead was up to four, 29-25. The two squads exchanged baskets and a quick 6-0 run from the Buffs capped off by a two from Jones gave CU its first lead of the half, 35-33. Both teams began to light it up on the offensive end to close out the third quarter and after free throws from Kennedy Brown and Tea Adams, OSU brought a 47-44 lead into the final quarter of play.

Oregon State looked like they were going to pull away in the fourth as a jumper from Brown gave them their largest lead of the afternoon, 49-44. But the Buffs fought back and forced several turnovers and nailed some big-time shots - including two from behind the arc from Formann - and the Buffs took over 59-56 midway through the quarter. 

"We went to an offense where I knew we'd have an advantage with ball screens," said Formann. "I do well in that offensive scheme so I just tried to capitalize on that. I think we just really needed something to relieve some of that pressure since we couldn't really string stops together and make baskets. We just did what needed to be done."

The Beavers would not go away that easy, and back-to-back 3-pointers gave OSU a 62-61 edge with 90 seconds left. Formann once again came up clutch as she drove to the rim and bounced a shot in off the glass, and CU led 63-62. Following a free throw by Formann, the Beavers got the ball back with 12 seconds to play. OSU wasted no time as Mack hit a tightly contested floater for the Beavers to level things up at 64 with seven seconds to play. CU had one more chance and Sherrod nearly hit the game-winner in regulation, but her shot rolled around the rim and out, and the game was sent to overtime.

Peanut Tuitele sank two free throws to start the overtime period and OSU responded with a driving layup by Adams. Neither side could get anything going offensively in the extra period until Oregon State's von Oelhoffen drilled a three with 18 seconds left and gave OSU a 69-66 lead with 18 seconds to play. The Buffs had one more chance to send the game to a second overtime, but Sherrod's shot rimmed out and the Beavers held on. 

"We're not the type of folks that are going to hang our heads or cry about it," explained Payne. "I just told the team when it comes down to a one-possession game, the game is decided in every single possession. It's every single box out, every single execution, every single free throw. There's no one to blame for it. We just have to learn and move on."

Turning Point
Von Oelhoffen's 3-pointer with 18 seconds left in the overtime period was the game-winner and the Buffs couldn't come up with a response.

Up Next
Colorado will stay on the road as they travel to Tempe for a 5 p.m. matchup with Arizona State Friday. The game can be seen on the Pac-12 Networks.

Quotes
JR Payne
On Oregon State's game-winning shot
"They [OSU] had some key rebounds late – I thought they were huge. If you force Talia [von Oelhoffen] to miss a shot and then you give up an o-board and give her another chance, she's not going to miss twice. We actually did a pretty good job on the defensive glass against them because they're very good on the glass, but those last one or two were crucial."

On Tayanna Jones
"We know that Tay is one of our longest and most athletic rebounders, so we knew that she would have to have an impact today being that Oregon State is the No. 1 rebounding team in the league. We knew that her size would be important on the perimeter and I thought she took good shots and her six defensive rebounds were awesome - it's what we needed. She also had three steals and no turnovers. That's a really good line."

Frida Formann
On the offense struggling late
"It was real disappointing. We definitely felt like we shouldn't have been in an overtime and last shot situation. We just need to be tougher and more composed and have better IQ in those moments, but we're going to learn from it."

On the team's expectations
"We lost to the No. 2 team and then we lost here in overtime and we're still super disappointed - that just shows what our expectations are and what level we know we need to be on. I think that we just really need to have short-term memory just like when we won all of those games. Now that we've lost two, this Arizona trip is going to be super important for us."