The UB women's basketball team opened their 2001-02 season over the weekend with a pair of losses on the road, falling first to Michigan State 50-42, then dropping their next contest 59-40 to Liberty College in the Spartan Chevrolet Classic in East Lansing, Mich.
Game 1
In Friday's game the Bulls were led by sophomore forward Jessica Kochendorfer, who posted a game-high 15 points and four rebounds, followed by junior center Rachel Martin, who put up 10 points and seven boards.
"For the most part, I was pleased with our effort tonight," said UB head coach Cheryl Dozier. "We weren't intimidated, we played hard and we left everything we had on the floor."
The Bulls had a 19-16 lead at halftime, with a 38.1 (8 of 21) shooting percentage in contrast to Michigan State's 21.4 (6 of 28) percent.
The Bulls managed to open the game with an 8-0 run after a MSU free throw, giving them their biggest lead of the night. The Bulls held the lead 40-35 with 7:52 remaining in the second half, but the Spartans broke out with a 9-0 run to take a 44-40 lead with 5:19 left on the clock.
UB came within striking distance on a shot by junior guard Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe that brought them within two, trailing 44-42 late in the game, but that was as close as the Bulls would come. McMeeken-Ruscoe finished the night with six points, seven rebounds, and five steals.
The key factor in the game was the Bulls' 27 turnovers, which shifted the momentum of the game and prevented the Bulls from mounting a come-back.
"I'm not happy with the number of turnovers we had, but that's going to happen with a young team. At one point we had three freshmen and two sophomores on the floor. We're going to grow with mistakes," said Dozier.
The Bulls were also out-rebounded by MSU by a slim 36-33 margin. For Michigan, sophomore forward Julie Pagel and freshman forward Joy Johnson paced the Spartans in scoring with 11 points each.
"It was good to be back in East Lansing and see a lot of family and friends," said Dozier, who was previously an assistant coach at MSU. "I just wish we would have had a different outcome to the game."
Game 2
In the tournament's consolation game Saturday, the Bulls fell to Liberty College 59-40, marking the first time in 10 years that the Bulls have opened their season with two consecutive losses.
Turnovers again contributed to the Bulls' troubles. They committed a total of 19, 11 of which were in the first 20 minutes of play.
The Bulls were led by McMeeken-Ruscoe with 17 points, five rebounds and four steals. Kochendorfer added nine points, nine rebounds and three assists.
Liberty jumped to an early lead, scoring the first eight points in the game before the Bulls got on the board at the 14:34 mark on a jump shot by freshman guard Allison Bennett.
Unable to find an answer to what Liberty was doing defensively, the Bulls went into halftime trailing 26-17.
Buffalo began the second half with a jolt, coming out with a quick 8-2 run to cut the Lady Flames' lead to five and put the score at 30-25 with 14:24 remaining in the game.
The Bulls got within five once more later in the half, 38-33 with 7:28 on the clock, but failed to get any closer as Liberty ended the game with a convincing 21-7 run to earn the victory.
The Bulls shot just 28.1 percent (16 for 57) from the floor in the game compared to Liberty's 33.9 percent (19 for 56). The Lady Flames held the advantage on the boards as well, 46-37.
"We need to find a consistency in our offense. We've held our first two opponents to under 60 points, so we're doing a decent job defensively," said Dozier after Saturday's loss.
"But offensively, we need to grab more rebounds and get more second chances and we have to cut down on our turnovers. We didn't play aggressive enough tonight."
The Bulls will play their home opener tomorrow night at 7 p.m. against the Niagara Purple Eagles.
