BUFFALO — Behind a season-high 23 points from senior shooting guard JoAnna Smith, the University at Buffalo women’s basketball team (8-0, 0-0 MAC) earned their eighth straight win to open the season as they handed Big 4 rival Canisius the 65-52 loss in front of 943 fans at the Koessler Center on Thursday night. With the win, the Bulls match their best start to a season in program history as they earned the same 8-0 start and were receiving votes in the Top-25 polls in 2000-01.
The win for Buffalo gives them four straight victories over the Golden Griffins in the all-time series as well as six of the last seven. UB improved to 2-0 on the road this season as they continue to be the lone unbeaten team in the state of New York.
The Buffalo offense continued to roll on Thursday night as Smith led the way with a season-best 23 points, six rebounds and two steals as she made a season-best four triples. Stephanie Reid had one of the best games of her career as she was able to notch eight points, a season-high eight assists, a season-best seven rebounds and three steals in the win. Freshman Summer Hemphill had the best game of her young career as she notched her first career double-double with 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to go along with two blocks, her fifth straight game with at least one block and fourth career multi-block effort.
The Bulls got out to a quick start in the opening quarter as JoAnna Smith opened the scoring with a step back jumper before the Griffs responded with a three pointer. UB then went on a quick 5-0 behind a Stephanie Reid layup and Smith three pointer. Canisius hit another three pointer and the Bulls extended their lead out to 14-6 as they went on a quick 7-0 run, spurred by Summer Hemphill who made back-to-back layups to force a Canisius timeout. The Two sides went back and forth down the stretch before Reid closed out the scoring with a pretty layup in the lane giving UB the 20-13 edge after one quarter.
UB continued to put the pressure on the Griffs in the second quarter as Gabi Bade opened the scoring with a jumper to make the score 22-13 in favor of the Bulls. Smith then decided to take the game over as she netted nine points on a pair of three pointers, a layup and a free throw en route to her season-best 19 point first half. After the Griffs netted a pair of three’s to make the score 32-23 in favor of UB, Katherine Ups drove to the bucket and made a layup as the Bulls closed out the half on a 5-0 run to take the 37-23 advantage into the locker room.
The third quarter was an evenly played 10 minutes as both sides netted 17 points. The Bulls opened the scoring with back-to-back layups as Katherine Ups and Cassie Oursler finished off easy buckets down low, giving UB the 41-23 lead early in the third. The Griffs were then able to go on a 9-3 run to get within 12 but Reid was able to convert on a pretty three-point play as she made the acrobatic layup and the free throw to extend the UB lead back to 15. Brittany Morrison closed out the quarter with a nice layup after a perfect feed from Reid, her fifth assist of the game which moved her into 10th place on the Bulls all-time assist charts (280).
The Bulls entered the fourth quarter with the 14-point lead, 54-40, and didn’t allow the Griffs to come any closer than 11. After a Canisius free throw made the score 56-43 in favor of UB, Cassie Oursler converted on a layup after a great feed from Reid and Ayoleka Sodade sank a free throw to give UB their biggest lead of the fourth, 16. Canisius tried making a run with a pair of layups midway through the final quarter but Hemphill grabbed an offensive rebound and finished off a layup to extend the UB lead out to 61-47. The Griffs netted five free throws down the stretch while Mariah Suchan sank a jumper and Hemphill made a layup after a great pass from Smith to finish off the scoring as UB earned the 65-52 road victory.
The Bulls continued to do what they do best on Thursday as they won the rebounding battle for the eighth time this season, outrebounding the Golden Griffins 50-29 for the game. UB was able to collect 21 offensive rebounds, the fourth time they have notched at least 20 offensive rebounds this season. The Bulls were able to net 11 second chance points while also outscoring the Griffs 32-16 in the paint.
For the game, the Bulls shot 40.7% from the floor while the Griffs were held to just 32.7% shooting as UB improved to 6-0 on the year and 23-1 over the past two seasons when outshooting their opponents. Buffalo has now held all eight opponents under 70 points as they improved to 32-7 over the last two seasons when doing so.
The Bulls also won the fast break battle, 7-0, and the bench battle, 21-11, for the eighth straight game to start the season. In all, 12 players saw at least four minutes of action while the Bulls had 10 players score a point and nine grab at least one rebound.
Katherine Ups continued to be an improtant piece for the Bulls as she finished with six points, two assists and a rebound in 21 minutes. Suchan was strong on the offensive glass once again as she grabbed six offensive rebounds and eight total while adding three points, one assist, one block and one steal in 25 minutes of work. Morrison came off the bench and scored three points while Sodade grabbed three rebounds in five minutes of work.
The Bulls will now have 13 days off between games as they return home on December 21 for a Big 4 matchup against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies at 12:00 pm inside Alumni Arena. The game will air live on ESPN3 with Paul Peck and Amy Audibert on the call.
Canisius now prepares for a five-game road swing, spanning the rest of the month, beginning with a trip to Ohio State on Dec. 11, followed by a game at Morehead State on Dec. 19. Canisius has one more game before the Christmas holiday, heading to Ithaca, N.Y. to play Cornell on Dec. 22. Game times are slated for 2 p.m., 5:15 p.m., and 5 p.m. respectively.
from UBBulls.com via IFTTT
