BUFFALO — The University at Buffalo women’s basketball team will open up their 2016-17 regular season at 7 p.m. Friday as they welcome the UMass Minutewomen to Alumni Arena. Prior to the game Friday night, the Bulls will be unveiling their 2015-16 MAC Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance banner.
Coming off of their best season in program history in 2015-16, the UB women’s basketball team opens up their title defense on Friday night at Alumni Arena as they welcome the UMass Minutewomen for a 7:00 pm showdown. Prior to the season opener, the Bulls will be unveiling their 2016 MAC Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament banners. The Bulls take on UMass for the second straight season after downing the Minutewomen on the road last season 56-48.
The Bulls opened up their 2016-17 campaign on Friday night with an exhibition against the Bloomsburg Huskies at ALumni Arena and the defending MAC champs were impressive, picking up the 65-45 win. The Bulls had 12 players play at least 10 minutes while 11 of 12 scored and grabbed at least one rebound in the win. JoAnna Smith led all UB players with 14 points while Mariah Suchan had nine and Ayoleka Sodade finished with seven. Defensively UB forced 26 turnovers that they turned into 36 points while also outscoring the Huskies 26-12 in the paint.
Buffalo has had a lot of success in home openers since the 1975-76 campaign as they own a 30-14 overall record playing in front of their home crowd. Since joining the Mid-American Conference in 1998-99 the Bulls have secured a 10-8 record in home openers. UB collected a dominant 55-38 win over LIU Brooklyn in last seasons opener at Alumni Arena.
The Bulls return 10 letterwinners to a MAC Championship squad from a season ago. Buffalo returns all five starters to the lineup as Stephanie Reid, JoAnna Smith, Katherine Ups, Brittany Morrison and Cassie Oursler are all back for the Bulls. UB lost only one senior, Karin Moss, to graduation and three other bench players left the program. Buffalo is returning 90 percent of their scoring and 84 percent of their minutes played from a season ago as they look to regain their form that they showed late last season.
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