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Colorado survives ‘fearless, aggressive’ Colorado State

Rivalry games bring even more energy to the table with bragging rights up for grabs. Wednesday night Colorado and Colorado State were evenly matched in the first two periods, but in the third the Buffs started to pull away. However, the Rams stormed back to close the gap making the ending a tight, exciting finish.

Fort Collins, CO -- Colorado held on for a wild ride, beating Colorado State 70-67 on Wednesday night to improve their winning streak to six games.

"We played against what we knew would be a fearless team, a team that was really aggressive,” said Colorado’s head coach JR Payne.

“And this was an important game for both teams, being an in-state rival, so we knew that we would get their best effort. I don't know that we got our best effort—not a lack of effort, but a lack of aggressiveness. In the end, it went in the right column so we are excited that we were able to come to CSU and win a game,” Payne concluded.

Colorado freshman Annika Jank had a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds, helping the Buffaloes improve to 7-1 this season.

Colorado State came out looking to win in the first minutes of play, but Jank had back-to-back scores and sparked a 22-4 scoring run on the Rams (5-3). By the conclusion of the contest, there were seven lead changes and Colorado had forced 20 turnovers. Unfortuantely, the Rams turned the ball over 18 times themselves, but Colorado did outrebound Colorado State 44-32.

Grace Colaivalu led Colorado State with 13 points in the loss. On top of Jank's double-double, Kennedy Leonard also contributed 18 points for Colorado in the win — including two clutch free-throws to seal the game.

Colorado hosts Dartmouth on Monday at 7 p.m., while Colorado State visits Northern Colorado on Sunday.