Marshall thunders over hapless Bulls

A lackluster effort on the boards doomed the women's basketball team to a 72-51 loss to Marshall Saturday afternoon at Alumni Arena.

The team's third straight loss frustrated coach Cheryl Dozier, who has seen the young team show streaks of promise this season.

"I'm not pleased," Bulls' head coach Cheryl Dozier said after the game.

Buffalo (3-13 overall, 1-4 Mid-American Conference) gave up 19 offensive rebounds to Marshall (9-7 overall, 3-2 MAC), and that was the story of the game from start to finish.

"We have to get more production out of somebody on our bench, and we have to be able to rebound the basketball," said Dozier.

UB scored the first basket of the game, a lay-up by freshman forward Heather Turner, and never saw the lead again.

Marshall's head coach, Royce Chadwick, understands the problems faced by the Bulls.

"When you play girls that do not have experience you have good halves and bad halves and up nights and down nights," he said.

In addition to its edge over Buffalo in experience, Marshall's head coach attributes the win to the amount of minutes he was able to get from his bench players, with nearly every person who played reaching double digits in minutes.

"We played a lot of people, we got almost everybody who traveled double-digit minutes," said Chadwick. "Because we were playing so many people we were able to wear them down a little bit. I don't think they played nearly as many people as we did."

Dozier gave many players time in this game, but because of injuries and poor play, the bench players saw most of the game from the sidelines.

"I wanted to give those kids opportunities today, and I want to work with them and make them better," Dozier added.

Four of the Bulls' starters saw over 30 minutes of game time, with Turner in the game for all but two minutes. By the end, it was the fatigue factor that allowed the Thundering Herd to get so many of their offensive rebounds and second chance attempts.

Although there were not many positive factors that the Bulls were able to draw from the game against Marshall, one bright spot that keeps glowing for the Bulls is Turner. The freshman scored 16 points and had six rebounds in the game.

"If there was a bright spot today, it was Heather," said Dozier.

Turner's play has not only been impressive for Dozier and the UB faithful, she has grabbed the attention of other teams as well.

"She's a good player and is going to get better and better," said Marshall's Chadwick.

The Bulls know they have to look beyond the win/loss column for this season and ultimately see the potential they contain within the roster, a roster that Dozier predicts will thrive in future years as a result of both time and experience.

"I've got to be patient to get us to our future," said Dozier. "Every kid that played was a first year kid or a second year kid that had limited minutes last year. As much as I want them to be seniors, they're not seniors."

But according to Chadwick, the young Bulls may not have to wait until their senior year to be fearsome opponents.

"Buffalo is a very good young team that is going to get better and better and come March, they are going to be very formidable," he said.

With the loss, the Bulls find themselves in fifth place in the MAC East division, while Marshall has gained sole possession of first place following the victory.

The UB women will return to action on Wednesday in Toledo to face the Rockets.