BUFFALO — Despite a 25-point game by senior JoAnna Smith on Senior Day at Alumni Arena on Saturday, the University at Buffalo women’s basketball team (19-8, 9-6 MAC) dropped a MAC game to the Bowling Green Falcons by the score of 64-62. Smith netted five triples across a season-high 40 minutes of action in the close loss.
Trailing by four with just over a minute remaining, the Bulls turned to their senior and she produced with a contested three pointer to bring the Bulls within one, 61-60. After a Bowling Green split their next three trips to the line, the Bulls had a chance to send the game to overtime as they trailed 64-62. With nine seconds remaining, Stephanie Reid drove into the lane and drew some contact and flipped up a layup attempt that was rebounded by Summer Hemphill but she couldn’t get the put back attempt to fall as the Falcons held onto their fourth MAC win of the season.
The Bulls opened up the game on a 7-0 run and turned that into a 12-3 lead just over six minutes into the opening quarter as Katherine Ups netted five points, Reid had four and Smith netted a triple. Courtney Wilkins came in off the bench and netted a deep three pointer to give the Bulls their biggest lead of the quarter, 17-5, but the Falcons responded with a 6-0 run to close things out.
The Falcons opened the second quarter with back-to-back three pointers to tie the game, 17-17, before Katherine Ups netted a pair of buckets to give the Bulls the 21-17 lead. Buffalo held the 26-22 lead with 3:24 left in the first half but the Falcons went on a 6-1 run to take the 28-27 lead. UB finished the half strong as Smith drilled a triple and finished off an acrobatic layup to send the Bulls to the locker room leading 32-28.
Buffalo had their best quarter of the game in the third as Smith came out strong with the first seven points of the half for the Bulls, giving them the 39-31 lead. After a Bowling Green layup cut the Buffalo lead to six, Smith and Reid went on a 8-0 run of their own to give UB the 47-33 lead with just under four minutes to go in the third. Gabi Bade drilled a triple to make the score 51-39 in favor of the Bulls but the Falcons cut the UB lead down to eight, 53-45, as the quarter ended.
The Falcons came out flying in the final quarter as they went on a 15-2 run to regain the lead for just the second time on the afternoon, 60-55. A Reid layup cut the UB deficit to three, 60-57, but the Bulls couldn’t fight all the way back as the Falcons went on to win 64-62.
Smith finished off her impressive game with 25 points on 10-for-19 from the floor and 5-for-12 from behind the arc. The senior moved into seventh place on the Bulls all-time scoring charts as she has now accumulated 1,296 career points in the blue and white.
Reid had another strong game at the point as she netted 16 points, five assists and five rebounds in 40 minutes of work. With her third assist of the game, Reid broke the Bulls single season program record for assists in a season as she has now notched 201 assists on the season. The Australia native broke current assistant coach Ashley Zuber’s program record in the loss.
Hemphill had her second straight monster game on the glass for the Bulls as she finished with 16 rebounds including eight offensive boards. Katherine Ups finished with nine points, three rebounds and two assists while Cassie Oursler tied her career-high with five blocks.
For the game, the Falcons outrebounded the Bulls 48-38 as UB fell to 2-4 when they lose the rebounding battle. Buffalo outshot the Falcons 39.7% to 34.8% for the game but Bowling Green was able to notch 19 offensive rebounds. Bowling Green outscored the Bulls 24-18 in the paint
Prior to the game, Smith was recognized by the University at Buffalo Athletics department and women’s basketball team for her contributions to the program over her superb four year career.
Buffalo will now hit the road for their final two games of the regular season as they head to Akron on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game.
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