BUFFALO, NY - Freshman Jessica Kochendorfer (Allen, MI/Quincy) recorded her first career double-double with career highs of 16 points and 10 rebounds and senior Tiffany Bell (Alexandria, VA/Hayfield) scored a team-high 19 points, but it was not enough as the University at Buffalo women's basketball team dropped its first game at home this season, 68-60 to visiting Kent State in a Mid-American Conference battle. The Golden Flashes (8-5 overall, 3-0 MAC) dominated the glass, outrebounding the Bulls by a 38-26 margin, and they shot 47% from the floor, including 44% from three-point range, to earn their fifth straight victory. With the loss, Buffalo falls to 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the conference.

The Bulls opened the scoring in the game on a jumper by Kochendorfer one minute into regulation, and Buffalo held a slight advantage for the first seven minutes of the game until Kent State slowly inched its way into the lead. The score was tied on four separate occasions, 11-11, 13-13, 16-16 and finally 18-18 with 6:52 remaining in the first half before the Golden Flashes embarked on a 15-4 run to take a 33-22 lead into the lockerroom at halftime. A three-pointer by senior Mari McClure (Rochester Hills, MI/Rochester Adams) ended an 8-3 Buffalo run in the second half and cut Kent State's lead to seven, 49-42 with 10:13 remaining in the game, and the Bulls got within five, 65-60 with 30 seconds remaining on the clock before time ran out on their attempted comeback.

"Kent State has a lot of size and they move the ball well," said UB head coach Cheryl Dozier. "We had 13 turnovers and we forced them into 20, but the game was really won defensively on rebounds. Kent State is a good defensive team and we outplayed them in the second half, but if we aren't shooting well, we have to go to the offensive glass and we didn't do that tonight...The bottom line is that we have to take care of the little things. We can definitely play with them, but we just haven't been able to finish and a lot of that has to do with little things."

The Golden Flashes dominated the game defensively, forcing the Bulls to take bad shots and not allowing many second chances. KSU allowed Buffalo to shoot the three, but the Bulls converted just 4-of-13 shots from behind the arc while the Golden Flashes were 7-of-16 from three-point range. Kent State senior Carrie Nance scored a game-high 24 points, including four three-pointers, and senior Liz Beggs recorded her third double-double of the year with 10 points and 14 rebounds. Buffalo senior Sonia Ortega (Chihuahua, Mexico/Cobach) recorded a career-high nine steals, and McClure finished with 12 points, all in the second half, four rebounds, six assists and two steals. Bell was 6-of-8 from the foul line, making her Buffalo's all-time leader in career free throws with 351.

The Bulls are on the road for their next two MAC games, at Ohio on Saturday, January 13 and at Eastern Michigan on Saturday, January 20.