Mount St. Mary's sophomore Myriam Baccouche is known as one of the quietest players on her team. It was no surprise then that the soft-spoken forward/guard let her game do the talking on Friday night as the Mountaineers beat the UB Bulls women's basketball team 66-55 at Alumni Arena.
Baccouche was 8-14 behind the three-point line, setting a school record for three pointers made, and was the game's high scorer with 26 points. Baccouche, who came off the bench, was 5-7 behind the three-point line in the first half.
"I haven't been known as the game time shooter but I was brought here for my shooting," said Baccouche. "I came out and they were playing a 2-3 zone, which is a shooter's dream, and I just got a lot of open looks."
The Bulls were told by coach Cheryl Dozier to shade the shooter but were unsuccessful at getting in the shooter's face.
"We just didn't get out on [Baccouche] quick enough and we weren't talking enough on defense about were the shooter was," said UB guard Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe, who finished with a team-high 14 points off of a 6-15 shooting night.
The Bulls and Mountaineers played a very competitive game with nine lead changes and five ties. Mount St. Mary's senior Katie Walton, however, hit a three-pointer to give her team a 36-35 edge at the 14:12 mark of the second half, and the Bulls never recovered.
Baccouche considered the Mountaineers' versatility on offense and their ability to get the ball inside to be the key to maintaining the lead
"I think the turning point in the game was when they started coming out on our shooters and we got our post players involved more," she said.
Both teams had trouble with turnovers. The Bulls made 26; Mount St. Mary's accumulated 25.
Teams rarely win when they shoot poorly, but that's exactly what the Mountaineers did, shooting a dismal 27.7 percent from the field for the game. Mount St. Mary's made up for their terrible shooting percentage by out-rebounding the Bulls 48-31, 24 of them on the offensive end of the floor. UB shot 43.1 percent from the field.
"We just didn't come to play tonight," said Dozier. "There are no excuses. I wasn't happy with the number of turnovers we had and with the number of offensive boards we gave up. We have to concentrate on those two areas of our game."
Jessica Kochendorfer, who scored 18 points as the Bulls' backbone in their win over Niagara, was held to six points in 30 minutes of action.
"Kochendorfer has to show up every night for us on both ends of the floor and she just didn't show up tonight," Dozier said.
Mount St. Mary's defense was suffocating at times. At one point they forced the Bulls to turn the ball over due to a 30-second shot clock violation.
"We strive to be very aggressive and creative on the defensive end constantly changing our defense," said Mountaineers head coach Vanessa Blair. "We knew coming in that Buffalo was a 20-percent shooting team, and once we had them on the ropes we just sat back in our zone."
St. Bonaventure senior center Angela Scott scored a game-high 14 points while the Bonnies handed UB their fourth loss of the season, a 56-43 defeat Sunday afternoon at the Reilly Center in Olean, N.Y.
A 25-20 game at the half, it quickly turned into a rout when the Bonnies made a 7-0 run over a three minute span in the second half and led by as many as 19 points.
The Bulls once again had trouble on the boards and with turnovers. The Bonnies held a 43-26 edge in rebounds, and forced UB to commit 18 turnovers.
"Defense has been our focus since day one," St. Bonaventure head coach Jim Crowley stated. "But in order for it to work you have to have people who believe in it and our kids do. They take a lot of pride in their defense."
McMeeken-Ruscoe led the Bulls offense with 14 points. Kochendorfer's 12 points also put her in double figures.
The loss brings UB to 1-4 on the year. They will host Youngstown State on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. in Alumni Arena.
