Huskies take a bite out of the Bulls

A poor first half performance buried Buffalo on Thursday night, when the women's basketball team lost to Northern Illinois.

The Bulls were outscored 45-30 in the first half, and despite a second half run that cut a first half deficit of 20 down to six, Buffalo was unable to dig themselves out of the hole, and lost 77-63.

Northern Illinois led the entire game, with the only tie occurring at 2-2 with just over 18 minutes left in the first half. With the Huskies leading 11-9, they began to pull away with a 7-0 run. With just over one minute left in the first half, Northern Illinois had built up a 20-point lead. The Huskies paced themselves to their first half lead with seven three-pointers. Buffalo knocked down the lead to 15, right before halftime, setting the stage for an attempted comeback in the second half.

"I thought we had some let-ups. We had two turnovers at the end of the half that gave them some momentum," said Northern Illinois head coach Carol Owens in a press release. "It was not necessarily their defense, but our lack of focus in the last minute and we talked at halftime about not having let-ups."

Led by junior forward Jamie Schiebner, the Bulls started the second half on a 13-4 run that cut the Huskies lead down to six. During the run Schiebner scored seven points in just over a minute, to make the score 49-43. The Huskies were not about to give up their lead however, and they answered back with three points of their own to push the lead back to nine.

After a lay-up by freshman forward Jessica Fortman to pull within seven, the Bulls went over nine minutes without a field goal, essentially sealing their fate. During this span, Northern Illinois pushed their lead back up to 13.

The Bulls had 17 turnovers compared to just 12 assists, and shot only 39 percent from the field, and 27 percent from three-point land. During the nine minute stretch without a basket, Buffalo missed a whopping 13 shots. The drought hurt the Bulls, not only because they were not scoring, but because they were not capitalizing on the Huskies struggles; Northern Illinois went exactly 10 minutes without making a basket.

Schiebner led the Bulls with 14 points and nine rebounds, scoring 10 of her points in the second half. Senior forward Heather Turner scored 11 points and brought down seven rebounds. Turner's 11 points moved her into fourth place on Buffalo's all-time scoring list. Senior guard Stephanie Bennett struggled throughout the game, making only two of her ten attempts from the field for nine points. While leading the team with five assists, sophomore guard Ashley Zuber also had the distinction of leading the team with five turnovers. Zuber scored seven points on 50 percent shooting.

The Huskies had four players score in double-figures, led by Jessie Wilcox with 22 points and six rebounds. Whitney Lowe chipped in with 15 points and five rebounds. Shari' Welton scored 13 points and hauled in seven rebounds, while Kylie York chipped in ten points. Ebony Ellis came off the bench to provide a spark for Northern Illinois, with seven points and eight rebounds in only 17 minutes.

After losing at Northern Illinois, the Bulls traveled to Muncie, Ind. to face the Ball State Cardinals on Feb. 3. The Bulls conquered Ball State (9-12, 5-3 MAC) by a score of 73-62. For full coverage, see the article in the next issue.

Buffalo will be back in action on Sunday, Feb. 9 at home against Toledo. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.