Coming off of their first loss of the season and their third game in three days, the UB women’s basketball team will look to get back on track on Saturday afternoon as they welcome the Miami (OH) RedHawks to Alumni Arena for their Mid-American Conference opener. The Bulls enter with a 10-1 record after falling to Harvard last time out in the Championship game of the Fordham Holiday Classic while the RedHawks enter with a 6-7 overall record.
Facing their biggest halftime defecit of the season, eight, the Bulls were not able to claw out a victory on Friday afternoon in the Championship game of the Fordham Holiday Classic. Sophomore Gabi Bade tried to single-handily shoot UB back into the game with four second half triples but her strong shooting efforts weren’t enough as the Bulls fell 74-62 to Harvard. Junior Cassie Oursler led the Bulls offensively as she netted 15 points and nine rebounds while Gabi Bade came off the bench and netted 13 points in 19 minutes. Point guard Stephanie Reid continued her elite level of play as she netted eight points, a season-high 10 assists and three rebounds in the loss. Harvard shot 54.2% for the game while UB only shot 34.8% from the field.
With their loss to Harvard on Friday in the Fordham Holiday Classic Championship game, the Bulls program record start came to an end at 10-0. The previous program record for best start to a season was in 2000-01 when UB started off 8-0 before their first loss. Prior to Friday’s loss, only UConn (20) had a better record over their last 20 games than Buffalo (18-2). UB currently sits at #26 in the latest RPI polls while earning a program best RPI of #12 earlier this season. RPI stands for Rating Percentage Index which is a quantity used to rank basketball teams based upon a team’s wins, losses and strength of schedule.
The Bulls and RedHawks are no strangers as the two MAC squads will be facing off for the 35th time in their history. The RedHawks own the 20-14 edge in the all-time series but the Bulls have been dominant as of late, winning six of the last nine in the series. The two sides split the season series, 1-1, last season with Miami winning at home 69-58 and the Bulls returning the favor with a 58-39 win at Alumni Arena later in the season.
from UBBulls.com via IFTTT
