Bulls trampled by Thundering Herd's second half charge

The UB women's basketball team fell again on Saturday, losing 66-46 to Marshall, the No. 1 team in the Mid-American Conference East Division.

In front of 1,217 fans at Marshall's Cam Henderson Center, the Bulls (4-20, 2-11 MAC) put up a fight and gave the Thundering Herd (17-7, 11-2 MAC) a scare, keeping the game close for much of the first half of action.

UB head coach Cheryl Dozier was happy with the effort of the team, though the result of the game was once again very frustrating.

"We played hard in the first half and we were OK when we executed our offenses," said Dozier. "It was when we didn't execute and didn't rebound that we got ourselves in trouble and allowed them to pull away."

The Bulls got off to a slow start, falling behind 18-7 with just over 10 minutes to play in the first half. The Bulls, however, were able to charge back, slowly chipping away at the Thundering Herd's lead. By the end of the first half, the score was 26-25 in favor of Marshall.

In the second half, Marshall came out hungry and found themselves with a 12-point lead with about 17 minutes left to play.

With 6:48 left on the clock, however, Brooke Meunier hit a big 3-pointer which brought the Bulls within six points at a score of 51-46.

Meunier led the Bulls in scoring with 16 points on 4-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc. This was a welcome change from Meunier's 0-for-7 performance from the field on Wednesday night.

Down by six, with the momentum swinging toward UB and the game within reach, the Bulls went into a terrible drought to close out the game, and did not score again. The Thundering Herd went on a 16-0 run to end the game.

After the game, Dozier could not help but feel that UB had missed a golden opportunity to come away with an upset, and earn some respect in the hard-fought MAC.

"It was a one-point game at the half and a five-point game with seven minutes to go, so it was within reach. It's frustrating, there's no question about it."

Heather Turner led UB in rebounding with 11 rebounds, five of which were on the offensive glass, but no other Bull had over four rebounds. Marshall, conversely, had three players with at least seven rebounds.

In addition to the poor rebounding effort, another factor that helped to sway the game in Marshall's favor was the fact that UB shot just 29.2 percent from the field in the second half of the game. Also, poor ball handling, leading to sloppy play down the stretch factored into the Bulls' loss.

"Again, turnovers and offensive rebounding hurt us," said Dozier. "I think they separated themselves from us when we turned the ball over and they rebounded and got second and third shot opportunities."

After closing the Marshall lead to six points on Meunier's 3-pointer, the Bulls turned the ball over on their next three possessions. Taking advantage of the Bulls' turnovers, Marshall stretched its six-point lead to 10 points with three minutes to go, effectively putting the game out of reach for the Bulls.

Marshall was led by Sikeet Shepard-Hall, who had 23 points and four rebounds. Meunier led the Bulls with 16 points and four rebounds, and Turner who had seven points along with her team high 11 rebounds. Modupe Ishola also had 11 rebounds for the Thundering Herd.

UB will be back in action on Wednesday at Miami of Ohio. Tip off in Oxford will be at 7 p.m. Marshall also takes its show on the road, going to Ball State on Wednesday.