Colorado women’s basketball coach JR Payne told her team there would be two keys to beating 24th-ranked Louisville on Saturday.

“Going into the game we said it’s gonna be turnovers and O-boards, and that’s what it was,” she said. “It was too many turnovers and we gave up too many O-boards.”

The Buffaloes played well most of the day, but a huge Louisville run in the fourth quarter — fueled by turnovers — doomed them in a 79-71 loss at the CU Events Center.

Louisville forced 25 turnovers and snagged 16 offensive rebounds in handing the Buffs (6-2) their first nonconference home loss in nearly seven years.

“I think in the end, the things that we knew could really hurt us ended up hurting us,” Payne said. “But lots of good things to take from tonight’s game.”

Although the loss did snap a 38-game nonconference home winning streak, the Buffs played right with the Cardinals (5-2) for most of the day.

Frida Formann scored a season-high 25 points to lead the Buffs, while Jade Masogayo had 12, Nyamer Diew had 10 and Kindyll Wetta posted 10 assists.

A pair of free throws by Masogayo with 7 minutes, 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter gave CU a 57-56 lead. That was followed by a 3-minute stretch in which the Buffs had six consecutive turnovers that led to a 16-0 Louisville run.

In a blink CU’s one-point lead became a 15-point deficit.

“I think we turned it over in every possible way,” Payne said of that stretch. “I think we dribbled into traps, I think we turned it over against their press, full-court; not necessarily our point guards, but just various people trying to get the ball back to our point guard.

“As our coach, I just probably needed to navigate and manage that better. Using timeouts is one thing, but I needed to help us get more organized because obviously we weren’t as organized as we needed to be.”

That 3-minute stretch aside, however, the Buffs asserted themselves well against one of the top teams in the country. Even after the Louisville run, CU responded with a 12-4 spurt.

Led by Formann, the Buffs jumped to an early 10-2 lead and led for much of the first three quarters.

“I think we were pretty prepared to beat them,” Formann said. “This was an opportunity for us to really see, what is Colorado basketball this year? We were ranked high last year, and this year we kind of have to find our identity and find out who we are and who we can beat.

“I think it was just kind of to show ourselves what level we’re at. I think we have some players that are kind of new that are still like, ‘Are we that good? I don’t know.’ And I’m just like, ‘We’re only that good if we go out there and play like we are.’ So I think that’s what it was about for us, and I’m proud that we came out the way we did.”

Although the result wasn’t what CU wanted, it saw several players step up in key moments, including Formann, Masogayo, Wetta, Nyamer Diew and Tabitha Betson.

“With so many new players, it’s been really challenging to talk about it and instill that toughness and blue collar that we’ve just always been,” Payne said. “With only a few players that have been here that really lived it, it’s one thing to talk about it, but we have to start embodying that, and I think we did tonight. That’s something we’ve been talking about, and I am really proud of our toughness and grit in so many ways tonight.”

Notable

CU’s last nonconference home loss came on Dec. 11, 2017, against Dartmouth. The Buffs are now 50-3 in nonconference home games in Payne’s nine seasons. … With two steals, Wetta surpassed the 200-steal mark for her career (201). … This was Wetta’s second 10-assist game of the season.