The UB women's basketball team looks to grab their sixth win of the season this Saturday afternoon when they go on the road against their Mid-American Conference rival Ohio Bobcats.
Buffalo (5-13, 3-5 MAC) is coming off a come-from-behind 65-61 victory over the Toledo Rockets on Wednesday night, and have won four of their last eight after starting the season with only one win in their first ten games.
"Early on in our season we faced a lot of adversity, and we're a young squad," said UB head coach Cheryl Dozier. "Lately, we've been able to bond together more as a team and a unit and figure out how to battle the adversity together."
Dozier's crew faces an Ohio team that picked up their eighth overall win of the season Wednesday, beating Central Michigan 53-48. Ohio (8-11, 2-6 MAC) was led in that game by freshman Angel Hornsburger who had 14 points and career highs with seven rebounds and seven steals.
Latreece Bagley has been the Bobcats' strongest offensive player this season averaging 12.4 points per game and is the team's scoring leader by nearly 70 points. Attempting to slow her down will be no easy task, as UB will need to rely on multiple players to try and keep her in check.
"I think it'll be a combination of Jessica Kochendorfer and Kim Kilpela and even Brooke Meunier sometimes on her," Dozier said. "Latreece is probably going to get hers, and what I mean by that is that we're not going to completely shut her out, we just can't allow her to kill us, to get in there and get 20 or 30 points."
Last season, UB defeated Ohio twice, 76-59 and 72-59. There is no guarantee of a repeat however, as the Bulls have lost five players, including four seniors, from last year's roster, while the Bobcats lost only one sophomore off their entire squad from last season.
"They're an older team, they have a lot of depth, they are very athletic," said Dozier. "We're going to have to play good, solid defense, we're going to have to be able to knock down open looks on our offense and we're going to have to rebound the basketball."
UB has lost four of their players to injury and they are left with only seven players on the active roster for Saturday's game.
"It's just a matter of, with seven kids now, it's a matter of being able to keep ourselves out of foul trouble and have our kids not allow fatigue to become a factor," said Dozier.
Including Toledo, who they beat Wednesday, UB faces teams with a combined record of 20-30 over their final seven games this season.
"The toughest part of our schedule I think is behind us," said Dozier "I think our kids know that, I think that they came out of it mentally and physically better than when we went in to it, and I think that that only bodes well for us down the stretch."
A win for the Bulls on Saturday would give UB their fourth MAC victory, equaling the win totals of Marshall and Kent State, the second and third place teams in their division.
Buffalo and the Bobcats tip off at 1 p.m. this Sat. in Athens, OH.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
