On the final leg of a two game road trip, Buffalo Bulls Women’s Basketball entered Bowling Green’s Stroh ready to iron out some kinks before a tough matchup with Central Michigan this Saturday. The Bulls played relatively well as big performances came from JoAnna Smith and Stephanie Reid to cap off a 61-50 win over the Falcons.
Something that’s been missing from Buffalo over the past few games is the strong start in the first quarter that’s been characteristic of this year’s team. JoAnna Smith and Stephanie Reid each had no problem getting shots to fall while Theresa Onwuka was very active on the glass and managed to lay one in herself. With a 14-8 advantage to start the game off, Buffalo looked in good shape.
Buffalo wasn’t going to slack off with the lead and as the second quarter ensued they stretched it even further. JoAnna Smith calmed down from taking shots beyond the arc and settled for layups and mid-rangers—much to her avail. Liisa Ups soon took over the offense late in the half and helped the Bulls breeze by with an 8-1 run. Buffalo entered the half with a 33-18 lead.
Coming out slow in the third quarter, it took the Bulls several minutes before they scored. Bowling Green capitalized and was able to get the deficit they put themselves in down to eight. That was the closest they would get to the lead for the rest of the night as the Bulls cruised from there.
The fourth quarter saw one more big offensive spurt from Buffalo as Bowling Green continued to let the game drag on. With just over two minutes left a Mariah Suchan jumper extended the lead to 17 points and there was no way Bowling Green could claw back into this one.
The Bulls did a great job on the day at forcing turnovers and not committing them. UB had just seven turnovers while Bowling Green had a lackluster 19. The Falcons shot as well as the Bulls and won the rebounding battle—meaning turnovers lost them this game.
JoAnna Smith lead the Bulls with a quietly dominant effort with 18 points. Freshman Theresa Onwuka had her second consecutive double-double with 10 in each column. Rounding out the double digit scorers was Stephanie Reid with 14.
Buffalo moves to a .500 record in MAC play with the win and now heads home to Alumni to face Central Michigan on Saturday. Tip-off is slated for 12:00PM and the game will air on Time Warner Cable Sports Network.