The home team in the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament was eliminated Friday when cold-shooting Washington fell to Colorado 70-59 at KeyArena. The fifth-seeded Huskies lost their last four regular season games, then had to come from 22 down in the tourney’s first round against last-place Oregon to win and get to Friday’s game. The 20-11 Huskies will probably be invited to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament for the second year in a row.
Fourth-seeded and 18th-ranked Colorado (25-5), advances to the semifinals Saturday against No. 1 Stanford, which beat Washington State in the third game Friday night. In the other semifinal, No. 2 Cal, a winner over USC, plays No. 3 seed UCLA, which beat Utah.
Washington had a moment of life late when Heather Corral and Talia Walton hit threes back-to-back to close to 63-59 with 1:04 remaining. But eight seconds later, CU senior guard Chucky Jeffery broke free for a fast-break layin after catching an inbounds pass over the Huskies fullcourt press. Jeffrey, who had a game-high 19 points, hit four free throws in the final minute.
Freshman Jamee Swan had a career-high 15 points.
Jazmine Davis led the Huskies with 17 points but had a poor shooting night, missing 15 of 20 shots. Walton added 13, but she missed nine of 13.
The Huskies were out-rebounded 58-36 and made only 17 of 61 field goal attempts. They stayed closed at the free throw line, where they hit 18 of 25. Colorado was six for eight.
Huskies hit 18 of 25 free throw to Colroado 6 of 8.