BUFFALO, NY - Seniors Mari McClure (Rochester Hills, MI/Rochester Adams) and Tiffany Bell (Alexandria, VA/Hayfield) combined for 52 points to lead the University at Buffalo women's basketball team to a 70-63 win over visiting Marshall at Alumni Arena. Buffalo withstood a strong second half effort from the Thundering Herd to snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 12-5 overall and 3-3 in the Mid-American Conference. With the loss, Marshall drops to 8-9 overall and 2-4 in the MAC.

The Bulls came out of the gate with a lot of intensity and jumped out to a 17-8 lead in the first seven minutes of the game, with Bell scoring eight of those 17 points. After a Marshall bucket by Amy Reed, McClure keyed an 11-2 run, scoring nine of her 15 first-half points to put Buffalo ahead by 16, 28-12 with 7:46 remaining in the half. The Bulls led by 14 at halftime, 42-28, but the Thundering Herd outscored them by a 35-28 margin in the second half to keep the game close. After Buffalo increased its lead to 17, 53-36 at the 15:54 mark, Marshall strung together a 12-3 run to close the gap to eight, 56-48 with 8:55 remaining in the game, and the Thundering Herd cut Buffalo's lead to six on three separate occasions before the final buzzer, including 69-63 with 10 seconds remaining. A free throw by senior Sonia Ortega (Chihuahua, Mexico/Cobach) with six seconds on the clock resulted in the 70-63 final.

"I was very pleased with our intensity level coming into tonight's game," said UB head coach Cheryl Dozier. "Every year you have peaks and valleys, and we were definitely in a valley. We needed to get over this hump and now we're hopefully on our way back up the mountain. There's a lot of time left in this season, and the MAC is still anybody's to win. Now we just have to prove that we can win on the road."

McClure finished with a game-high 28 points, including a 13-15 performance from the free throw line, and Bell added 24 points on 11-of-20 shooting from the floor while also grabbing a team-high nine rebounds. With her 24 points, Bell moved into second-place all-time in career scoring at UB with 1,405 career points, surpassing Lynette Bubel (1,383 career points, 1989-93). The Thundering Herd had four players finish in double figures, including Catie Knable (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Au'Yana Ferguson (11 points, 10 rebounds) who both recorded double-doubles. The Thundering Herd grabbed 21 offensive rebounds, but they shot just 32.4% from the floor for the game while the Bulls shot 43.9%. Buffalo junior Serena Stanbury (Miami, FL/Miami-Dade Community College) grabbed a career-high five rebounds.

Buffalo takes to the road next for a 1 pm game at Bowling Green on Saturday, January 27. The Falcons are just ahead of Buffalo in the MAC's East Division standings with a 4-2 conference record, and a Buffalo win would give both teams a 4-3 league mark. However, while the Bulls are 8-1 at home this season, they are just 4-4 on the road.