Buffalo Can’t Overcome 23 Point Deficit at Bucknell

The UB Women’s Basketball team dug a deep hole, trailing Bucknell by 23 points early in the 2nd quarter, and that was too much to overcome. Buffalo lost to Bucknell 80–69 in the Bulls’ final non-conference game, making their record 6–4.

Bucknell opened the scoring and had a 7–2 lead with about 3 minutes gone, when a foul was whistled on Buffalo’s senior forward Ade Adeyeye, who was then also whistled for a technical foul. Bucknell made all four free throws (two for the original foul and two for the technical foul), and then on the in-bounds pass, Bucknell scored an easy layup, effectively a six point play, and they now led by 11, just three minutes into the game.

Since Adeyeye now had two fouls, Buffalo coach Felisha Legette-Jack removed Adeyeye from the court (which is normal for Legette-Jack when a Bulls player has two first half fouls), but Legette-Jack never put Adeyeye back on the court. Legette-Jack used a four guard offense plus super-senior forward Summer Hemphill for the rest of the game, except for a brief appearance by junior forward Loren Christie, who was ineffective.

This offense never clicked in the first half, as the Bulls just picked up one assist. Buffalo trailed by 23 early in the second quarter. Without Adeyeye and with four guards on the court, Buffalo gave up 24 points in the paint in just the first half. Adeyeye’s size was missed. At halftime, the Bulls trailed 43–26.

Early in the second half, junior guard Dyaisha Fair hit three straight three point shots, and a two-point basket, to cut the Bucknell lead to just 10 at 51–41 with 5:40 left in the third quarter. Fair would not score again, and that left freshman guard Georgia Woolley and Hemphill to do most of the scoring. Woolley single-handedly outscored Bucknell 10–1 late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter, cutting the Bucknell lead to 5, but that was as close as the Bulls got. Bucknell went on a 7–0 run, and the Bulls’ fate was effectively sealed.

Woolley finished with 22 points, the first time she has led the team in scoring. Woolley finished 7-for-10 shooting, including 4-for-6 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Woolley also had a career high 11 rebounds, second on the team behind Hemphill’s 13 rebounds. It was Woolley’s first career double-double. Hemphill had 15 points and Fair had 20. Hemphill also had 4 blocks.

Buffalo’s next game will be the first MAC game, at Alumni Arena on Wednesday, December 29 at 1pm (ESPN3) against Central Michigan.

Notes:

• Legette-Jack picked up a technical foul in the game’s last minute. It was her second technical foul in the last two games.
• The Bulls only shot 7-for-14 from the free throw line, continuing an unfortunate trend of low free-throw shooting percentages over the last few games. Without Woolley’s perfect 4-for-4, the rest of the team was a miserable 3-for-10 from the free throw line.
• Buffalo had only 8 assists for the game, but did outrebound Bucknell 41–39, despite the four-guard offense for most of the game.