It was a disappointing loss for the women's basketball team as the Bulls fell 68-59 to St. Joseph's University Hawks Friday night in the Duke Classic tournament to record their first loss of the season. The semi-final game determined who went on to face top ranked Duke for the championship game and who would face Howard for the consolation game at Cameron Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Buffalo was put in the hole early as St. Joe's went up 8-0 and continued to lead by as much as 17 throughout the half. Coming back into the second half, the Bulls found themselves down 33-22.
Senior guard Kate Mcmeeken-Ruscoe led Buffalo into a scoring frenzy as she scored 17 of her team-high 19 points in the second half. After closing to within five points of SJU, the Hawks settled back down and nailed four straight three point baskets, putting them up on UB by a score of 49-37.
Buffalo kept clawing back however, as they went on a late game 14-4 run over the Hawks and closed to within six on sophomore Erin Lawrenson's three pointer with 48 seconds to play. Luck was not completely with UB though, as they were forced to foul junior Hawk guard Erin Brady, who sunk her free throws to put the nail in the coffin for Buffalo.
"They played harder than we did in the first 20 minutes of the game," said Head Coach Cheryl Dozier afterwards.
Indeed, Buffalo was anemic in their offense as St. Joe's converted 13 UB turnovers for 16 points in the first half, as well as nailing nine second-chance points and outscoring the Bulls 18-16 in the paint.
The roles seemed to reverse after intermission as the Bulls converted 16 Hawk turnovers for 14 points, and outscored SJU 24-4 in the paint
In the end, Buffalo had dominated the Hawks in the paint 40-22 and out rebounded SJU 35-26, but Hawk guard Amra Mehmedic was too much of a threat from downtown, scoring a career best six three-point baskets. She scored 18 for the Hawks, only one point under center Irina Krasnoshiok's team leading 19. UB also blanked the Hawks on bench points as freshman Hollie Cook and junior Kim Kilpela added eight to the score.
In sharp contrast to the game against St. Joe's, the Bulls came out clicking on all cylinders on Sunday afternoon seemingly as if they were merely continuing their scoring run from Friday night. This time they would not be denied though, as they took in an 87-81 win against Howard to take a third place finish at the Duke Classic.
Buffalo led 14-4 five minutes into the first half but Howard would not let the Bulls have their way so easily as Asia Petty sunk 15 points, including her 1,000th career point as she led Howard on a rally to bring them within four.
UB's freshman upstart Hollie Cook ensured Buffalo would keep the lead going into the second half as she nailed a bucket with just seconds remaining on the clock, giving the Bulls a 41-33 lead going into the second period. Cook led the Bulls with 16 points, going 6-7 on field goals and scoring 14 in the first half. She was just one of the five Bulls with double-digit points for the game. Junior forward Kim Kilpela had 15, senior guard Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe and junior Jessica Kochendorfer each had 14, and sophomore guard Allison Bennett had 13 on the night.
The second half was a myriad of lead changes and close calls as Howard's stars Petty and Courtney Kirk brought the Lady Bison back from an eight point deficit to their first lead of the game, 59-58 after a lay-up by Petty. Howard went up 62-58 with a money-shot from downtown by Kirk.
Impervious to the threat presented by Howard, Kilpela's pass at 4:48 connected with Kochendorfer for an uncontested lay-up and 72-70 lead for Buffalo. A 70 percent free throw shooting percentage and four more shots put the game out of reach for Howard as the Bulls held on to take the win, improving to 3-1 on the season
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Petty finished 12 of 20 shooting for 34 points, while Kirk had 23 on the night.
The Bulls dominated on boards once again as they out rebounded Howard 42-33. Much credit goes to Kochendorfer as she chipped in her first double-double of the season with 14 points and ten rebounds.
Buffalo heads home to prepare for Niagara University's visit to Alumni Arena on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
