YPSILANTI, MI - The Eastern Michigan Eagles used an 18-0 run midway through the second half to break a 41-41 tie en route to a 71-51 win over the University at Buffalo women’s basketball team tonight in front of 1,004 fans in the Convocation Center. The win improved the Eagles’ record to 17-4 overall and 7-3 in the Mid-American Conference while Buffalo falls to 4-17 overall and 2-8 in the MAC.

Both teams struggled to get their offenses going early on with Buffalo shooting just 1-for-7 and Eastern Michigan shooting 1-for-6 to start the game. The Eagles began to pull away and led by as many as seven points in the first half before going to the lockerroom with a five-point lead at the break, 34-29. The Bulls stayed in the game thanks to the inside presence of freshman Heather Turner (West Seneca, NY/Mount Mercy Academy) who was 5-for-5 and scored 11 of her team-leading 13 points in the first 20 minutes of play.

Brooke Meunier

The Bulls opened the second half on a 7-2 run, with five of the points coming from junior Brooke Meunier (Saginaw, MI/Heritage), to tie the score at 36-36 with 16:16 remaining in the game, and the teams later exchanged three-pointers that tied the score at 41-41 at the 13:13 mark. EMU’s Ryan Coleman then hit two free throws at the 12:59 mark to start the Eagles’ 18-0 run, breaking the game open. Kristen Kilgore scored eight of the 18 points, and Annie Malatinsky ended the four-minute run with back-to-back three-pointers to put the Eagles up 59-41 with 8:56 to play. Eastern Michigan led by as many as 22 points down the stretch. The Eagles finished the half shooting 59.1 percent from the floor (13-for-22), including 3-for-4 from three-point range, all by Malatinsky.

“We lost this game during a stretch of about four minutes when we couldn’t score and they hurt us in transition,” said Buffalo head coach Cheryl Dozier. “We couldn’t get the ball inside in the second half, and we need to do that in order to be successful. We showed that we can play with one of the top teams in the conference for the first 27 minutes, but 27 minutes isn’t an entire game and it’s not going to get you a win.”

Sophomore Belinda Gibb (Denmark, Western Australia/Willetton) matched Turner’s team-high 13 points, and Meunier also reached double digits with 12. Freshman Stephanie Bennett (Springfield, OH/Kenton Ridge) led the team in both rebounds (six) and assists (five). The Bulls were outrebounded by a 37-23 margin and shot just 37.0 percent from the floor (20-for-54) compared to Eastern Michigan’s 53.2 percent (25-for-47).

Kilgore finished with a game-high 14 points while Coleman and Nikki Knapp added 12 points apiece. Knapp recorded a double-double with a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Bulls are next at Central Michigan on Saturday, February 12 at 2 pm.