University of Washington
Colorado
Dawgs March On, Down Colorado At Pac-12 Tourney
March 04, 2016 | Women's Basketball
Box Score | Highlights | Pac-12 Net Recap | Plum Interview
SEATTLE – Washington moved on at the Pac-12 Tournament on Thursday night at KeyArena, downing 12th-seeded Colorado, 67-51. The fifth-seeded Huskies (21-7, 11-7) will now look to win a second game in the conference tournament for the first time in program history.
The Dawgs never trailed, beating Colorado (7-23, 2-16) for the second time in five days. Kelsey Plum led the way with 27 points, while Talia Walton added 16 and Alexus Atchley had 10. Chantel Osahor dominated the glass, pulling down 18 rebounds.
For the game, the Huskies shot 47.4 percent (27-57) from the floor and 35.4 percent from 3-point range (6-17). Plum was an efficient 10-18 from the floor, while Walton also shot it well, going 7-15.
Plum moved into seventh on the Pac-12 all-time scoring list, passing one of the Dawgs assistant coaches, Adia Barnes, along with Tina Thompson of USC. She is now just 24 points behind Jazmine Davis for sixth on the list and what would also be a new Washington program record.
The Dawgs started fast, building an early 12-3 lead when Osahor completed a 3-point play just before the first media timeout. The Dawgs led by as many as 10 as Plum scored eight in the quarter to take an 18-12 margin to the second.
The Dawgs survived a quick run to start the quarter as Colorado cut the lead to three. Slowly the Huskies rebuilt their margin and then closed the half on a 10-0 run to lead 40-23 at the break. Plum and Walton combined for 15 of the 22 points for the Dawgs in the quarter, including a 3-pointer from Plum and a 3-point play from Walton in the final minute to give Washington a comfortable margin at the break.
Plum continued to take it to Colorado in the third quarter, scoring nine more as the Huskies led 53-35 at the end of three quarters.
The Buffaloes never made it close in the final quarter as Washington led by as many as 22. Atchley knocked down a pair of 3-pointers as the Dawgs cruised to their 21st win of the season.
The Huskies forced 14 turnovers and held Colorado to just 30.8 percent shooting as the defense was good all night. Each team pulled down 37 rebounds with Osahor grabbing over half of the Dawgs total. She is now up to 319 on the season, which is fifth in Washington history for a single season.
The Dawgs advance to face fourth-seeded Stanford in the second round of the Pac-12 Tournament on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. The Cardinal had a bye in the first round and come into the matchup ranked 11th in the country. The game will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks as the fourth of four games on the day.
