Jones leads No. 3 Stanford by No. 21 Colorado in 2OT
This was Haley Jones' take on playing a career-high 50 minutes at elevation: “It was fun,” the Stanford senior guard said.
Easy to see why.
Jones scored 13 of her 23 points over the two overtime periods and the thirdranked Cardinal held off No. 21 Colorado 73-62 on Thursday night.
Jones also had 11 rebounds and seven assists for the Cardinal (27-3, 15-2 Pac-12), who remain on top of the conference standings with one game left on their regular season schedule. Stanford was picked to win the Pac-12 in the preseason poll.
Lauren Betts, who grew up in Colorado, sent the game into double overtime by hitting one of two free throws with 3.8 seconds remaining. She finished with 14 points.
Jones took control in overtime No. 2, helping the Cardinal outscore Colorado by a 13-2 margin. It was the first double OT game for Stanford since 2017.
“Feels great. A `W' is a `W' in my opinion, even though we have lots of things to work on,” Jones said. “We learned a lot, but it also proves that we're very gritty and a tough team.”
Jaylyn Sherrod led Colorado (21-7, 12-5) with 19 points, including the gametying basket with just under 30 seconds remaining in regulation. She briefly left the game in the fourth after appearing to turn her ankle. The Buffaloes, who trailed by as many as eight in the fourth, were missing their third-leading scorer, Frida Formann, due to an illness.
“What anyone who watched this game saw on full display wasn't a bunch of superstars. It was a team that's tough, and gritty, and fights and scraps for every single possession. That's who we are,” said Colorado coach JR Payne, whose team shot 28.8% from the floor. “It really hurts to lose a game like this to Stanford, but incredibly proud of how we played.”
The usually sure-shooting Cardinal missed their opening 15 shots and trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half. They entered on short rest after beating UCLA on Monday.
The games between the Buffaloes and Cardinal are typically back-and-forth. Entering Thursday, six of the last 10 were decided by single digits, including two that went into overtime. This was another thriller.
“We kind of made it exciting for TV,” Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said. “That's a tournament team. Colorado has had a great season . ... We can both get better because of a game like this.”