BUFFALO, NY - Senior night was officially Tuesday night in Buffalo's final regular season home game. But the real coming-out party for UB's two senior starters - Rachel Martin (Kenmore, NY/Kenmore West) and Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe (Nelson, New Zealand) - was Saturday as they led Buffalo to a 72-53 win over Central Michigan in the first round of the Mid-American Conference women's basketball tournament.

Rachel Martin

The Alumni Arena crowd of 1,031 saw Buffalo advance to the second round - at Cleveland's Gund Arena - for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. The Bulls (18-10), seeded sixth, will play the third-seeded Ball State Cardinals (18-8) at 7:30 pm on Wednesday night at the Gund.

Martin set new career-highs with a monstrous game of 22 points and 17 rebounds, while McMeeken-Ruscoe hit 8-of-9 shots from the floor, en route to 19 points, and added a career-best six steals to make sure Buffalo advanced. Martin kept Buffalo in the game in the first half with 14 points and eight rebounds as the Chippewas (11-17) seemed poised to pull an upset, going to intermission tied with Buffalo, 30-30.

However, the Bulls made sure this game didn't have any late-game drama with an incredible 19-0 run to start the second half, including holding the Chippewas without a field goal for the first 8:37 after intermission. Central's Lindsay Mecoli hit a three-point shot that cut the Buffalo lead to 49-35 to break the drought, but that would be as close as CMU would get as UB eventually led by as many as 23 points (65-42) on a jumper by junior Kim Kilpela (West Bloomfield, MI/W. Bloomfield) with 4:08 left.

More impressive was the fact that UB won going away without second-leading scorer and leading rebounder Jessica Kochendorfer (Allen, MI/Quincy) , who sat out with a concussion suffered Tuesday versus Kent State.

"At the pre-game meal I had each of the seniors address the team," said UB head coach Cheryl Dozier. "Rachel talked about how important it was to her to not end her career tonight and also get Jessica another game in her season. She came out and she was just possessed. We knew we had the size advantage inside and that's what we needed to do.

"Rachel took it upon herself to take those minutes and play extremely well," said Dozier. "At the half we talked about reversing the ball, getting a little movement and then getting it into the post, and then the 19-0 run to start the second half...I don't know if I've ever had a team go on a run like that. That was all created by our defense."

Buffalo's defense had 12 steals on the night, led by

Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe

McMeeken-Ruscoe's six, and forced the Chippewas to shoot 5-for-28 (17.9%) in the second half with a stifling zone defense.

The Bulls needed all of Martin's points in the first half, as Central came out with an upset in mind, going on a 10-2 run to take its largest lead (20-12) with 10:06 remaining in the half. The Bulls, however, used a 9-1 run - with five points coming from freshman Brooke Meunier (Saginaw, MI/Heritage) - to tie the game at 21-21. Central eventually pulled back in front 30-27, but another freshman Hollie Cook (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads), who had seven assists in the game, hit a trifecta with :05 left to leave the teams tied at intermission.

"We really felt like with the way Rachel played in the first half and Hollie's three at the end of the half that we had the momentum going into the second half," said Kilpela. "We made a couple of adjustments on defense at halftime and just focused on finding their shooters."

Sophomore Allison Bennett (Springfield, OH/Kenton Ridge) also had a solid game for Buffalo, with nine points, four rebounds and four assists. Now Buffalo gets ready for Ball State, who defeated Buffalo 62-47, in the previous meeting.

"They're a very athletic team, but I felt like we let one slip away in the first game," said Dozier. "We have to make sure we come out and play defense and limit our turnovers. If we do that we'll have a chance to be successful."