Buffalo Bulls Women's Basketball at Miami Redhawks recap: Bulls fall 69-58 in subpar shooting performance

In a season (two seasons?) full of slow starts, today's first half against Miami my have been one of the slowest for UB Women's Basketball, who ultimately fell 69-58 on the road to the 8-10 RedHawks.

The Bulls were shooting below 20% at the half, and trailed 22-28 even despite 14 Miami turnovers and the absence of leading RedHawk scorer Baleigh Reid. A sizzling third quarter run brought the Bulls back, but the visitors couldn't build a lead of their own, and victimized by timely Miami threes quickly fell behind by multiple possessions in the fourth quarter.

Joanna Smith again led the Bulls in scoring, with 22 points, but she also missed five of her first six shots during UB's slow start. UB was unexpectedly strong from the line, as Smith and Stephanie Reid, who finished with 17 points, combined to go 15-16 on free throws and the team finished 18-21. But from the floor UB shot just 26%, missing frankly an absurd number of poorly-taken layup attempts, and could not score consistently enough, overcome a 36-48 rebounding disadvantage, nor avoid multiple 6-0 and 7-0 runs from Miami.

At the end of the day, UB had as many successful free throws as they did field goals, which is not a winning formula. Now on a four-game losing streak, the Bulls have quickly gone from a team who in a win over Central Michigan looked like it could compete for a MAC Tournament bye to one that will struggle with every team in the conference. A road-heavy early schedule this winter likely has something to do with it, but it's hard to argue that the only Bulls consistency lately has been in the descent over the last few weeks.

UB now has a week off before another road game at Northern Illinois next Saturday at 2:00 PM.