With a good mix of both Bulls and Golden Griffins fans in attendance at the Koessler Athletic Center on Friday night, the women's basketball team looked to start its season off in a good note against local rival Canisius.
The Bulls (0-1) opened up the game with a lay-up by junior Heather Turner to take a 2-0 lead. This turned out to be their only lead of the game as the Bulls fell to the Golden Griffins, 74-58.
"Inconsistency is probably a very good description of what was going on," said Bulls' head coach Linda Hill-McDonald. "The game itself is in the statistics and that's 24 turnovers, 11-25 from the foul line and numerous missed lay-up opportunities. If we get a little bit better at those three things, it's a different basketball game."
Junior Stephanie Bennett led the Bulls with 15 points and six assists. She was 4-8 from beyond the arc. Turner had 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
"Heather Turner was incredible inside," Hill-McDonald said. "She had people hanging all over her, she battled. It was a war zone down in the paint. I thought her ability to sustain the level of focus that she did was excellent given the physicality of the game tonight."
Freshman Kourtney Brown, who started the first game of her college career, scored 10 points and had six rebounds.
Abby Radunske, who made all six of her field goal attempts and scored 13 points, led Canisius on the floor. However, the story of the night for the Golden Griffins was Amanda Cavo. She was the 2006 Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year and started off her sophomore campaign with 22 points. She shot 6-8 from three-point range while going 7-14 overall from the floor. Last season, her three-point percentage was 47.3.
"She gets that shot off so quickly," Hill-McDonald said. "When she gets into a rhythm with that shot, she's very, very tough to defend no matter what you do against her."
Canisius head coach Terry Zeh spoke of the difficulties for the Bulls with Radunske drawing attention inside, allowing Cavo to get open for outside shots.
"They knew what we were going to run and they made our high-lows a little bit difficult early, which frees up the perimeter quite a bit," Zeh said. "When Amanda is making shots like crazy, you've got to pick your poison a little bit."
After Turner's game opening score, Canisius responded with a lay-up of its own by Megan Lyte. Buffalo stayed close for the next ten minutes of the game. A jumper by Turner with 10:46 remaining in the half made the score 22-21 in favor of the Golden Griffins. After that, the two teams went almost three minutes without scoring a point.
With slightly less than eight minutes to go in the half, Brittane Russell made a lay-up and got fouled for Canisius. That was the beginning of a 13-3 run that allowed the Golden Griffins to pull away. The stretch included the third three of the game from Cavo, as Canisius led 35-24.
The teams went into the locker room for halftime with the Golden Griffins ahead by the same amount, this time at 43-32.
Buffalo kept Canisius from increasing their lead by much. Brown stole the ball and hit a lay-up to bring the score to 61-48.
Canisius answered though with three straight baskets. The Golden Griffins got three-pointers from Cavo and Jesse Lamparski along with a lay-up by J.J. Williams. The 21-point lead was their largest of the game.
Although the Bulls lost, Hill-McDonald was pleased with some aspects of the game.
"I think there were a lot of bright spots," Hill-McDonald said. "There were times when we ran our offense really well and got what we wanted from it. There were times when defensively we stopped what they looking to get. Hopefully we can learn from this and put a better, consistent performance on the floor next time."
The players on the court also appreciated the aura generated by the fans in attendance for the game between cross-town rivals.
"It's so much fun to play in front of crowd like that," Cavo said. "With the UB people screaming back and forth with our crowd, it was just a great atmosphere to have that. It was a lot of fun."
The Bulls look to rebound in their next game on Tuesday. They will travel to Michigan to play Detroit-Mercy at 7 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
