Women's basketball blindsided by Flashes

With nowhere to go but up, the UB women's basketball team hit rock bottom on Wednesday night, falling to the Kent State Golden Flashes 76-34 at Alumni Arena. The 34 points that the Bulls produced were the fewest scored since a 2003 loss to nationally ranked Auburn.

The Bulls (4-19 overall, 2-9 Mid-American Conference) dropped their fourth straight, and the ninth of their last 10, scoring just 34 points in the loss.

At the final buzzer, it was Kent State (15-8 overall, 8-4 MAC) winning the game by a 42-point margin, 76-34. Lindsay Shearer led the high-octane Golden Flash offense with 25 points. La'Kia Stewart had 14 points, and Melissa DeGrate ended with 13 points to join Shearer in double figures.

The Flashes' 44.4 percent shooting from the floor was complimented by their stifling defense.

"I think basically the difference here was our defense," said Kent State head coach Bob Lindsay. "We put a lot of pressure on them defensively and they had a hard time running their offense."

Bulls' head coach Cheryl Dozier recognized that fact immediately.

"Kent State's pressure absolutely killed us," she said.

A big reason the Bulls had trouble running their offense was the early foul trouble that standout freshman forward Heather Turner found herself in. Turner had three fouls early in the first half, and saw only limited action in the second half.

"Well I think it hurt us," said Dozier. "The ability to go inside takes pressure off the perimeter kids. And we had to go to the bench, and we really didn't get what we need from there."

Because of Turner's foul trouble, the Bulls had to rely on their outside shooting in a game where their perimeter shooters were unable to hit their shots.

Sophomore guard Belinda Gibb ended the game 0-7 from the field. Junior Brooke Meunier, who saw her game time greatly reduced because of Viorica Badinici's return, ended the game 0-6 from the field. Stephanie Bennett and Allison Bennett were a combined 2-11 from beyond the arc.

In the first half, the Bulls shot just 23.1 percent from the field.

"No coach in their right mind is going to think we could shoot worse in the second half than we did in that first half," said Dozier.

The Bulls' icy hand continued in the second half, as they shot a dismal 17.9 percent in the frame.

"That was basically the difference, we made the shots. They didn't," said Bob Lindsay, the Kent State coach.

Buffalo did not get the production they needed from their bench players either, as the bench contributed just four points in the game, on a combined 1-for-12 shooting from the field.

Bulls' senior guard Allison Bennett knows that despite the Bulls' poor record to this point, they just have to keep their heads up and focus on the road ahead.

"We have to take it one day at a time and basically better ourselves for March 5, which is our first tournament game," said Bennett. "For that game everyone's 0-0, it doesn't matter what anyone did in the season before."

Plagued by injury this season, Badinici was able to lead the Bulls offensively, scoring nine points while grabbing five rebounds to tie for the team high in boards.

Badinici was unable to get into the flow of the game, as fatigue set in early and often for her.

"After that first stretch of four minutes she played, we just kept playing her because at this point in time she's just going to have to learn how to play through that," said Dozier. "She was struggling big time with her cardio."

Coach Dozier understands that this kind of play late in the season is a direct result of the players' inability to handle the length of the college basketball season as compared to the high school basketball season, which is about half as long.

"This time of year, there are a lot of young kids, I can't go into practice and send a message right now, because these young kids have never gone through a five and a half month season before," said Dozier. "They have no idea about this, going into next year all we can do is tell them, this is why we do all the things that we do in the off-season."

UB has just four games left this year, three of which are on the road. They will return home on Feb. 26 to face Northern Illinois. That game will be the final home game for seniors Talia Merlino and Allison Bennett.

Before that, however, the Bulls will travel to Marshall for a game on Saturday, Feb. 19. This is the last time the Bulls will travel to Marshall for a conference game, as the Thundering Herd will be leaving the MAC at the conclusion of this season, switching to Conference USA.