ALBANY, N.Y. – A season chock-full of history, memory, and success for the Colorado women's basketball team ended in a disappointing form of déjà vu on Saturday, as the No. 5 Buffaloes (24-10) fell to the No. 1 Iowa Hawkeyes (32-4) in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament by a score of 89-68.
The brutal defeat sends the black and gold home with a season that may have left a bit to be desired, but back-to-back runs to the Sweet 16 from head coach JR Payne's group that began as a rag-tag unit with little to no recent success is certainly a journey to be pleased with.
"It was an incredible season that was not defined by this one game," Payne noted after the loss. "I'm really proud of the season that we had and excited to see what some of these seniors are going to do and excited for where our program is headed."
Iowa controlled CU from start to finish, led by the transcendent talent of Caitlin Clark. The spectacle of a point guard had MVP Arena packed to the brim and held the Buffs' defense on a string with 29 points, 15 assists, and six rebounds. She scored or assisted on 27 of Iowa's 35 field goals to advance in dominant fashion.
The Hawkeyes shot an impressive 53.8% from the field on the afternoon, picking apart the interior by shooting 72.7% on two-pointers in the first half. They also managed to overcome a slow start from long distance to bury the nail in Colorado's coffin with six second half 3s.
Every Hawkeye starter finished with double-digit points, proving to be far too much for CU to handle. They will face LSU in the Elite 8 on Monday, a rematch of last season's national championship game.
"That's the part that I would say is the hard piece is that [Clark] got everybody else involved," point guard Jaylyn Sherrod mentioned. "It just speaks to the type of player she is. She's unselfish, and she got everybody else going."
On the other end, the Buffaloes failed to get their offense off the ground. Iowa's zone scheme forced jumper after jumper that simply would not fall, leading to a 37.5% shooting day that started just 6-for-25 and 0-for-7 from three. An instantly reeling Colorado gutted out what they could to respond to the Hawkeyes' avalanche of scoring, but could only manage a few flurries.
After a solid response to Clark and Co.'s initial run to cut the deficit to 17-14, CU fell ice cold and allowed a 10-0 Hawkeye run between the end of the first and the start of the second quarters. Besides a few moments later when Frida Formann became the all-time leader for 3-pointers made in program history, the Buffs never were able to trim the deficit back to single digits.
Leading the Buffs in scoring was Aaronette Vonleh with 13, but it could have been much more. The junior's second foul early in the second quarter kept her on the bench for all but one minute of the period, where Iowa truly tightened its grip on the contest.
Saturday's loss also ends the illustrious Colorado careers of Jaylyn Sherrod and Quay Miller, as well as Tameiya Sadler, Charlotte Whittaker, Maddie Nolan, and Sophie Gerber.
Sherrod logged nine points, two steals and led the squad with 10 assists in her final game in black and gold. The Birmingham, Alabama native who had zero offers at the Power Six level out of high school besides CU finishes her legendary time with the program as the all-time leader in starts (133) with back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances and an eternal place in the hearts of the Boulder faithful.
"Realizing that [when] I came here, they took a chance on me, and I took a chance on them really means a lot," an emotional Sherrod reflected on after the loss. "Nobody can take away these past five years for me."
Miller added five points and five rebounds, while Sadler had six points and two steals. Nolan left her mark with 12 points including a trifecta of triples late in the game, Whittaker scored two and rebounded three, and Gerber entered off the bench in the final minute of the season.
What comes next as CU moves into a new era of basketball in the Big 12 Conference is yet to be seen, but to break formality I want to appreciate every moment I had covering every last second of the 2023-2024 Colorado Buffaloes.
This team sold out the CU Events Center for just the third time in its history, shattered attendance and winning records left and right, and while the final result remained the same, it felt like another step in the right direction for a school on the rise in an entire sport that is doing the same. JR Payne has established a culture not just of excellence, but of comradery, and that is what in the coming years could take Colorado to the next level.
"A lot of people talk about family in their programs, and sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't, but these guys are family," said Payne. "The basketball is just the fun part, but the things that we have lasts forever."
Cover photo by IowaWBB/X
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