Women's Basketball

Although still a little early for basketball season, Alumni Arena housed an exhibition on Wednesday evening, with the UB women's basketball team falling 90-74 to a team comprised of some of the National Women's Basketball League's top players.

Buffalo, coached by Cheryl Dozier, was competitive for most of the game, but could not keep up with the NWBL zone defense:

"I was surprised by (NWBL's) zone defense, because in their previous games, they didn't play one," said Dozier. "We didn't even have a zone offense set up, and to come out and score 74 points against a team that zoned us for 40 minutes is very good."

Senior Jessica Kochendorfer led the way for Buffalo, scoring 18 points on 50 percent shooting from the field, to go along with seven rebounds off the bench. Starters Brooke Meunier and Kim Kilpela chipped in 16 and 14 points, respectively. Allison Bennett added eight points, six rebounds, and four assists.

Former Syracuse standout Beth Record led the way for the NWBL team with 19 points, including three three-pointers.

"They're a very unselfish group, as they did a very good job making the extra pass and getting their teammates wide open for shots," added Dozier.

Unfortunately, the shots weren't falling for Buffalo, as they shot 40.3 percent for the game, compared to the NWBL's 47.4 percent; This was highlighted by a 16-4 second half run by the NWBL.

However, if Buffalo wants to win regular season games, they need to get it done on the defensive end of the ball as well, according to Dozier.

"Defensively, we need to start getting on the ball," said Dozier. "They ran all over us in the transition, we can't allow teams to do that. As we keep having more and more practices, we're only going to get better."

Buffalo opens their season at 6 p.m. on Friday, November 21, against the local rival Canisius Golden Griffins. The game opens up a doubleheader, as the UB men's basketball team faces off against Canisius immediately following the end of the women's game.