Badinici hits buzzer beater

In a battle in which two teams desperately searched for a win, the women's basketball team faced the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks on Tuesday night. The teams came into Alumni Arena with identical 2-9 Mid-American Conference records, and Buffalo was in the midst of a seven-game losing streak.

"We're just glad to get that one. That's all I have to say," said Buffalo head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald. "I thought it was a great effort with a lot of contribution from the bench tonight."

With five-and-a-half seconds left in the game, and the Bulls down 61-60, junior Viorica Badinici hit the biggest shot of her collegiate career. Badinci received a pass from junior guard Belinda Gibb on the wing and the 6-foot 3-inch forward calmly let the ball fly from her had and gave the Bulls the 62-61 lead.

"She hits that shot every day in practice," Hill-MacDonald said. "We've seen her hit it a 1000 times. When we saw it go up, I knew it was going in."

Following Badinci's game-breaking shot, the Bulls manufactured a defensive stop and secured the win.

RedHawks head coach Maria Fantanarosa said she was anticipating that the Bulls' final play would be to set up forward sophomore Heather Turner for the game winning shot, but cautioned her team to defend an outside shot.

"We thought the ball was going to go to Turner down low and if she were to kick it out, to make sure that the shot was contested. Go figure," Fantanarosa said.

With the game in the balance, as she took her shot, Badinici was focused on the fundamentals.

"Getting my feet set and letting (the ball) go," Badinici said about her train of thought during the final seconds.

While Badinici had the last-second heroics, senior guard Brooke Meunier hit a milestone while Turner saw limited first-half play.

Meunier scored the 1,000th point of her career in front of a home crowd with a three-pointer at 18:50 in the first half. The Saginaw, Mich. native became the 15th player in the school's program to reach that mark.

As for Turner, the sophomore forward was a non-factor for much of the first half as she played only eight minutes due to foul trouble.

The second half was a different story, however, as Turner played all 20 minutes, stopping only to stop a bloody nose. Turner scored 12 of her 18 points and pulled down six of her nine rebounds in the second half, leading the team back from a 34-28 halftime deficit.

"I am pretty confident when I step onto the court," Turner said. "I always feel like I am going to have a good game, and I think what made me have a really good game today was that the guards were hitting me."

Sophomore guard Stephanie Bennett ended the match up with a game-high 10 assists.

For the second consecutive game, the Bulls were forced to play without forward Jamie Schiebner, who has started 21 of 23 matches this season. Schiebner is second on the team with 7.5 rebounds per game, and fourth on the team in both minutes and points per game averaging 28.6 and 8.2, respectively.

Hill-MacDonald acknowledged that Schiebner is still feeling the effects of a concussion suffered against Central Michigan on Feb. 8.

"She probably will be out on Saturday," Hill-MacDonald said. "She is still experiencing some symptoms of a concussion. She'll go for an MRI tomorrow, and we will make an evaluation at that point. At this point, it looks like she probably won't play over the weekend."

With Schiebner injured, and Turner having to sit most of the first half, the Bulls had to rely on bench players like Badinici and sophomore forward Barbora Homolov.

In Turner's stead, sophomore Homolova played 12 minutes in the first half, contributing four points and two rebounds, all above her season averages.

Hill-MacDonald said she was impressed with the way that the role players took advantage of their opportunities.

"I thought it was a great effort," MacDonald said. "(We got) a lot of contribution from the bench tonight."

The Bulls will now hit the road for two games, starting at Bowling Green on Saturday. The Falcons are ranked 23rd in the country according to a USA Today poll released on Monday.

The game will begin at 7 p.m.