The Connecticut women's basketball team scored the first basket and never looked back Friday night in a 107-40 victory over the Bulls.
Ann Strothers led UConn in scoring, with 17 points by the end of the first half, and 20 by the end of the game. She shot 4 for 6 from behind the arc.
"Ann Strothers, I just can't say enough about her," said Bulls' head coach Cheryl Dozier. "I've seen her on film a lot. She's very calm and collected and she just knocked shots down."
Dozier and her players said the loss was a learning experience, as they had the chance to play in the biggest of spotlights.
"It was not intimidating," said freshman Stephanie Bennett. "It was a lot of fun."
Bennett led the Bulls in scoring with 10 points, six of which came from three-pointers and the other four from free throws. She was a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe.
Dozier said she was not at all disappointed in the way her team played. She focused on developing the youth of the team. At times the Bulls had four freshmen on the court with only one upperclassman.
In addition to their freshmen who haven't played college basketball before, the Bulls featured two players who had never even played a game in America.
"We're so young in the post, we have six new people in the post, today was their first game and they (UConn) welcomed them to college basketball," said Dozier. "They also welcomed our European kids to America."
The lone bright spot in the game for the Bulls occurred when Heather Turner jumped into the game and scored the team's first points.
Turner hit a lay-up which was followed by a Stephanie Bennett three-pointer. At that point, it looked like the Bulls had some momentum.
"I turned and looked at my staff and I said, 'That's our freshmen,'" said Dozier.
But after that, the turnover bug bit the Bulls big time. Buffalo ended the game with 20 turnovers, nine from Stephanie Bennett, and UConn most definitely capitalized on the UB mistakes with 33 points resulting from those turnovers.
In addition to turnovers, UConn was able to cause Buffalo problems in the paint, winning the battle down low by a 58-10 margin. The Huskies were also able to stop UB from running with the ball, outscoring the Bulls 12-0 in fast break points.
The one bright spot in the Bulls' statistics was their free throw percentage. The Bulls took 14 free throws in the game, and sank 12 of them. UConn went 11-15 from the line.
The Bulls fell victim to UConn's strong defense and their seemingly impenetrable zone defense.
UB was unable to get the ball inside to their post players, and their three-point shooting was not strong enough to force the Huskies to come out of the zone as the Bulls shot a dismal 4-18 from beyond the arc, including a 1-8 showing in the second half.
Every one of the Huskies scored a basket, except for Ketia Swanier, who contributed eight assists and no turnovers in 21 minutes of play.
"You can watch them on film and watch them on film, and watch the Final Four, and you don't know how they play until you're actually on the court with them," said Dozier.
Odds are the Bulls will not have to face players the caliber of Ann Strothers and the rest of the Huskies when UB starts conference play, but Stephanie Bennett warned that the Bulls do not have the luxury of getting lazy just because there are no national champions left on their schedule.
"You're going to face athletic people everywhere you go," she said.
None of the freshmen said the fact that the Huskies were the defending champions fazed them.
"Honestly, I was nervous, but it was more intensity, more I wanted to get out on the floor," said freshman Heather Turner.
Even after watching the Huskies reveal their championship banner before the game, the Bulls were not intimidated.
"Being in that atmosphere was really good," said Turner. "We came out there, watched the banner, but that just gave us more determination."
Coach Dozier stressed the importance of remaining focused on the games ahead, noting that once a game is played the only thing that can be done is to learn from mistakes that were made.
"We've got to get better from today going into Sunday's game and then next Saturday's game," she said. "I told the kids going into the game today, that after the game we were going to be able to have some things to look at."
The Bulls' first home game will be against Lafayette on Sat., Nov. 27 at HSBC Arena.
