Buffalo Bulls Women’s Basketball falls short on senior day to Bowling Green 64-62

Riding a three game win streak into Alumni Arena this afternoon, Buffalo Bulls Women’s Basketball had a great opportunity to make it four. But, the Bowling Green Falcons came to the arena ready to play and heavily out-rebounded the Bulls in order to pull out a close 64-62 win. The Bulls just didn’t have enough offense to take this game away despite the disadvantage on the glass.

In a first quarter capitalized by Stephanie Reid and Katherine Ups, the Bulls jumped out to a 17-5 advantage, making it look like this would be an easy game to take from the Falcons. BG went on a 12-0 run from there and UB found themselves in a dog fight by the time they reached half time—leading by just a slim 32-28 margin.

UB opened up another strong run to begin the second half, stretching the lead to 14 points with four minutes left in the third quarter. But again, Bowling Green’s Carly Santoro and Sydney Lambert did a fine job of exposing UB’s defense and brought the game back to within a single possession late in the game.

Buffalo showed some life late when JoAnna Smith — on senior day nonetheless — sunk an NBA range three pointer to bring the game back to within one at 61-60. But, BG was able to do the bare minimum from the free throw line and manage enough rebounding to win the game.

Finishing the day at a 48-38 rebounding disadvantage to the Falcons, Buffalo simply didn’t have enough offense to overcome it, shooting at just 39% on the day. Otherwise, the Bulls did a good job just about every where else and turned the ball over just 10 times.

JoAnna Smith executed on her senior day with 25 points before fouling out when the game came down to free throws. Bulls fans may see Smith in Alumni one more time as part of a home campus round game in the MAC Tournament after this upcoming week.

Stephanie Reid also had a relatively good game and broke Assistant Coach Ashley Zuber’s single season assist record. Reid now has 200 assists this season and finished today with 16 points.

Buffalo now closes their conference slate on the road, with their first matchup being against the Zips of Akron. That game will be on Wednesday at 7:00PM.