Stronger Women's Team Comes Up Short Against Maine

Despite scoring more points than they have in any game this season, the women's basketball team fell to the Black Bears of Maine Saturday night at Alumni Arena, 69-57.

After a tough loss at Northeastern, the Bulls (1-4) played strong in the first half but succumbed to Maine (3-3) right out of the gates in the second half.

UB head coach Cheryl Dozier doesn't want the team to focus on the record, but rather on the improvement that the team is showing with every game this season.

"One of the bigger things I'm trying to tell the team right now, with our experience is that I can't be concerned with the 1-4," she said. "We just have to try to get better every day."

While the Bulls experienced a setback against Northeastern on Wednesday, they have been improving as each game has gone on and in turn, Dozier decided to add another shake-up to the starting lineup on Saturday night.

After giving Stephanie Bennett her first career start at Northeastern, Dozier gave another freshman her first shot at quality minutes as Heather Turner was given the starting nod for the first time this season.

"I needed somebody that wanted the ball down there," said Dozier. "Now as I tell her, she's shown me what she can bring to the table, so now the expectations are a little higher for her."

Turner was as good an offensive spark as the Bulls have had all year. The freshman forward finished the night with 17 points on 7-11 shooting in the game. Turner also led a contingent of Buffalo post players that combined to score 30 points in the paint for UB.

Turner's presence on defense was not to be overlooked, though. The Bulls nearly tied Maine in both points in the paint and in total rebounds.

Despite Turner's offensive presence, the Bulls were unable to emerge Saturday night's contest garnering a victory.

Offensively for Maine, Bracey Barker cascaded the Bulls with buckets from all over the court, scoring 26 points on 9-12 shooting. Additionally, she tallied nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals on the night.

"You've got to give Barker a lot of credit tonight, she had a great game," said Dozier.

The Black Bears played fundamental basketball, with only nine turnovers on the night. Maine exhibited solid defense as well, forcing the Bulls to commit 14 total turnovers in the game. Dozier credited Sharon Versyp, Maine's head coach, with making sure the proper defense was played against the Bulls' young offense.

"She threw zone at us, and that bothered us, and she continued to throw zone at us, and it continued to bother us," said Dozier. "I thought we were doing pretty well with our man-to-man offense."

The Bulls are going to have to improve their offensive communication, according to Dozier, if they want to continue to score as many and more points as they did Saturday night.

"Early on this season, they felt like they were a little bit on train tracks, and sometimes they weren't all on the same track," she said. "Not everybody knew the offense and where they were supposed to be."

The offensive problems experienced in the past by the Bulls were absent early in the game, as the offense came out and continually found Turner down low, and when the Bulls needed to take the three point shot, they did, knocking down five of ten three point attempts.

Nearly everything was going right for the Bulls. The offense was finally getting good scoring opportunities, the players were playing together and the defense did a good job of holding the opposing team from going on offensive runs.

But after a 6-0 run that began the second half, the Bulls fell victim to an offensive plague, scoring just 14 points in the next 14 minutes, while the Black Bears scored 29 points.

"At that point we needed to come together and work harder defensively. We can't allow them to do that to us," said Turner.

It will be necessary for UB to play a complete game when they travel to take on Bucknell on Tuesday.

As to whether or not UB, after five games this year, has finally found its starting lineup, Dozier is unsure.

"I told the kids last night, there is not one spot that is secure, and it can't be not with this young team, and they have to understand that starting is not the most important thing," Dozier said.