Buffalo Bulls Women's Basketball Recap: Buffalo's poor shooting prevents late comeback in 70-55

If I had to describe this year's women's basketball team with one word; I would simply use the word "inconsistent". Throughout this season I have been watching a team that when playing their best basketball, can knock down a borderline top twenty-five team. The only time we saw this consistently was in the early going. As soon as that first loss to Hofstra happened, nothing was the same. Since then, we've seen flashes of the team playing their best basketball. Unfortunately, that wasn't what we saw in tonight's 70-55 loss to the Eastern Michigan Eagles.

Things got a little out of hand early in the first half but somehow Buffalo managed to stay in it. The Bulls committed 13 turnovers in the first half. What definitely kept Buffalo in it was their ability to out rebound Eastern Michigan 24-13. Without that, the game probably would've been out of hand in the early going. This is pretty much the reason the Bulls only had a six point deficit at the half (well, there was Joanna Smith and Brittany Morrison playing great too).

The second half was where things fell apart. Eastern Michigan came out hot and quickly had a twelve point lead or so for most of the half. UB was only able to shoot 17% from the field even though they had many opportunities to get back into the game. The shots just didn't fall.

Buffalo was led yet again by Joanna Smith. The Junior racked up a solid 22 points and 7 rebounds tonight. The biggest surprise in the Buffalo squad was most definitely Brittany Morrison and her double-double effort. Morrison's 13 points and 11 rebounds were a huge substitute as many impact players had off nights.

With all the above being said one thing is for certain: all hope is not lost. The chances of a top seed in the MAC tournament are gone but it doesn't mean that this team can't keep trying to get their consistency back. If they can accomplish that, there could be many teams on upset alert in March.

The next time we see the women in action will be this Saturday as they take on Miami. Tip-off will be at 2:30 PM or thirty minutes after the Men's Basketball game (whichever is later) as part of this weekend double-header. The game will be televised on ESPN3.

Go Bulls.