Sadler sparks CU against K-state
MANHATTAN, KAN. >> As the motor of the Colorado women’s basketball team, Jaylyn Sherrod has often been the catalyst to big wins for the Buffaloes.
On Sunday, however, the motor was sputtering and she figured out a new way to help the Buffs: By coming out of the game.
During CU’S 63-50 victory against Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Bramlage Coliseum, it was Tameiya Sadler playing point guard in crunch time and not Sherrod.
“Honest to God, I told (head coach JR Payne), ‘J, it ain’t my day today; put Tam in the game,’” Sherrod said. “We went with the hot hand and I told J, you just gotta go with what works. Tam was cooking today and she deserves every bit of the love she gets from this game because she really pulled through for us today.”
To those associated with the CU program, this might forever be known as “The Tameiya Sadler Game.”
A backup senior guard who has had ups and downs during her career, Sadler was sensational off the bench, scoring 10 points, grabbing two rebounds, dishing two assists and coming up with a steal.
CU led 42-39 in the third quarter when Sadler got going. She scored eight consecutive points to help push the Buffs’ lead to 10 going into the fourth quarter. She added another jumper with 2:14 to play in the game to bump the lead back to seven.
“It’s funny, you never know, we have so many people on this team that can go for 30 tonight or 10 the next day,” Sadler said. “It was just nice just to know that your teammates are going to instill this type of confidence in you. When they were like, ‘Get Tam the ball,’ I was like, ‘They believe in me, so I’m going to go out there and do whatever I can to help us win this game tonight.’”
Sherrod didn’t have a bad game, finishing with nine points, three assists and a steal, but it was certainly the Sadler spark that fueled CU down the stretch. Sherrod checked out with 6:32 to play and didn’t return until 1:07 on the clock, as Sadler kept her momentum going.
It’s unlike Sherrod to take herself out of a game, especially at a crucial time, but said she didn’t think twice.
“I want to win,” she said. “I didn’t want this to be my last game and I knew that we needed to have Tam in the game. And if that meant taking me out, man, I trust Tam. I trust that all of my teammates can get the job done. I was talking to Tam during the game and I was like, ‘Tam this is your moment, this is your time; keep going, keep shining. Keep doing you.’
“I realized it wasn’t my day. Whatever we gotta do to win this game was my mindset.”
Miller comes through
Quay Miller was a steady force all day for the Buffs, finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds. She also had three steals and a pair of assists.
“Quay was incredible,” Payne said. “I was looking at the stats, I thought her rebounding was absolutely essential. She was the only player I think on our team with a couple O-boards at halftime and she stopped possessions on the glass and gave us a few extra that we really needed. The ball seemed to find her late in the shot clock several times and I thought she made really smart basketball plays.
“She’s a pretty veteran kid, very comfortable and confident in herself, and we are all confident in her as well.”
Miller had two doubledoubles during the Buffs’ Sweet 16 run last year. With Sunday’s effort, she became just the second player in CU history with three doubledoubles in NCAA Tournament play, joining Isabelle Fijalkowski, who had all three in 1995.
Notable
CU will make its eighth all-time trip to the Sweet 16. It’s the first time since 2002 and 2003 that the Buffs are going two years in a row. … The Buffs outrebounded the Wildcats 28-17 in the second half. … CU finished with 17 steals. It’s the second-best total ever for a CU team in the NCAA Tournament (20 vs. UNLV on March 18, 1989). … K-state had just 15 points in the second half, the second-lowest scoring half by a CU opponent in an NCAA Tournament game. Only Missouri State (11 in the first half on March 17,1995) had fewer points.