Less than 48 hours before a matchup against Southern Utah, the Colorado women’s basketball team had to make a big adjustment.

Starting point guard Kindyll Wetta collided with backup point guard Kennedy Sanders during Thursday’s practice, and both suffered concussions. Fortunately for head coach JR Payne, she had a couple of seasoned veterans to rely on to run the offense.“If I had didn’t have these two, I probably would have been (nervous),” Payne said of seniors Johanna Teder and Lior Garzon. “I knew that they could handle it really well.”

They certainly did, as the Buffs coasted past Southern Utah 76-59 on Saturday at the CU Events Center.

Garzon had 20 points, and Teder had a career-high seven assists, as the Buffs (8-2) won their second straight game.

“I did have the ball in my hands a lot more,” Teder said. “We just talked with coach, like, be more aggressive, and find these open shots and others. So I think it was just really good practice.”

A transfer from Washington State, Teder said she hasn’t played point guard since high school, although in the Wazzu offense she would sometimes bring the ball up the court.

“Even if I haven’t played (point guard), I’ve still always been in that rotation,” she said. “I had everyone’s trust.”

Wetta, a senior averaging a career-best 6.8 assists, and Sanders, a freshman averaging 1.9 assists, were certainly missed.

“It definitely wasn’t fun. I missed both of them,” Garzon said. “I think they’re great. They give a lot of energy, a lot of effort to this team.”

Without them, several Buffs picked up the slack. Sara-Rose Smith had a career-high five assists, Frida Formann tied her season high with four assists and, as usual, the Buffs spread the wealth offensively.

“I’m really proud of us,” Payne said. “It’s a difficult thing to play without players that have been playing the point guard position. These guys did great stepping into that position.

“I thought our offense was really good tonight, and it was clean, and I didn’t really see anything that felt clunky.”

In addition to Garzon’s 20 points, Formann had 15 and Jade Masogayo had 10. Ayianna Johnson added eight, and 10 different players scored. The Buffs shot 51.7% as a team and never trailed after taking a 4-3 lead early.

While Garzon and the rest of the Buffs would have preferred to have Wetta and Sanders, there was a silver lining.

“I think you get other people opportunity in different positions, and when you go to conference, you never know what’s going to happen,” Garzon said. “I think that was really important for us today in this kind of game, just to give everybody different positions, different reps, just so they feel comfortable in different positions.”

Notable

Center JoJo Nworie made her season debut and played in a game for the first time in over two years. Nworie spent the past two years at Texas Tech but never played because of injuries. Saturday was her first game since the 2021-22 season when she was at Southern Idaho. She had five points and a blocked shot in 8 minutes Saturday. … Wetta missed a game for the first time in her career. … The Buffs improved to 7-0 all-time against Southern Utah. … Formann became the 15th player in CU history to reach 1,400 career points. She now has 1,414.