Colorado senior Marcus Hall gave women's basketball coach Kathy McConnell-Miller an idea last week.

Due to problems with their plane last Saturday, the women's basketball team was delayed in its departure to Lincoln for the Nebraska game. So the team returned to Boulder and McConnell-Miller's Buffs watched the men's team play its final home game of the season. In that game, Hall scored a career-high 31 points in his final home game.

McConnell-Miller thought to herself it would be nice if one of her seniors could do the same.

Colorado senior Jackie McFarland didn't score a career-high, but she kept CU from stumbling against the last-place team in the Big 12.

McFarland scored 11 of CU's first 13 points in the second half Wednesday to hold off Missouri for a 63-47 victory on senior night.

McFarland finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds. Her career highs were 34 points and 18 rebounds. Only one other Buff scored in double figures and that was freshman Brittany Spears with 10 points.

"This was indicative of the way she performed her whole career," McConnell-Miller said. "This is what she deserved on her senior night."

The Buffs were struggling mightily on offense in the second half. They had all of two field goals in the first 11minutes of the second half and both of those were from McFarland. The Tigers had cut CU's lead to 36-33 when McFarland scored eight of CU's next 10 points to hold Missouri (9-20, 2-14) at bay.

Colorado didn't pull away until the last six minutes of the game, which featured 25.4 percent shooting by Missouri and 34.5 percent shooting by CU.

"I think a lot of people on the team didn't know how to react to the last game," McFarland said. "I don't know if they expected it to be all about the seniors. There wasn't any life or energy in the team. For me, it was the exact opposite. I wanted this to be the most fun game of my career. We just needed a kick in the pants."

Although Colorado won more games overall this regular season than last, the Buffs finished with one less Big 12 win than last year and dropped in the standings by one place. Last year Colorado was 12-16 overall and 6-10 in the Big 12, finishing eighth.

This year Colorado (16-13, 5-11) finished ninth in the conference and will face No. 8 Iowa State in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament. The Buffs and Cyclones will be the first game of the league tournament, which begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium.

Colorado was swept by Iowa State this season and has defeated the Cyclones just once in the last nine meetings.

The Buffs head to Kansas City trying to improve their chances for hosting at least one game in the WNIT.

"Having lost to (Iowa State) twice," said CU senior Susie Powers, "it's payback time."

Notable

McFarland became the first player in CU history to score 500 points in three different seasons. With 1,836 career points, McFarland needs 22 to catch Tera Bjorklund for second on the all-time scoring list. McFarland's 1,004 career rebounds made her the third player in team history to reach the 1,000 rebounds mark. Her 45 double-doubles is second most in CU history. McFarland was 12-of-12 from the free-throw line, which tied for second best performance in CU history (the best being 13-of-13 by Gretchen DeWitte in 1987.

Colorado 63, Missouri 47

MISSOURI (47)

min fg-fga ft-fta rb ast pf tp

Johnson 34 8-22 7-13 11 1 1 24

Scott 16 0-1 0-0 2 0 1 0

Jones 25 0-4 0-0 2 0 5 0

Richbow 34 0-1 0-0 4 3 3 0

Hollins 36 5-21 2-2 3 1 3 16

Hanneman 14 2-7 0-0 0 0 1 5

Otote 13 0-2 0-1 3 0 0 0

Pickens 8 0-0 0-0 2 0 3 0

Brown 6 0-0 0-2 2 0 0 0

Wilson 14 0-1 2-2 3 2 2 0

Totals: 200 15-59 11-20 37 5 20 47

COLORADO (63)

min fg-fga ft-fta rb ast pf tp

Spears 30 4-13 2-4 5 3 1 10

Putnina 19 1-6 0-0 4 1 2 2

McFarland 33 6-11 12-12 14 0 4 25

Smith 24 1-8 0-0 1 0 1 2

Powers 20 0-1 0-0 2 2 0 0

Houston 20 2-4 4-4 0 2 0 8

Blythe 7 0-0 1-2 0 0 1 1

Skildum 16 2-3 2-2 4 0 2 7

Dale 1 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0

Piterniece 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Dunn 1 0-0 0-2 0 0 1 0

Dow 8 0-0 0-0 6 1 1 0

Richards 20 3-8 2-2 11 0 4 8

Totals: 200 19-55 23-28 51 9 17 63

Score by halves:

Missouri 21 26 -- 47

Colorado 29 34 -- 63

3-point field goals -- Missouri (6-21): Johnson 1-6, Scott 0-1, Hollins 4-11, Hanneman 1-1, Otote 0-2; Colorado (2-16): Spears 0-3, Putnina 0-1, McFarland 1-3, Smith 0-7, Skildum 1-2.

Officials --Parrish, Pantoja, Campbell.

Technical fouls -- None.

Attendance -- 2,078.

STEALS

Missouri (3):Scott, Jones, Richbow.

Colorado (6):Spears, Putnina, McFarland, Houston, Richards 2.

BLOCKED SHOTS

Missouri (3):Johnson, Hollins 2.

Colorado (7):Spears, McFarland, Powers, Skildum 2, Dow, Richards.

TURNOVERS

Missouri (13):Johnson 2, Scott 2, Jones 2, Richbow, Hollins 2, Hanneman 2, Otote, Pickens.

Colorado (15):Putnina 2, McFarland 6, Smith, Houston, Skildum 2, Dow, Richards 2.