by Buffalo Communications
BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo women’s basketball team dominated from start to finish as the Bulls cruised to a 102-42 victory over Canisius in the regular season opener at Alumni Arena on Tuesday night. The 60-point victory is UB’s largest in the Division 1 era and the most since a 92-38 win over Youngstown State in 2009.
With the win, Buffalo improves to 22-9 in regular season-openers since joining Division I for the 1991-92 season.
The Bulls showed their balance and depth as seven players scored in double figures, led by junior guard Dyaisha Fair who scored 16 points to go along with two assists and four steals. Reshirt fifth year forward Summer Hemphill (Seneca Nation) recorded her first double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Cheyenne McEvans scored 13 points and added five rebounds, while Loren Christie and Adebola Adeyeye recorded 12 points each. Freshman Georgia Woolley added 11 points to go along with six rebounds and three steals and senior Jazmine Young rounded out the double-figure scoring effort with 10 points.
It was a back-and-forth start to the game before the Bulls used a 10-0 run to go up 14-9 lead and they would lead 16-10 at the first media timeout. Junior Dominique Camp provided a spark out of the timeout as she knocked down a three on the wing to put UB up 21-13 and Christie would follow with an offensive rebound putback to give the Bulls a 25-13 lead at the end of the first.
The Buffalo offense continued to stay hot, opening the second quarter on a 13-0 run, capped by a triple from Woolley and a pair of fastbreak baskets from Adeyeye and Fair to give the Bulls a 38-13 lead and force a Canisius timeout at the 5:34 mark. Buffalo continued to apply the full court press and they would capitalize as Woolley cashed in on a pair of easy layups to put UB up 29. The Bulls continued to stay aggressive as they scored six straight points from the charity stripe and then later, Christie put an exclamation point on a stellar first half for UB with a corner triple to give Buffalo a 51-17 lead at the break.
The Bulls defense held Canisius to just 23% shooting and seven made field goals while the offense shot just under 44% in the opening half.
The two squads traded baskets to start the third quarter before Canisius cut the lead to 56-28 at the 5:35 mark, but the Bulls answered with a 6-2 run of their own, capped by a fastbreak bucket from McEvans and a Hemphill offensive rebound putback to take a 62-30 lead at the media timeout. Christie continued to be a force for UB as she got a putback bucket and the foul before Fair and Woolley put together an 8-2 run through the transition game to give the Bulls a 75-36 lead at the end of the third.
Buffalo continued to pour it on to start the fourth quarter as they rattled off a 7-0 run in less than a minute, including a triple and fastbreak by McEvans, to take a 88-40 lead and force a Canisius timeout at the 6:59 mark and would continue to extend the lead as junior Nia Jordan and redshirt sophomore Ramatoulaye Keita got in on the action with a pair of layups to secure the dominant victory.
Over the last five seasons, UB is now 52-0 when holding opponents to 59 points or less. The Bulls dominated the glass, outrebounding the Golden Griffins 54-32, and in the paint, winning the battle inside 62-18 while also scoring 32 points in transition and 43 points off Canisius turnovers. The UB bench showed its potential as well as they contributed for 40 points with all 10 players who saw action finding the scoring column.
“We are just working on ourselves,” said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. “We are trying to lock into our foxhole and find out who we are as young women, coaches and who we are as a unit and if we can take care of the present and not look ahead to what’s next, we can be a pretty special team. I love the leadership that Summer and Ade give us and when you lead from the inside out, great things can happen.”
