The 12 Days of Buffalo Women's Basketball
12/20/2013 12:00:00β―AM | Women's Basketball
BUFFALO, NY - The 12 Days of UB Women's Basketball comes to a close today, with the first day representing just one day until the Bulls return home to Alumni Arena for its game against Roberts Wesleyan. For the final installment, we'll take a closer look into the New Year's Day matchup.
The Bulls come into the non-conference season finale with a 6-4 record, ending 2013 with a 78-70 win over Niagara on Dec. 21. In the win, the team achieved a Division I first, with three different players posting double doubles. Now ten games into the season, the team is led in scoring by Mackenzie Loesing's 17.7 points per game, with Kristen Sharkey also in double figures at 13.9. Sharkey is leading the team in rebounding, at 9.2 per game, followed closely by Christa Baccas' 8.7.
Roberts Wesleyan enters with a 5-5 overall record and will feature 15 different players who have seen playing time this season. Leading the way on offense is junior forward Chelsea Sanders, who averages 13.7 points per game while pulling down 7.9 rebounds. Fellow forward Marissa Sell leads the team in rebounds, with 11.3 per game that includes 3.3 offensive rebounds.
This will be just the second game the team has ever played on New Year's Day, with the last game coming against Vermont in 1992. The Bulls lost the neutral-court game to the Catamounts, 81-53.
Tomorrow's tip off is at 2 pm. For tickets call 1-877-UB-There or order online.
The 12 Days of UB Women's Basketball
2nd Day: The UB defense is averaging 11.9 steals per game this season, ranking second in the Mid-American Conference. That has helped aid the team's positive turnover margin and it ranks 15th in the national rankings. The team also has two players who are ranked in the top 50 among all Division I athletes, with Mackenzie Loesing (2.7 steals per game) ranked 43rd and Margeaux Gupilan (2.67 steals per game) ranked 48th in the nation. Earlier this season, the team made 17 steals against Canisius, the most in a single game since Nov. 26, 2002.
3rd Day: Three different players posted a double-double in the team's 78-70 win over rival Niagara on Dec. 21, as Margeaux Gupilan had 13 points with 10 assists, Christa Baccas had 13 points with 13 rebounds, and Kristen Sharkey had 12 points and 12 rebounds. It would be Gupilan's first career double-double, and Baccas' first of the season, while Sharkey heated up in time to notch her second double-double in as many games and the third overall this season. Gupilan would finish her day with 13 points and 10 assists, along with five steals. It was the first time a UB player would reach double figures for assists since Feb. 16, 2011, when current assistant Ashley Zuber had 11 against Ohio.
4th Day: Buffalo has four different players who average four rebounds or more per game, led by the team's leader, Kristen Sharkey. She ranks among the best in the Mid-American Conference in rebounds, and not only averages well over four rebounds per game (at a healthy 9.2), she actually averages over four offensive rebounds alone per game. Joining her in the collective rebounding effort is Baccas (8.7 rebounds per game), freshman Alexus Malone (5.2), and Mackenzie Loesing (4.1). The quartet have led UB to a 45.9 rebound per game team average, second best in the conference.
5th Day: Of the team's six wins so far this season, arguably the most impressive came on Dec. 1, when the team traveled to the Steel City and earned a win over the Pittsburgh Panthers. In the 66-62 win, five different players reached double figures for the Bulls. Leading the way in scoring was Sloane Walton, who hit a trio of critical three pointers in the first half, and then came through to seal with win with two free throws in the closing seconds. Cherridy Thornton and Kristen Sharkey scored 11 points, and Alexus Malone and Mackenzie Loesing reached ten points. It was the team's first win over an ACC opponent since 2000, when it bested North Carolina at Alumni Arena.
6th Day: The Bulls are 6-4 heading into the Holiday break, and still have one more non-conference game on tap before Mid-American Conference season begins. The team's six wins are the most in the non-conference season since 2010, and the seventh time with six or more non-conference wins since the team joined the MAC in 1998. En route to these six wins, the team has been able to turn the table from Coach Jack's first season, with eight games on the schedule this season that UB faced in 2012-13. Now with those eight games in the book, the team turned a 1-7 record from last season into a 5-3 record against the very same opposition.
7th Day: Baccas has been on fire on the block, pulling down seven rebounds or more in seven straight games. After being held to just ten rebounds over the team's first three games of the season, Baccas has been consistently dominant, averaging 11 rebounds per game since that slow start, with four games of 13 rebounds or more. So far this season, the Hillburn, NY native ranks sixth overall in the MAC for rebounds (8.7), sixth in defensive rebounds per game (5.9), and ninth in offensive rebounds per game (2.8).
8th Day: Plagued by a slow start to the season from three, the team broke out of its slump in a big way to clinch a road win over rival Niagara on Dec. 21. Bolstered by multiple makes by Margeaux Gupilan and Mackenzie Loesing in the first half, the team rallied to take a halftime lead thanks in large part to seven three pointers. That first half total matched the team's previous game high for 2013-14, set in each of the first two games of the season. For the game, the team would finish with a season-high eight triples, and win 78-70. Along with the season high in made threes, the team also shot 42 percent, besting its previous high percentage of the season that was only 29 percent.
9th Day: In the team's game at Siena on Dec. 7, Sharkey was unstoppable early on against the Siena Saints, hitting her first nine straight shots to open the game. That included a first half that saw her hit 7-7 shots in the first half to give the team a 35-25 lead going into the break. For the game, Sharkey would miss just two shots, one coming from three point range, and hit 3-4 free throws for a 23-point outing. This season, the Manahawkin, NJ native is averaging 14 points and nine rebounds per game.
10th Day: The next home game will be against Roberts Wesleyan to not only kick off 2014, but wrap up the non-conference season. After two road games to start the Mid-American Conference, the team will enjoy what will be its longest home stand of the entire season, with three straight games that begin Sunday, Jan. 12 against defending conference champion Central Michigan. After that, there will be a midweek matchup with perennial power Toledo on that following Wednesday before wrapping up the home stand against current MAC West leader Eastern Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 18. In future mid-week home games, the team will host Miami (OH) on Jan. 30, Ohio on Feb. 6 for Kid's Day, and rival Akron on March 5. For weekend home games, the team will host Northern Illinois on Saturday, Feb. 15 and then Bowling Green one week later. The regular season will come to a close on March 8 against rival Kent State, with a noon tip time.
11th Day: On Dec. 4, the Bulls took on the high-powered offense of St. Francis, which came into the game averaging 80 points per game. The Red Flash hadn't faced a player quite like Loesing, though, who slashed through the defense for a career-high 29 points on 9-17 shooting from the floor and 11-17 from the free throw line. Those 11 free throws were also a career high for Loesing, and most importantly, nine would come late in the second half as the Bulls held off the Red Flash for the 87-77 victory. For the season, Loesing leads all qualifying players on the team in free throw percentage, connecting on 68.8 percent while leading the team in attempts (64) and makes (44).
12th Day: Coach Jack is not only the 12th coach in the 47-year history of women's basketball at UB. Aside from that, the 2013-14 season marks her 12th season as a head coach, with previous stops along the way at Hofstra (for four seasons) and Indiana (for seven seasons). Entering Saturday's game at Niagara, Jack has won 157 career games, and has guided her teams to four postseason tournament berths.
