Buffalo Bulls Women’s Basketball’s trip to Kent State turns sour, falls 80-71

Looking to gain some momentum heading into the Mid-American Conference tournament, Buffalo Bulls Women’s Basketball journeyed to Kent State for their final regular season matchup. The Bulls were never able to get past a Kent State halftime lead and had trouble getting foul calls to go their way the entire day. Despite a career game from Cassie Oursler, the Bulls dropped this game 80-71

UB’s defensive pressure in the first half was where it needed to be to begin the game. The Bulls were able to hold the Golden Flashes to 34% shooting but despite that effort, the Flashes were able to stay close. It didn’t help that not only that Buffalo was losing the rebounding battle (20-18), but they were also letting Kent State’s Lurken and Korinek get to the free throw line with ease.

Kent State went a perfect 14-14 from the free throw line thanks to Lurken and Korinek and Buffalo actually trailed 37-32 heading into the next half. The Bulls would need to stop letting their opponent get to the line with so much ease.

Buffalo was able to knot this game back up at 44-44 thanks to a JoAnna Smith three-pointer. Buffalo was able to re-take the lead again with a continued dominant performance from Cassie Oursler as she brought in a layup.

Kent’s shooting began to pick up with not only Larissa Lurken, but Megan Carter as well. Carter began to rain from three point range and a Lurken three-pointer with five minutes left in the game stretched Kent’s lead to a six point gap.

Buffalo ultimately couldn’t recover from this point in the game. The foul difference and Kent’s prowess from the line was too much to overcome. Every time that the Bulls pulled within a one possession game, Kent State was able to drain a three and destroy all of the momentum that Buffalo had

Cassie Oursler finished the day with a career high 19 points and9 rebounds. Buffalo also saw good scoring games from Stephanie Reid (17), JoAnna Smith (13), and Mariah Suchan (11).

Despite the loss, Buffalo was already locked into a home campus round game in the MAC Tournament coming into the day. The Bulls will receive the #7 seed and will play #10 seed Bowling Green on Monday at 5:30 PM. That game will be aired on ESPN3. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the women’s bracket more in depth.