UB Women’s Basketball team has qualified for one of the berths in the MAC Tournament in Cleveland with a dominant 79-65 win over the Ohio Bobcats. Buffalo is now 19–8 overall and 13–4 in the MAC.
Buffalo was led, as they usually are, by their three top scorers, sixth year forward Summer Hemphill, freshman guard Georgia Woolley and junior guard Dyaisha Fair. Hemphill put together one of her best games ever, barely missing a 20–20 game. Hemphill had 19 points on 8-for-12 shooting and 19 rebounds, eight of them offensive. Only one time has a Buffalo player recorded a 20–20 game — Kourtney Brown had 33 points and 22 rebounds on November 13, 2009 at Niagara.
Woolley led the team with 27 points, plus she pulled down 8 rebounds. Fair scored 21.
The Bulls pulled ahead in the first quarter using a 12–0 run, and ended the quarter leading 25–11. Buffalo pushed the lead up to 18 at the half, and then took a 22 point lead at the end of the third quarter.
Then Ohio started the fourth quarter on an 11–0 run, and Ohio wasn’t done. They cut the Bulls lead to just 7 points with 3:03 left. Then Fair hit a three point shot, and on the next possession Woolley hit a 3 point shot, and after two free throws by the Bobcats, Woolley got open in the paint and made a short jump shot, and Buffalo’s lead was 13 and essentially the game was over.
Buffalo used their superior size to out-rebound Ohio 56–31, scoring 42 points in the paint, including 16 second chance points.
The Bulls next play on the road at Kent State on Saturday, February 27 at 1 pm (ESPN3).
Notes:
- Ohio’s leading scorer, guard Cece Hooks, came into the game second in the MAC in scoring at 22.5 points per game, behind Fair, who leads the MAC with 23.7 points per game. The Bulls held Hooks to 14 points, using the same unusual defense they used against Hooks when Buffalo played at Ohio and lost a month ago. They simply let Hooks dribble into the paint, the defense dropped back, Hooks was wide open for a 10 foot shot, and time after time, she stopped her drive and passed the ball out, rather than take the shot. Hooks is also the MAC’s all-time scoring leader for both men or women’s basketball (although she needed five years of play to earn that title).
- Buffalo was 19-for-21 from the free throw line.
- Buffalo’s two point guards, junior Dominique Camp and senior Jazmine Young, combined for just 2 points. Camp had 6 assists and 7 rebounds. Buffalo’s forwards had strong rebounding games along with Hemphill, as junior Loren Christie had 7 rebounds and senior Ade Adeyeye had 6 rebounds.
- Fair now has committed 30 fouls in 27 games.
- Adeyeye is shooting 0.531 for the season.
- Woolley leads the team in free throw percent at 83.1%