The miraculous run of the women's basketball had to end sometime. Much to the displeasure of Bulls' fans, it ended before the Bulls were able to grab the team's first NCAA Tournament bid.
Buffalo (8-24, 2-14 Mid-American Conference) fell behind early and despite a strong second half performance, lost to the Ball State Cardinals (24-8, 14-2 MAC) 68-54 Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals, the No. 1 seed in the West Division, will play Bowling Green, the No.1 seed in the East Division, in Sunday's MAC Women's Championship.
"Too bad the game is made up of two halves, because we played a championship second half after really struggling in the first half," said head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald. "We were just unable to get ourselves out of the deep hole."
Buffalo started out strong early on. A three-point play by senior forward Jamie Schiebner put the Bulls down 7-5 with 17:17 left in the half.
After that point, Ball State stifled the Bulls. They went on a 16-0 run that covered eight minutes of play to make the score 23-5. It only got worse for the Bulls in the half as they continued to miss shots and went into the locker-room down 34-12.
The first half stats were ugly. Buffalo shot just 3-for-22 from the field and committed 10 turnovers. Ball State controlled the glass in the first half, out-rebounding the Bulls 24-12. Ten of the Cardinals' rebounds came on the offensive glass, which turned into nine second-chance points.
"We had a little bit of a sluggish start and missed a lot of easy shots in the beginning," said sophomore forward Kourtney Brown.
The second half did not provide instant success for the Bulls. Ball State gained their largest lead of the game when the Cardinals' Amber Clark nailed a free throw to make the score 41-16 with 16:49 left.
Buffalo refused to keep the deficit above 20 points. They were able to outscore the Cardinals 38-27 during the rest of the game to make the score respectable.
Brown was able to find her groove in the second half, helping the Bulls narrow the deficit. She scored 21 points overall, including 19 points in a strong second half effort.
"I thought the guards passed the ball better to [Kourtney]," MacDonald said. "Kourtney made a great adjustment mentally and physically in that second half. She just went to work."
The Bulls' exit from the MAC Tournament did not ruin what was an impressive showing. Nobody in Cleveland expected the Bulls to last past Thursday's game against Northern Illinois.
But the surprising performances impressed people around the league. The Bulls, who lose only two seniors off of this year's team, showed they could play with everyone in the MAC and look to build off of this MAC Tournament success.
"They did a great job beating Northern Illinois and then Kent," said Ball State guard Porchia Green. "... I'm proud of Buffalo. Overall, they just worked hard."
Ball State head coach Kelly Packard was also impressed with MacDonald and her troops.
"It says a lot about the character of her team that not only do you get this far, but when you look at the number of wins, a lot of teams fail to respond mentally to re-geared up for a so-called second season, and she found a way to get the re-geared up," she said. "The people coming back will remember and they'll know they can battle through some difficulties."
One of the seniors leaving the women's program, guard Dortae Freeman, is confident that the team will win more consistently in the future against MAC programs.
"Other MAC teams will definitely be seeing Buffalo back again," he said. "It just shows the effort of our team and the fact that we're not willing to give up."
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
