WBB Runs Away from Canisius

Season opener. Buffalo versus crosstown rival Canisius at Alumni Arena. It looks for a while as if Canisius wasn’t going to be a pushover, as the Bulls could only manage a 16–13 lead with 3:24 left in the first quarter.

And then the Bulls went on a 26–0 run, game over. Canisius failed to score in over 9 minutes of game clock time. In that streak, freshman guard Georgia Woolley had 7 points, junior guard Dyaisha Fair had 6 and junior guard Dominique Camp had 5, and the Bulls picked up 6 steals and two blocks from fifth year forward Summer Hemphill. The Canisius drought almost continued, except Canisius guard Dani Haskell released a running shot just before the 30-second clock expired that bounced on the rim a few times before going in.

Buffalo would take a 34 point lead at half-time, and push the lead to 56 in the fourth quarter, when sophomore forward Rama Keita poked the ball away from a Canisius player, raced the length of the court, did the euro-step to get away from another Canisius player, and scored the team’s 100th point. Final score 102–42, largest margin of victory by a UB team in the Division I era.

Buffalo finished shooting 48.6% from the floor, and 26–29 from the free-throw line. They outrebounded Canisius 54–32 and Buffalo picked up 19 steals.

Fair led the team in scoring with 16, while sophomore guard Cheyenne McEvans scored 13 and junior forward Loren Christie scored 12 (in just 13 minutes of playing time) and senior forward Ade Adeyeye also had 12, while three other Bulls also made it into double digit points.

Hemphill led the team with 10 rebounds, and Camp led the team with 9 assists. Fair had four steals.

Notes:

• The last time Buffalo scored 100 was in the NCAA Tournament, when they defeated South Florida 102–79 on March 17, 2018.
• If there was any weakness in the Bulls’ game, it was three point shooting, where Buffalo went 4-for-17.
• Buffalo had only 12 turnovers in a fast-tempo game, while Canisius had 27.
• Play of the Game™: In the 2nd quarter with 7:27 left, a rebound by senior guard Jazmine Young started a fast break with a long pass ahead to Woolley, who then passed in the lane to Camp on the run, who then made a no-look pass behind her to Fair, for the layup. Four Bulls touch the ball on the fast break. And Camp had a few other really spiffy passes in the game.
• Max effort: early in the fourth quarter, Woolley picked up three offensive rebounds on one play, (the play-by-play says two, the replay clearly shows three), got fouled, made the two free-throws.
• News4Buffalo reporter Heather Prusak does interviews with Buffalo players, which are shown on the Alumni Arena scoreboard. The interviewee for this game was freshman forward Saniaa Wilson, who did not play because of injury. In case you are curious about the pronunciation of Saniaa, it rhymes with the first name of country music star Shania Twain.
• Canisius’s Haskell, you might recall, is the all-time highest scorer in WNY high school basketball history, male or female. She is from nearby Franklinville.
• Canisius coach Sahar Nusseibeh made her head coaching debut. You have to feel a little bad for her, losing by 60 in her first game as a head coach. But on the other hand, she earned the ire of many fans by requesting a time-out with 0:25 left in the fourth quarter, trailing by 58. And it was a full time-out, not a 30-second time out. Buffalo responded by putting pressure on the in-bounds pass, and just before Canisius committed a five-second throw-in violation, another Canisius time out was called. Canisius was out of time-outs, a technical foul was called on Canisius, and Buffalo’s junior guard Nia Jordan made two free-throws to end the scoring.