by BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo women’s basketball team cruised to an 81-62 victory over Bowling Green on Senior Day at Alumni Arena on Saturday. With the win, their 10th in 11 games, the Bulls finish the regular season with a 22-8 overall record and a 16-4 league mark.
Today’s game tied a program-record with UB’s 14th home win and also tied the 2017-18 Sweet 16 team for the most Mid-American Conference wins in program history.
Freshman Georgia Woolley led all scorers with 20 points to go with eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. Summer Hemphill (Seneca Nation) recorded her fourth straight double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds while adding four assists and Adebola Adeyeye narrowly missed out on a double-double of her own, scoring 13 points to go with eight rebounds and four steals. Junior Loren Christie also scored in double figures for the third straight game with 12 points.
The Bulls opened the game on a 10-0 run, capped by back-to-back layups by Hemphill, to force an early BG timeout at the 7:48 mark. BG answered with a 9-0 run to trim the lead to one before Adeyeye powered up for a second chance layup and would later knock down a jumper in the paint to put UB up by three. The teams traded baskets before Dominique Camp took the ball up the floor and banked in a triple from the top of the key at the buzzer to give the Bulls a 22-17 lead at the end of the first.
Buffalo opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run on a three from Jazmine Young and back-to-back baskets by Hemphill to take a 10-point lead, but BG answered with a 10-0 run to tie the game at 29 before Camp came up with a steal and scored at the other end to put UB up two at the 3:37 mark. Buffalo extended the run to 6-0 on jumpers by Woolley and Hemphill but the Bulls were held scoreless over the final two and a half minutes of the half and the Falcons capitalized, hitting a pair of threes, the second one at the buzzer, to tie the game at 35 at the break.
The Bulls defense stifled to start the third quarter as they held the Falcons scoreless for the opening five minutes and they advantage offensively, using a 10-0 run on a pair of layups from Adeyeye and an offensive rebound putback by Christie, to take an 11-point lead before Bowling Green ended the drought with a layup to cut the lead to single digits at the media timeout. The Bulls then rattled off a 7-0 run out of the timeout, capped by a second chance jumper from Hemphill and an and-one bucket by Woolley, to take a 15-point lead at the 2:51 mark. Later, Buffalo closed the quarter on an 8-0 run on four straight free throws from Woolley and a dime from Camp to Hemphill for an easy bucket to give the Bulls a 63-46 lead at the end of the third.
Buffalo continued to attack as they opened the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run on back-to-back layups from Christie and a jumper by Young as the shot clock expired to take a 71-48 lead at the 6:09 mark. Adeyeye continued to be aggressive as she converted two big layups and that would be all the Bulls needed to secure the big victory.
“We were pushed to our limit today, Bowling Green is a special team, but I challenged our team in the locker room at half time, I challenged our seniors to lead and to fight for something bigger than ourselves,” said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. “With Dyaisha scoring two points and to dominate the way we did, it says a lot about who we are as a team, and we are ready to chase something special.
Buffalo has now scored 80+ points in four of the last five games and are a perfect 12-0 this season when eclipsing that mark. The Bulls dominated the paint for the third straight game, nearly tripling up the Falcons with a 46-16 advantage inside. Buffalo also dominated on the boards, outrebounding Bowling Green 47-30, including 20 offensive rebounds which UB turned into 22 second chance points. The Bulls also scored 24 points off 21 BG turnovers.
