by West Lafayette, Ind. – The University at Buffalo women’s basketball team battled hard but came up short in an 82-70 loss at Purdue on Wednesday night at Mackey Arena.
The Bulls were led by Cheyenne McEvans who recorded a career-high 16 points, all coming in the second half, to go along with six rebounds, three assists and a steal. Summer Hemphill and Elea Gaba added 12 points each and Adebola Adeyeye also got into double figures with 10 points.
Hemphill (Seneca Nation) got to work early, scoring on back-to-back buckets and Adeyeye added an offensive rebound putback to give UB an early 6-5 lead at the 7:09 mark and they would lead 9-8 at the first media timeout. The Bulls offense would then stall and Purdue would take advantage of a two-plus minute UB scoring drought to take an 18-12 lead at the end of the first.
Adeyeye continued to crash the boards as she ended the scoring drought with a putback off glass to cut the Purdue lead to six early in the second quarter. A 7-1 Purdue run put the Boilermakers up 12 but Adeyeye and Hemphill responded with back-to-back buckets to cut the lead to 27-19 at the media timeout. After Purdue went back up by 10, Dyaisha Fair found Jessika Schiffer in transition for three and then picked off a pass for a steal and score to cut the lead to five and force a Purdue timeout at the 2:14 mark. The Boilermakers would respond with back-to-back three’s out of the timeout and they would take a 37-27 lead at the half.
The Boilermakers shooting continued to heat up to start the third quarter as Brooke Moore drained a three in the corner on the opening possession to spark an 8-0 run in under a minute as Purdue increased their lead to 18 at the 9:13 mark. After Purdue extended the run to 15-4 the Bulls answered with a 5-0 run, capped by a Schiffer three to cut the lead to 52-36 but Purdue would take a 56-36 at the media timeout. The Bulls clawed back as McEvans and Gaba put together a 7-0 run in less than a minute to cut the lead to 55-43 at the 4:18 mark. A kick out triple by McEvans cut the lead to 57-46 with just over three minutes to go in the quarter but the Boilermakers would respond with a 7-0 run and take a 68-52 lead at the end of the third.
Both teams would trade baskets to start the fourth quarter as Purdue maintained a 75-60 lead at the media timeout. Schiffer drained a three from the wing to cut the lead to 77-63 at the 3:31 mark and later, and and-one by McEvans pulled UB within 12 in the final seconds but that would be as close as the Bulls would get.
After going 1-for-28 from beyond the arc coming into the game, Purdue shot 11-of-19 from deep and scored 34 points off of a season-high 21 UB turnovers. Buffalo controlled the offensive glass, scoring 25 second chance points off of 15 offensive rebounds but lost the over battle of the boards 36-32.
