Jessica Kochendorfer

BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo women's basketball team got a big game from senior Jessica Kochendorfer (Allen, MI/Quincy), back after missing two games with a concussion, but it wasn't enough to match the all-around play of the Eastern Michigan Eagles. EMU, the Mid-American Conference's West Division leader, used a balanced inside-outside attack to earn an 80-62 win and improve to 17-6 overall and 10-3 in the league. Buffalo, meanwhile, fell to 5-17 overall and 3-9 in the MAC with the loss.

The Eagles opened the scoring on their first possession and quickly jumped out to a 13-point lead, 17-4, less than six minutes into the game, sparked by two early three-pointers by Marion Crandall. Crandall, ranked second in the NCAA in three-point shooting percentage, was 5-for-6 from three-point range for 15 first-half points that helped the Eagles to a 45-26 halftime lead. Crandall's final three three-pointers in the half came during a 16-4 EMU run that got the Eagles out to their biggest lead of the half at 21 points, 43-22 with 2:20 on the clock, after the Bulls had cut their deficit to eight, 26-18, at the 8:55 mark. The Bulls matched the Eagles in the second half, but the 19-point halftime deficit would prove to be too much to overcome. Eastern Michigan's largest lead of the game was 29 points, 67-38, with 10:17 to play.

Kochendorfer led the Bulls with a career-high 29 points on 13-of-25 shooting from the field. She also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, just one shy of her career high. The double-double is her eighth this season and her seventh in her last 10 games. Kochendorfer (19) and senior Kim Kilpela (West Bloomfield, MI/West Bloomfield) (11) combined for 30 of the Bulls' 36 second-half points, and Kilpela finished with 15 points and six rebounds. The Bulls scored 46 points in the paint in the game, including 28 in the second half, and they shot 40.9 percent from the floor in the game (27-for-66).

The Eagles had three players finish in double figures in scoring, led by Crandall with 23 points, including six three-pointers. Sarah VanMetre added 16 points and Ryan Coleman finished with 12 points, while Canea Williams dished a game-high nine assists. The Eagles scored 34 points in the paint and were also strong from the outside with eight three-pointers in the game. EMU shot 41.5 percent from the floor (27-for-65) and outrebounded the Bulls by a 43-41 margin.

"I give a lot of credit to Eastern Michigan tonight," said head coach Cheryl Dozier. "They are a very well-oiled machine right now - they can hit the three, they can penetrate and they have a lot of muscle in the post. They have a MAC regular season title on the line and they played like it tonight. I thought Jessica did a great job for us in her first game back, but the area I'm disappointed in with our team is the defensive end of the floor. We can't give up 45 points in the first half and expect to win."

Buffalo travels to Akron on Saturday, February 21 for a Noon contest with the Zips. Akron defeated the Bulls by a 71-59 score last Saturday in the first meeting of the season between the two teams.