Colorado 78 Syracuse 75 OT

[Go Buffs]

What an exciting game!

Colorado went on the road to beat a young, but talented Syracuse team today. Kate Fagan scored 22 (5 three pointers in the first half) and Tera Bjorklund hit for 21 (19 in the second half). Tera was in foul trouble again in the first half, but came out in the second half and produced as she has all season.

CU was down by 6 with 2:40 to go, but tied the game at 65 with about 15 seconds left on an Amber Metoyer layup. Syracuse then missed their last shot in regulation.

Syraucse went out to a 72-67 lead with about 3:00 left in the OT, but CU went on an 11-3 run to end the game. Syracuse had the ball for the last shot in OT, down 76-75. Shannon Perry, an outstanding 1-on-1 player turned the ball over as she drove to the basket against CU freshman Amber Metoyer. Linda Lappe ran the ball down, and hit 2 free throws with 2.5 seconds left to seal the game.

The Buffs again showed great mental toughness in pulling this game out. It's never easy to win on the road, I don't care who you are playing.

Of note, of the 618 people in attendance, about 1/2 were friends and family of Kate Fagan and Di Spencer who are both from New York.

CU stays on the road for a game at Buffalo on Thursday at 5:00 mountain time.



[This message has been edited by Go Buffs (edited 12-31-2002).]

[YCN]

Syracuse averaged 816 fans for home games last year - less than half what Texas A&M averaged with the worst attendance in the Big 12.

Seven of the 14 Big East teams drew fewer fans for the season than Texas Tech averaged per game. If you subtract the attendance totals for UConn and Notre Dame - over 60% of the entire conference attendance - the average attendance for the 161 home games at the other 12 schools was 1,408. Syracuse, believe it or not, drew more fans per game than 5 other Big East schools.

There must be hundreds of high schools that average higher attendance than half the Big East. What is even sadder is that the ACC's attendance makes the Big East look good by comparison. They only average about 84 percent of Big East attendance.



[This message has been edited by YCN (edited 12-31-2002).]

[BeBe]

That game was a real gut check for the Buffs (and nerve check for the fans). I was listening to it on headphones while fixing some stuff for our part of a New Years Eve progressive dinner party. I was yelling at them when things turned sloppy with around 10 minutes left in regulation and cheering for them when they pulled it back to force OT. The same cycle repeated in the OT: sloppy start, great finish. My husband even commented on it later in the evening when the game was being discussed!