Taking on winless Akron, the circumstances appeared to be favorable for the UB women's basketball team as the Bulls looked to bounce back from a Mid-American Conference loss to Ball State last Saturday.
But Buffalo (3-12 overall, 1-3 MAC) squandered the opportunity to gain its second MAC win of the season, falling to the Zips (1-15, 1-4 MAC) on the road by a final score of 71-63.
A flat start from the opening tip hindered the Bulls and proved to be a setback that UB could not overcome.
"We just didn't get out of the gate well. We found ourselves down 9-0 and we didn't play a good first half," said UB head coach Cheryl Dozier. "We saw them on film but we didn't talk about their (winless) record. They just came out and had a ton of energy and they were just very, very hungry."
The Zips capitalized on six consecutive UB missed shots from the floor in the opening half and drained six hoops from long range. Leading by as many as 17 points in the first half, the Zips led Buffalo 35-21 going into the locker room at halftime.
"This was the first test on the road in the MAC for this young team," Dozier said in a press release. "You can't ever afford to come out flat, especially on the road. We showed signs of life in the second half, but every time we started to climb back into it, we took ourselves out again with turnovers. Akron was a hungry team and they really wanted their first 'W' tonight."
UB opened the second half of action with a 9-3 run, led mainly by Brooke Meunier, who collected seven of the nine Buffalo points.
After a 15-3 response from the Zips, senior guard Talia Merlino came off the bench for the Bulls and hit three straight three-point shots to chip away at the Akron lead.
The Bulls would eventually creep to within four points of Akron, but stellar shooting from the charity stripe by the Zips put the game out of reach for the Bulls. Over the course of the last two minutes of the game, Akron connected on eight of 10 free throws to seal the deal and claim its first victory of the season.
Despite the loss, Buffalo had five players reach double figures in scoring on the night, led by Talia Merlino and Belinda Gibb, who scored 13 points apiece.
Heather Turner and Allison Bennett both threw in 11 points while Meunier recorded 10 points on the night.
Turner also collected eight rebounds for the Bulls, although UB was outrebounded by the Zips by a narrow 38-36 margin.
Buffalo shot 24-for-59 (40.7 percent) from the floor for the game, including a 7-for-23 (30.4) performance from three-point range.
On Saturday at 1 p.m. the Bulls will host Marshall (8-7 overall, 2-2 MAC) at Alumni Arena.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
