UB Women’s Basketball comes up short against No. 8 Stanford, 62-55

UB Women’s Basketball put up a valiant effort in a 62-55 loss to No. 8 Stanford at Alumni Arena on Friday afternoon.

Buffalo played an exceptional defensive game against, especially considering that the Cardinal really know how to put up points in a hurry. For a while it looked like they wouldn’t break 50 points.

The only player for Stanford that really had a lot of success was their star Alanna Smith. The Aussie finished the day with a whopping 30 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 assists. Although the Bulls probably wish they guarded her a little better, they can’t be criticized for it considering that the rest of Stanford’s team barely put up more points combined. In fact, only three other Cardinal players were able to get shots to sink.

UB’s biggest problem throughout the game was getting over the hump of taking the lead. The Bulls had a ton of opportunities, but 27.5 percent shooting from the field wasn’t going to cut it.

Even with poor shooting, the Bulls found themselves down just two points with seven and a half minutes to go thanks to a nice string of made shots. Hanna Hall sunk a clutch three to kick things off; following that was a huge layup by Brittany Morrison and a triple by Cierra Dillard.

But once Buffalo had Stanford on upset alert, the Cardinal turned up the heat and went on an 11-2 run off the heels of some sloppy and forced play by UB. The Bulls did eventually settle back down, but it was unfortunately too late.

Cierra Dillard carried UB for much of the day with 21 points. Joining her in the double-figures club were Hanna Hall (11) and Summer Hemphill (10). Hall had one her finest performances in this game and hit some pretty big shots from beyond the arc.

This game proves that despite graduating a lot of talent last year, Buffalo has a chance to return to the NCAA Tourney. Of course the win would’ve been nice to build an at-large resume (The MAC is still very strong this year), but there’s always the MAC Tourney.

UB returns to action against St. Bonaventure in Alumni Arena on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.