Talia Merlino

AKRON, OH - The University at Buffalo women's basketball team got itself in too big of a hole that it could not climb out of despite a gutsy second-half comeback attempt led by senior Talia Merlino (Newtown, PA/Notre Dame (NJ) HS) that came up short in a 71-63 loss to the Akron Zips tonight at James A. Rhodes Arena.

A hungry Akron (1-15, 1-4 Mid-American Conference) squad came out looking for its first win of the season and quickly jumped out to a 9-0 lead while the Bulls missed their first six shots from the floor in the game's first four minutes. Back-to-back three-pointers by Jae Conn gave the Zips their biggest lead of the half at 17 points, 25-8, with 7:46 on the clock, and they took a 35-21 lead into the lockerroom at halftime following a three at the buzzer by Courtney Stewart. The Zips shot 45.2 percent from the floor in the first half (14-for-31), including 6-for-17 from three-point range, while the Bulls made just 9-of-26 shots (34.6 percent).

Junior Brooke Meunier (Saginaw, MI/Heritage) scored seven points during a 9-3 Buffalo run to open the second half that cut Akron's lead to eight, 38-30, with 16:42 to play. The Zips responded with a 15-3 run to go up by 20, 53-33, at the 10:13 mark, but the Bulls would not give up quite yet. Merlino came off the bench and hit three straight three-pointers for a 9-0 UB run, and she scored four more points as the run extended to 15-4 to cut the Bulls' deficit to nine, 57-48, with 5:35 on the clock. The Bulls kept chipping away, and a jumper by senior Allison Bennett (Springfield, OH/Kenton Ridge) with 2:04 remaining got them within six, 63-57. Sophomore Belinda Gibb (Denmark, Western Australia/Willetton) later dribbled the length of the court for an easy layup with exactly 1:00 on the clock that got Buffalo within four, 65-61, but the Zips made 8-of-10 free throws in the final two minutes of the game to hold on for the victory.

The Bulls had five players finish in double figures in scoring for the first time since the 2002-03 season. Merlino set a career high and Gibb tied her career high with 13 points apiece, and Merlino also tied her career-high with four three-pointers. Bennett and freshman Heather Turner (West Seneca, NY/Mount Mercy Academy) added 11 points apiece, and Meunier finished with 10 points and six assists. The Bulls were 24-for-59 from the floor (40.7 percent) and 7-for-23 from three-point range (30.4 percent) in the game.

Akron finished the game shooting 41.1 percent from the floor (23-for-56) with eight three-pointers, including three apiece by Conn and Stewart. Jessica DeVille led all scorers with 14 points, while Conn and Stewart both added 13. Lori Krezeczowski added nine points and seven rebounds. Akron outrebounded the Bulls by a slim 38-36 margin.

"This was the first test on the road in the MAC for this young team," said Buffalo head coach Cheryl Dozier. "You can't ever afford to come out flat, but especially on the road. We showed signs of life in the second half, but every time we started to climb back into it, we took ourselves out again with turnovers. Akron was a hungry team and they really wanted their first 'W' tonight."

Buffalo (3-12, 1-3 MAC) next hosts Marshall at 1 pm on Saturday, January 22 at Alumni Arena. Free tickets to the game are available at the UB Ticket Office in Alumni Arena as part of Hoopla '05 and the 10th anniversary of the NCAA's "Take a Kid to the Game" program.