The Colorado bench reacts to a 3-pointer during the game against College of Charleston at the CU Events Center on Tuesday Dec. 2, 2025. (Tyler Phillips/CU Independent)
Colorado’s women’s basketball team upped its game and secured a win over the College of Charleston Cougars on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
The Buffaloes (6–3) opened the game with the ball but struggled to find early shooting rhythm. After a 3-point jumper by Charleston senior guard Sophia Tougas, the Buffs held their ground with solid defense, pushing the Cougars (6–2) into a five-and-a-half-minute scoring drought while Colorado put up seven straight points.
The Buffs’ defense started slipping near the end of the quarter, but not enough to let the Cougars overtake them on the scoreboard. Colorado closed the first quarter up 15–12.
The second quarter started off strong, as sophomore guard Kennedy Sanders added two points to the Buff’s score in the first 12 seconds.
The rest of the quarter followed in suit as Colorado went on a 17-5 run until the final two minutes, when Charleston stepped it up and posted seven quick points to close the half.
Even though the Cougars outshot the Buffs at the three (40%-33.3%) Colorado was still able to back up their defensive weakness with strong offense and go into the locker room up 32-24.
Guard Zyanna Walker goes for a lay-up during the game against College of Charleston at the CU Events Center on Tuesday Dec. 2, 2025. (Tyler Phillips/CU Independent)
At the beginning of the third quarter, the Buffs allowed the Cougars to score almost an even amount of points as Colorado, but junior guard Desiree Wooten made two 3-pointers in the span of one minute, keeping the Buffs ahead on the score board.
With two and a half minutes left on the clock, Charleston went on an 11-3 run, ending the quarter just six points below CU with a score of 49-43.
However, Colorado stepped up its game in the fourth quarter, allowing Charleston to score only four more points for the remainder of the game.
The Buffs backed up their defense with 17 points, ending the game with a 66-47 win.
Even though the Buffs let the Cougars close the gap during the third quarter, they regrouped in the fourth and maintained control of the game. It was a noticeably different performance from their narrow win over Montana State on Sunday, Nov. 30 (71–70).
“I wouldn’t say the third felt like Sunday,” senior forward Anaelle Dutat said. “I feel like we for sure had a down during that period of time. We were still focused on what we needed to do. That’s why we were able to come up and go on the run after that. So definitely not like Sunday, but it was just a low in that period of time.”
Colorado took their game on Sunday as a learning experience and used their last few practices to work on the gaps in their game.
“Honestly the last two days of practice have been the best practices of the year,” head coach JR Payne said. “Like just energy, cohesiveness, organization, lots of things that we wanted to prioritize and I thought we brought that into the game, and it wasn’t a perfect game. We’ll never play a perfect game, but I think our cohesiveness and energy allowed us to pull ourselves out, which was huge.”
After beating the Wyoming Cowgirls 58-46, Colorado will play at home again on Sunday, Dec. 14 against the Miami (OH) RedHawks (4-3). Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. MT and will be streamed live on ESPN.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Lilly Watson at lillian.watson-1@colorado.edu.
