Buffalo's reign as road warriors came to a halt on Saturday.
The Bulls headed to Kent State with a 5-1 record away from Alumni Arena, but were greeted with a blowout loss to the Golden Flashes, 73-56.
Buffalo didn't trail the whole way, leading with just over 14 minutes left in the second half at 35-34. At that point, however, the Flashes went on a 14-0 run for the next five minutes, leaving the Bulls in their rearview mirror.
Kent State continued its dominance of the conference, improving to 4-1 in the MAC and 11-5 overall. Lindsay Shearer led the way for the Flashes with game-highs in points and rebounds with 28 and 15, respectively.
The only other Golden Flash to join Shearer in double figures was Sarah Burgess, who had 13 points on the day.
On the other end of the court, however, the Bulls had three players in double figures. Senior guard Brooke Meunier had a team-high 18 points, followed by sophomore forward Heather Turner with 14 and freshman forward Jamie Schiebner, who had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Buffalo's head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald only had seven total players on the floor in the course of the game. Two of them, Meunier and sophomore guard Stephanie Bennett, played every minute of the game, while Turner played 39 minutes.
"I think our lack of depth hurt us today," Hill-MacDonald said in a press release. "We played with the opposing team for a while, but at the end their legs were just fresher than ours."
Kent State was able to use the Bulls' fatigue to its advantage as the Golden Flashes followed their big 14-0 run with a 15-7 run. After that, the Bulls and Flashes traded baskets to end the game.
Buffalo's fatigue was showing in the first half as well. For a seven-minute stretch in the first half, the Bulls were stuck on the scoreboard at 11 points. During that drought, they only took three shots and gave up six turnovers.
Despite their early-game scoring drought, the Bulls went into the half down by just four points.
"This game was similar to the last few we've played," stated Golden Flash head coach Bob Lindsay in a press release. "We were lethargic in the first half and came out and had a stretch in the second half where we played very well, played with some intensity defensively. (Buffalo) played hard and we needed to as well."
Kent State's win marked Lindsay's 200th conference victory. He became the first coach in MAC basketball history - men's and women's - to reach the milestone. Lindsay had already been the first women's basketball coach to amass 300 total wins. He is in his 17th season as a head coach for the Flashes.
The Bulls gave up 14 offensive rebounds which led to 11 second-chance points for the Flashes, but the most telling statistic in this game is UB's 22 turnovers, which lead to 24 Kent State points. Shearer again led the way for the Flashes with a team-high four steals.
Bennett had an uncharacteristically bad game. She shot just 1-4 from the field for three points. She also turned the ball over six times, with just four assists.
In addition to leading her team in nearly every offensive statistical category in this game, Shearer passed 700 career rebounds on Saturday, and moved onto 20th on the Golden Flashes' all-time made free throws list.
Another all-time accomplishment for the Flashes was recorded by Malika Willougby, who had just one field goal and one free throw, three points overall, and surpassed 800 career points.
This was the Bulls' 16th straight loss to Kent State. They have never beaten the Flashes in the seven years the Bulls have been in the MAC.
For UB, this was the second straight game it had only two points coming off the bench. However, the last time it happened, the Bulls were able to pull off a victory. This time, they were outscored on the bench by a 20-2 margin and lost the game by 17 points.
The Bulls will come back to Alumni Arena on Wednesday for a match-up against Toledo at 7 p.m. Toledo will be the Bulls' first MAC-West opponent of the year.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
