Saturday may have marked the final home game for Colorado’s senior class, but there’s still plenty of unfinished business remaining in the careers of Mya Hollingshed, Peanut Tuitele and Lesila Finau.
Following the Buffs’ 20th win of the season in a 60-45 smacking of Oregon State, they’ve almost certainly cemented themselves into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012-13. But before all that, Colorado will enter the Pac-12 Tournament as a No. 5 seed after winning five of its final six regular season games.
Momentum is an important factor heading into postseason play and the Buffs have plenty of it.
“It definitely builds confidence going into March,” Hollingshed said. “There’s a lot of teams that you’ll see and if you’re not playing your best basketball all the time, you don’t know where you stand. Right now we’re doing what we do best, getting back to what we’ve been doing and just playing as a team.”
In Saturday’s regular season finale, Colorado compiled a 15-0 second quarter run that held strong in the second half. Frida Formann scored a team-high 15 points on the afternoon and Hollinghsed had 13 and eight rebounds in the final home game of her storied career.
Finau and Tuitele combined for 11 points in what was an emotional Senior Day not only for the players but for head coach JR Payne.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever cried at Senior Day until today,” Payne said. “Not because we haven’t had really special seniors in the past, just we’ve been through a lot together.”
Payne and her Buffs will continue their journey together against 12-seeded Washington on Wednesday in the opening round of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.
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