"The kids talked earlier this week," Buffalo Bulls head coach Cheryl Dozier said. "When they have a teammate that's hot, go to the well until it's dry."
And that is exactly what UB did with Jessica Kochendorfer.
The UB women's basketball team (12-9, 4-6 MAC) defeated the Bowling Green Falcons (10-11, 3-7 MAC) 72-60 on Wednesday night at Alumni Arena in front of a crowd of 707 fans.
UB's offense was spread around but main contributions were made by freshman Jessica Kochendorfer. She shot a spectacular 11-16 from the field and was also 3-5 from the free throw line. Many of her points came from inside the paint, where she dominated throughout the game. She also played aggressive defense causing opponents to alter their shots throughout the game.
Allison Bennett showed her shooting skills off too, shooting 5-7 from the field for 10 points. Brooke Meunier also came up big when needed, shooting 5-10 from the field with two 3-pointers to get her 13 points while also throwing baseball-style passes down the entire court for easy lay-ups.
"I was very pleased with the balanced attack," said Dozier. "We have a lot of scorers on the floor when we don't turn it over."
With the score 29-28 in favor of Bowling Green going at the end of the first half, the entire game was still to be decided.
Points in the paint were what helped UB come out with the victory. While Bowling Green was shooting from behind the arc, UB continued to pound the ball inside with Kochendorfer.
"We were a lot bigger than them," said Kochendorfer. "We wanted to run our offense, look for open shots, inside or out."
Bowling Green's 3-point shooters were deadly though, shooting 6-14 in the second half and hitting a total of 10 in the game. The dangerous Francine Miller was 4-11 from beyond the arc to help her get 21 points.
Stefanie Wenzel was another threat, shooting only 3-pointers and hitting five out of nine, giving her 15 points.
Although Bowling Green's 3-point shooters could be fatal, they were no match for the 38 points in the paint that UB scored, compared to Bowling Green's dismal 14.
Scoring in the paint is what created the 57.6 shooting percentage for UB in the second half. Bowling Green only shot 37 percent on 10-27 from the field in that second half.
Meunier was what finally set apart the two teams. She hit two consecutive 3-pointers to put UB up for good with 8:41 left in the second half.
"Coach said catch and shoot, instead of always penetrating," said Meunier.
UB's contributions came from everyone used in the seven-man rotation, with three people in double digits and the regular scorers like Hollie Cook and Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe passing off eight dimes a piece. The zones were also extremely effective at keeping Bowling Green only shooting from the outside.
"Our 2-3 and 3-2 zone bothered them and we rebounded well out of them," said Dozier.
UB will go head to head with one of the leading teams in the West division of the MAC conference this Sunday at 2 p.m. in Alumni Arena. With a record of 13-7, and a 7-2 conference record, the Western Michigan Broncos look to gain ground in the competitive West Division. Buffalo is looking to make a big push into the MAC tournament coming up in March.
Buffalo's inside game will contrast to the beyond-the-arc style of the Western Michigan offense, led by guard Casey Rost and forward Lori Crisman.
"With the amount of threes that Bowling Green shot tonight, well Western Michigan may come out and top that," Dozier said to WWKB radio after the Bowling Green game.
Some telling statistics between the two teams include the turnover ratio. Recently the Bulls have had struggles with turnovers against Northern Illinois and Kent State. Over the course of the season, Buffalo has given up an average of 21.1 turnovers per game. That number improved to 17 against Bowling Green, but will have to continue to improve, as Western Michigan has a solid 15.1 average turnovers per game, and a plus four turnover margin.
The Bulls defense has played well against opponents when attempting to shoot from the floor, allowing only a .384 field goal percentage, while shooting .452 themselves. However, Buffalo has allowed an average of six 3-pointers per game, and 126 all year.
Both teams occupy the three spot in their divisions with Buffalo attempting to catch up to Kent State (7-3 MAC, 12-9) and Miami of Ohio (5-4 MAC, 10-10) in the East, while Western Michigan is chasing Toledo (9-2 MAC, 16-6) and Ball State (9-2, 15-6 MAC) in the West.
Sunday's game can be heard live on WWKB-AM 1520.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
