DURHAM, N.C. – Middle Tennessee women’s basketball coach Rick Insell felt pretty good about his team’s preparation for Saturday’s game against Colorado.
He wasn’t ready for how the Buffaloes actually played, however.
“We had them pegged but we didn’t expect them to go hit that many 3s,” Insell said after Colorado’s 82-60 rout of MTSU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
To be fair, nobody expected it. CU went 13-of-27 from 3-point range against the Blue Raiders, the most 3-pointers made by a CU team is 11 years.
Three times this year CU had hit 11 3-pointers, but those all came in non-conference play before New Year’s Day. Although a solid 3-point shooting team at 34.4% coming in (53rd nationally out of 350 teams), CU had made a total of eight in the previous two games combined.
Against MTSU, the Buffs kept taking them and making them.
“I think it was just the way they played us and we just found our shooters wide open,” said Frida Formann, who went 5-for-8 from 3-point range for CU. “Even though it’s not maybe something we’ve done a lot before, if that’s what they’re giving us then I think we’re really good at just taking advantage of it.”
Insell said MTSU intended to “slough off” a couple of CU’s shooters. One of those was Tayanna Jones, who surprisingly drilled two 3s in a row midway through the first quarter to spark a 12-0 CU run. All 12 points were scored on 3-pointers. Jones had made just nine 3s all season before Saturday.
“Then when we came out and had to apply the pressure a little bit to (Jones), they were able to use their size inside,” Insell said.
MTSU knew all about Formann and respected her shooting ability. Formann came in as CU’s leader in 3-pointers (65) and 3-point percentage (.385). She kept finding ways to get open, however.
“The young lady was just, I’m telling you, she was relocating and we lost her,” Insell said. “We lost her about three times in a row, bam, bam, bam. She killed us. She just works hard without the ball. And we knew she was a great player. We knew she was a great shooter. We just had some players who just lost her.”
Three-point shooting wound up being a significant difference in the outcome. Not only was CU better than expected, but MTSU was off, making just 4-of-24. The Blue Raiders came in ranking 39th nationally with eight made 3s per game.
CU’s success may have come from the environment. The Buffs had heard coming in that Cameron Indoor Stadium was a “shooter’s gym.”
“I didn’t know what a shooter’s gym was because I’m not a shooter,” point guard Jaylyn Sherrod said. “But they told me what it was. They said it had good lighting and it was small and the depth perception (was good). So once they told me that I’m like, ‘OK, let it fly. I think everybody else kind of took that on, too.”
Formann laughed and said, “Yeah, I didn’t really know either but when people said it, I was like, that makes sense. When someone said it, I guess it boosts your confidence a little bit more like, ‘All right, it’s a shooters gym, so this is where I should shoot.’”
Board work
The 3-point shooting wasn’t planned, but CU came in knowing it had to rebound well. The Buffs dominated to the tune of a 43-29 advantage.
Quay Miller led the Buffs with eight rebounds, but eight different Buffs had at least three.
“Oh, yeah, that was a real focal point of the game plan,” said Sherrod, who had three rebounds. “We knew Middle Tennessee crashed the boards really hard. They were really good at crashing the (offensive) glass, so we just wanted to do our job and box out and takeaway what they do well.”
Role players coming through
While Formann, Sherrod and Vonleh led the way most of the night, as did Miller on the glass, the Buffs got significant contributions from two key role players.
Junior guard Tameiya Sadler had seven points, six rebounds and five assists in 18 minutes off the bench, while freshman Brianna McLeod had eight points and four rebounds.
“Tameiya said before the game, ‘Coach Jay, don’t worry. I’m gonna get eight rebounds tonight,’” Payne said. “She was locked in. … I thought Tameiya’s ability to score the ball, shoot with confidence, look to attack people’s feet, I thought she did a great job with that.
“And then Bri McLeod was just phenomenal. I talked to her before the game and just said here’s a couple things that you can do that I don’t think anybody else on our team can do for us tonight. And if you do this it’ll help us win this ballgame and she did. I mean, she was aggressive, she rebounded, kept her poise under pressure and things like that. Just tremendous effort from both of them.”
Notable
Freshman Jada Wynn left with an injury late in the game. She will be reevaluated on Sunday. … The Buffs reached the 24-win mark for the 11th time in program history. … CU’s 82 points were the most allowed by MTSU this season. … CU had the most 3-pointers made (13) and attempted (27) in its 32-game NCAA Tournament history. … The Buffs’ three-throw percentage (.900, 9-for-10) was the second-best in their tournament history. … Formann was just the third player in CU’s history to hit at least five 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game, joining Kate Fagan (twice) and Shelley Sheetz (once). Sheetz is on the CU staff and Fagan, who holds the CU tournament record with six 3-pointers, attended Saturday’s game as a fan.
