Western Michigan Broncos 92, Buffalo Bulls Women's Basketball 78: Takeaways recap

It's now a three-game skid, the second of the season, for Women's Basketball, who continue to struggle with teams who bring multiple scoring threats, especially multiple scoring threats with size. Consider this: 6-3 forward Teagan Reeves didn't even play for the Broncos.

Matt's Takes

1. Credit where credit is due: The offense was outstanding

47% from the floor, even that number deflated by a glut of late desperation threes. Three scorers at or near 50% themselves while taking enough shots to reach double-digits in points. The only blemish is only 12 assists on 29 made baskets, but the Bulls were at ~1.10 points per possession, which I'd expect is their best mark of the season.

And from beginning to end, both Stephanie Reid and Joanna Smith had room in the offense to take their shots and score points.

2. Who's the go-to sub?

It seemed like Coach Jack tried a little bit of everything in this one. Karin Moss got four minutes in the first half, but didn't play again. Ayoleka Sodade didn't enter the game until the second half, but nearly sparked a comeback. Perhaps this comes with the territory of young teams still building consistency, but more than halfway through the year it's strange to me to see seven different subs and one starter all get between 7 and 19 minutes. Does UB have an idea of who can make an impact off the bench, or is it a guessing game week-to-week and quarter-to-quarter?

3. Roughly 65% from the line is just where this team is at, I guess

That's all on that one.

4. It was better when this team was all-defense, little offense, than the reverse

Player of the Game: Stephanie Reid

Really it's Jessica Jessing, but I don't want to talk about her. Reid was the only UB player, no matter the sample size, to hit above 50% from the floor, from three, and from the line. She scored without dampening Joanna Smith's numbers, and chipped in five steals even while all of her second-half minutes came in foul trouble.

Robby's Takes

1. It'd be nice if scoring was balanced out a bit

This really isn't a huge problem compared to the many others (and it's probably been touched on before). I'm not going to to complain when you have Smith and Reid going for 25 and 24 points. My only problem is when one of them is cold for most of the night(See: Reid vs. Akron) the chances of a UB win dwindle. A consistent addition of scoring from the Ups sisters would really help that cause which is something we haven't seen just yet this season.

2. Fouls gave the game away to Western

Kudos to WMU. I don't remember a team this year that shot that well from the charity stripe. It's great that we were aggressive but combine it with the bad defense we were playing and it became a disaster despite Joanna Smith and Stephanie Reid hitting clutch shot after clutch shot. Like Matt briefly said, this team was so much better when it was defensive minded.

Player of the Game: Reid

She came into this one ready to score and that's what I'd rather see from her. The offense looked much smoother when she was getting inside and trying to get some layups as well. Having almost 33% of the teams points is pretty satisfying as well.