BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo women's basketball team lost its final game of the regular season, 70-59 at Toledo, giving the Bulls a 19-8 overall record and a 10-6 Mid-American Conference mark. Buffalo finishes the regular season tied for second in the MAC's East Division and tied for fourth overall with Miami and Northern Illinois. As per the MAC's tie-breaking procedures, the Bulls receive the fifth seed in the conference tournament, and they will host 12th-seeded Akron in a first-round game on Saturday, March 3 at 7 pm at Alumni Arena.

The Bulls trailed Toledo by 11, 39-28, after the first 20 minutes of the game due to poor free throw shooting and 10 first-half turnovers. The Bulls hit just 7-of-16 shots from the foul line in the half, and Toledo scored 19 points off of turnovers to take a commanding lead. Buffalo fought back in the second half after Toledo increased its lead to 13, 52-39, with 11 minutes remaining in the game. A drive to the basket by senior Mari McClure (Rochester Hills, MI/Rochester Adams) with 5:56 on the clock resulted in the bucket and a free throw to cut the Rockets' lead to four, 54-50, but UT's Khali Carter converted a three-point play of her own on the Rockets' next possession and they then hit three three-pointers in a row to increase their lead to 12, 66-54, with 2:47 left in the game. The Bulls never got closer than nine points in the final three minutes of the game.

"On the road, you have to take care of the little things like free throw shooting and blocking out," said UB head coach Cheryl Dozier. "We didn't do a very good job of that tonight, and we gave up too many points off of turnovers. But, its a whole new season now with the start of the MAC Tournament. We have to turn our focus to Akron now and make sure that we come mentally and physically ready to go on Saturday. We've proven we can play with everybody in this conference, and I truly believe this is anybody's tournament."

Senior Tiffany Bell (Alexandria, VA/Hayfield) finished with a game-high 22 points and nine rebounds, and McClure added 19 points to the Bulls' effort. Bell now has 503 points this season, tying her with Ball State's Tamara Bowie for the conference's scoring lead with 18.6 points per game. Bell needs just four points to set a new UB single-season scoring record. Brenna Doty currently holds the record with 506 points scored during the 1995-96 season.

The winner of Saturday's Buffalo-Akron game will advance to face the winner of the Northern Illinois-Central Michigan first-round game in the MAC quarterfinals at Gund Arena in Cleveland on Tuesday, March 6. The semifinals of the MAC Tournament will be played on Friday, March 9 and the championship game will be played on Saturday, March 10, also in Gund Arena. All of Buffalo's MAC Tournament games can be heard live on WWKB-AM 1520.