How It Happened
Colorado School of Mines fell on a buzzer beater to Arkansas-Fort Smith, 76-75, on Friday, November 11 at the Colorado Christian University Event Center in Lakewood.
Mines (1-3) went up 75-73 after
Cassidy Budge hit a floater down the lane with around three seconds to go. After a brief inbound and a timeout, UAFS had the ball at mid-court with 1.3 seconds to go. It was then that the Zhanesha Dickerson of the Lady Lions hit a 30-feet plus three-pointer with a Mines defender in her face at the buzzer for the victory.
The last second shot spoiled a spectacular second half by Budge who scored 16 of her game-high 20 points in the half. She was particularly impactful down the stretch as she put Mines up 72-70 on her third three-ball with 1:25 to go, and had six points in total in the final minute-plus.
The majority of the opening quarter was a defensive battle with neither team able to gain separation over the other. That was until with 3:36 to go
Cassidy Budge put the Orediggers up 11-9 and
Laura Tyree followed her exactly two minutes later with a trey from deep to stake a five-point lead. Tyree made sure it remained a two possession game (18-14) at the quarter buzzer with a made jump shot.
Mines got out to a six-point advantage (27-21) midway through the second quarter on back-to-back baskets from
Anna Kollmorgen, but the Lady Lions fought back and took the lead at 31-30 with 2:52 left in the half. The Orediggers tied the game back up at 33 less than a minute later, but the UAFS defense was able to give them a 35-33 lead at the intermission.
The Orediggers came out on fire to start the second half as they opened on a 17-6 run to put them ahead 50-41 at the media timeout. Seven of those 17 points came from
Emily Bailey who finally found her offensive groove.
Unfortunately, Arkansas-Fort Smith fought back and re-took the lead, 52-51, on a Zhanesha Dickerson three-pointer with 11 seconds left in the quarter.
The Lady Lions stretched the lead out to five (59-54) to start the fourth quarter, but the Orediggers came flying back and tied the game at 59-59 with 7:57 to go.
Notables
- While Mines made more field goals (27-26), more threes (9-8), out-rebounded (44-40) and had has less turnovers (14-20), it was the Lady Lions' 27-13 advantage off the bench that was difference. In fact, UAFS had a 13-0 bench point's advantage in the fourth quarter.
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Cassidy Budge had a game-high 20 points on 8-17 shooting, and was 3-6 from downtown.
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Anna Kollmorgen gave the Orediggers nine points and nine rebounds.
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Laura Tyree and
Emily Bailey also reached double-digit scoring with 15 and 11 points, respectively.
Up Next
Mines will look to bounce back tomorrow evening at 5 p.m. as they take on St. Edward's at the CCU Event Center.
