Poor Shooting Dooms Bulls at Northern Illinois

A very poor shooting game by the UB Women’s Basketball team turned into a 69–64 loss in overtime at Northern Illinois. This ends a five game winning streak for the Bulls, and drops their record to 16–8, and 10–4 in the MAC. However, the Bulls are still in second place in the MAC, a game and a half ahead of third place Akron in the standings.

The Bulls wound up shooting only 30.5% for the entire game, and no player was able to shoot over 40% (except for freshman forward Saniaa Wilson, who was 1-for-1). In the overtime period, Buffalo made only 3 of 10 attempts (including 0-for-4 from the three point line), and the Huskies opened what would be a small but decisive lead.

The Huskies started the game leading 18–2, with Buffalo making just one of eleven shots. The Bulls improved from that point in time, cutting the Northen Illinois lead to just 2 points at the end of the second quarter.

But the Bulls came out of the halftime break cold, a common problem in some games, and the Huskies pushed their lead to 10 at the end of the third quarter. The Huskies lead was still 9 points halfway through the fourth quarter, but then Buffalo switched to using full-court pressure, the Huskies offense went cold and didn’t score a basket in over five minutes. The Bulls tied the game (for the first time since it was 0–0) on a three pointer from the left corner by freshman guard Georgia Woolley, with just 0:26 left. Neither team could score the rest of the quarter.

The overtime saw Buffalo take its first lead of the game with three minutes left, on a free throw by junior guard Dyaisha Fair, but that was their only lead of the game. With Northern Illinois shooting well and Buffalo not shooting well, and with the Huskies shooting 7-for-8 from the free throw line in the overtime, the Huskies pulled away.

Fair finished with 27 points, Woolley had 15, and sixth year forward Summer Hemphill had 15 plus 18 rebounds. No one else had more than 4 points, and no Bulls player had more than 2 assists.

Buffalo had 19 offensive rebounds, but was able to turn these into just 10 second chance points. Buffalo scored only four points off turnovers.

Notes:

• Huskies forward A’Jah Davis, the MAC’s leading rebounder, had 21 rebounds.
• Buffalo senior forward Ade Adeyeye returned to the court for the first time after an injury on January 24.
• The Bulls had only 4 steals, their lowest of the season. They came into the game averaging almost 9.7 steals per game.
• Buffalo next plays at Ball State on Wednesday, February 15 at 6:30pm (ESPN+).