by BUFFALO, NY – A career night for Summer Hemphill (Seneca Nation) and a standpoint performance by Dyaisha Fair powered the Bulls to a dominating 93-68 win over Eastern Michigan on Monday night at Alumni Arena. With their fifth straight win, Buffalo improves to 16-7 on the year and 10-3 in league play.
With her sixth rebound of the night midway through the second quarter, Hemphill pulled down her 1,000th career rebound, becoming only the second player in program history to accomplish that feat, joining UB’s all-time leading scorer Kourtney Brown.
Fair led all scorers with 38 points to go with five rebounds, five assists and two steals. Freshman guard Georgia Woolley continued to impress as she cracked the 20-point mark for the fifth time in six games with 21 points while adding seven rebounds and a career-best six steals and junior Dominique Camp added a career-high 16 points to go with six assists and two steals. Hemphill just missed out on a double-double as she scored eight points while finishing with 14 rebounds.
It was a back-and-forth affair to start the game before costly UB turnovers turned into easy points for the Eagles as they took a 12-7 lead, but Fair sliced to the basket for a bucket plus the foul to cut the lead to two at the 4:37 mark. The Buffalo defense would lock down out of the media timeout, holding the Eagles without a field goal for the final three minutes, and offense would find its rhythm as well as UB used a 10-0 run, capped by back-to-back triples by Fair, the latter at the buzzer from just inside halfcourt, to give the Bulls a 24-17 lead at the end of the first.
The Bulls came out aggressive to start the second quarter as Woolley attacked the basket for an easy bucket and later, Hemphill knocked down a pair of free throws to put UB up 28-22 at the 7:07 mark. The Eagles used a 5-0 run to cut the UB lead to one with four minutes to go in the quarter, but Camp answered with back-to-back threes to put UB back up by six and she later hit Fair for an easy layup and then Fair made four straight free throws in the final minute to give Buffalo a 42-34 lead at the half.
Fair got the Bulls off to a good start in the third quarter as she sliced to the basket for an easy two on UB’s first possession. Later, she hit Loren Christie for a baseline jumper as the shot clock expired and then got to the rack for another bucket before Christie pulled down an offensive rebound and tapped it to Hemphill who powered up for an easy layup to put UB up 50-41 and force an EMU timeout at the 7:08 mark. The Bulls continued to heat up as they rattled off a 13-0 run, jumpstarted by a triple from Woolley and capped with baskets from Hemphill, Elea Gaba and Fair, to take a 20-point lead at the 3:44 mark. Buffalo continued to share the basketball as a give-and-go from Hemphill to Woolley ended with a beautiful and-one by the freshman and the Bulls would take a 66-50 lead at the end of the third.
It was the Camp and Fair show to start the fourth quarter as they knocked down a pair of threes and Fair would later call game as she drained back-to-back triples and then followed with a mid-range jumper to give UB their largest lead of the game, 82-57, with just over four minutes to play. Woolley then added her second triple from the wing and later Jazmine Young, playing in her first game in league play, converted four straight from the charity stripe in the final two minutes of play to secure the victory.
“Congratulations to Summer on 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds,” said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. “I just love what Dyaisha looked like today. When she looks like that, Georgia can do what she does, and Dominique can do what she can do. We had a great team win today and if we can continue to play as one and stay in the foxhole for the rest of February, I think we’ll hear our name on Selection Sunday in March.”
