WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

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Late Comeback Falls Short Against Jacksonville, 71-67

Stephanie Bennett

The Bulls came out firing in the first half as they hit the first 10 points of the game and had their biggest lead of the contest at 13-2 on a layup from Bennett at the 13:41 mark. Jacksonville then went on a 12-2 run to pull within one before the Bulls stretched their lead out to seven with 4:12 remaining in the half. In that final 4:12 the Dolphins managed to go on a 16-2 run and take a seven-point lead into the half at 30-23.

“We won seven of the 10 four-minute segments tonight and the one segment that did us in was the last four minutes of the first half,” said head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald. “That is disappointing because we allowed Jacksonville to force us out of our game and into theirs and hopefully we can learn a big lesson from that.”

Jamie Schiebner

The Bulls began the second half on a 16-9 run and a layup from Barbora Homolová (Ceska Lipa, Czech Republic/Strakonice) at the 12:40 mark tied the game at 39. The two teams tied it up again at 51 with 5:27 remaining and Jacksonville hit the next eight points to take an advantage. The lead grew to as much as 10 with 1:14 left, but the Bulls staged one last shot at a comeback. Bennett hit three treys in the final minute of play and converted on two free throws, with the only miss coming intentionally so UB could try and get an offensive rebound. That left UB down just two with three second remaining, but Jacksonville’s Ashley Williams hit two free throws with just over a second left to ice the game.

Bennett’s 24 points were a career best and they were the most points scored by a UB player since Heather Turner (West Seneca, NY/Mount Mercy Academy) had 24 against Miami (OH) on Jan. 2, 2007. Bennett’s six three pointers tie her career-high. Junior Jamie Schiebner (Saginaw, MI/Heritage) notched a double-double with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Turner had eight points and recorded 11 rebounds for the second straight game. Freshman Jessica Fortman (Ashland, KY/Russell) added nine points, six rebounds and two blocked shots. It was the third straight game that she had a pair of blocks. Homolová and freshman Bridgette Kendricks (Parsons, KS/Parsons) each had four points off the bench. Kendricks added five rebounds.

Heather Turner

Jacksonville was led by 17 points off the bench from Virginia Gregoire. Ashley Williams had 16 points and a game-high seven rebounds.

The Bulls take to the road for the next two games beginning this Saturday at UMass. Tip off for that game is set for 12:00 pm.