Plagued by terrible second half play, the women's basketball team lost both of its games this weekend in the Dead River Company Classic.
In its first game, Buffalo (1-4) played well in the first half against a great Penn State (6-1) team. Although the Lady Lions jumped on Buffalo early – surging out to an early 20-8 lead – the Bulls fought back quickly with the play of junior forward Bridgette Kendricks.
Kendricks' speed and defense allowed her to get some steals, which led to crucial fast break lay-ups that kept Buffalo close. The Bulls were down five at half and hopes of an upset remained in tact.
But Penn State was relentless in the second half and the team's hot shooting proved to be too much for the Bulls to handle. The Lady Lions shot 56.4 percent from the field, including a 50 percent effort from behind the arc.
Buffalo's high energy and high-pressure defense was unable to contain the Penn State offense that executed perfectly throughout the second half.
'I thought we brought forth great energy today, but we were unable to execute,' said head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald. 'You have to able to execute when you play a great team like Penn State and I give them credit because they were able to execute and we weren't.'
Although Buffalo couldn't pull off the upset, many positives came out of the loss. Along with the high energy effort that Buffalo put forth, 12 Bulls were able to find the scoring column. Junior forward Kourtney Brown led the attack with a double-double – 14 points and 10 rebounds – and Kendricks finished with seven points, three rebounds and three steals.
The Bulls' second game against Maine (2-3) at Alford Arena didn't go much differently. Buffalo was unable to put together a full game of good basketball.
The score was tied for much of the low scoring first half. Maine played well for most of the first half, but had a lapse near the end. Led by junior forward Jessica Fortman's five points, the Bulls put together a 7-0 run and went ahead by three heading into halftime.
Despite the strong finish, another bad second half play weighed down the Bulls for the second straight day. Maine went on a 10-0 run to take the lead, 44-41. The Bulls answered with a three from freshman guard Nikki Hopkins to tie the score but Maine put together another 8-2 run, extending the Black Bears lead to six.
Freshman guard Chrissy Cooper answered the run with a rare four-point play that brought Buffalo within two points, but it wasn't enough.
The Bulls were exhausted from playing from behind and didn't have enough gas to pull off a come-from-behind victory.
Maine made all its important clutch free throws to maintain its lead at the end of the game. The Bulls got one last look with 10 seconds left, but freshman guard Abby Dowd's 3-pointer fell short. The Bulls then committed a foul to make the final score 58-53.
Sloppy play, combined with an array of turnovers, led the Bulls to their second straight loss in two days.
'We turned the ball over way too many times today,' Hill-MacDonald said. 'We gave away 26 offensive possessions because we couldn't hold on to the ball and that is inexcusable if you want to win.'
Brown led the Bulls again with 17 points and eight rebounds. Dowd played her best college game to date, finishing with nine points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Kendricks also continued her great play, ending with six points, 10 rebounds, three assists, one block and a steal.
Buffalo hopes to snap their four-game losing streak when they travel to Providence on Wednesday. The game tips off at 7 p.m.
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