Jaylyn Sherrod put on an absolute show for the 7,383 in attendance who witnessed No. 8 Colorado’s Pac-12 women’s basketball opener against No. 12 Utah on Saturday.
Down 61-53 with about eight minutes remaining, Sherrod proceeded to score 13 of her career-high 34 points while leading an impressive 23-4 closing run. The point guard from Alabama also had six steals and four assists in the 76-65 win.
“I can’t speak for everybody but I just went in with the same mentality that I had the whole game which was to be aggressive,” Sherrod said of her fourth-quarter surge. “Nothing really changed. Basketball is a game of runs and Utah is a great team. We talked about it all week, they’re going to go on the run. They’re just built like that offensively, but it’s about how you withstand it and how you come back from it.”
Her 34 points were the most scored by a CU player since Brittany Spears produced that same total in 2010.
The Buffs improved to 11-1 overall and 1-0 in the highly competitive Pac-12.
Matched up against Utah star forward Alissa Pili, Colorado’s Aaronette Vonleh also played a key role in the win. She fought her way to 18 points, including four from the stripe, while dealing with foul trouble. Veteran Charlotte Whittaker played 13 strong minutes off the bench, too.
The CU Events Center crowd of 7,383 was the 13th-largest in program history, per Brian Howell.
“Special shout-out to just Buff Nation for coming out like they did,” Payne said. “That means everything because most of us have been here a long time and worked really hard to build a program that everyone can be really proud of, on and off the court. To have that many people here supporting us is awesome.”
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