17-13
Ball State
17-15
UB Falls to Ball State in MAC Quarterfinals
3/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
CLEVELAND, OH – The UB women's basketball season came to a close Thursday morning in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-American Conference tournament, held at Quicken Loans Arena. The Bulls (17-13) dropped a 74-60 decision to fifth seed Ball State (17-15), as the team was unable to find consistency on offense in the final half. Playing in what is likely her final game in the Blue and White, senior guard Margeaux Gupilan led the team with 14 points.
The first half was close throughout, with the Bulls dominating the paint and Ball State finding success from three-point range. A three-point play from Mackenzie Loesing would give Buffalo its largest lead of the day with a 23-16 advantage, but Ball State would hit a trio of threes in a row to give them a 25-24 lead. Foul trouble would take the edge off UB's inside attack, as Alexus Malone would sit after just seven effective minutes that saw her score seven points and Kristen Sharkey would be limited to just 11 minutes due to fouls.
The team would not be whistled for a foul in the first six minutes of the game, but that trend would not last long. Following the under-eight minute media timeout, the Bulls would have ten fouls called on them and all but two of those fouls would be committed by a Buffalo post rotation that was already thin. Ayana Bradley was an effective relief player off the bench, taking the brunt of the calls with four fouls in just six minutes of playing time off the bench. She was a valuable reserve in the half, though, scoring four points and pulling down four rebounds in her limited action.
Ball State finished the half on an 8-2 run to take a 38-34 lead and used an 8-3 run coming out of the break to settle in to a lead it would not yield. It was not for lack of trying for UB, as it had one of its best rebounding days of the season on the offensive end. Spurred on by eight offensive rebounds from Sharkey, the Bulls would finish with 21 offensive boards in the game which allowed them to ultimately attempt 23 more shots than the Cardinals. On top of that, the team would commit just one turnover, but it was simply an off night shooting that would cost the team a chance at a semifinal matchup with top-seeded Bowling Green.
For the game, Buffalo would shoot just 30 percent from the field and 22 percent from three. It was overall the worst shooting percentage the team had all season long and the first time in six games that the team was even in the 30s from the field. Gupilan would score 10 of her 14 points in the second half alone as she tried to extend her collegiate career for just one more game. Sharkey and Malone would finish with 11 points, and Loesing would have 10 points but was just 1-12 from the floor in the second half. Christa Baccas shook off a four-game streak of not having a block with a purely dominant afternoon, blocking five shots to give her 70 for the season (tied for third in program history).
A handful of other Bulls will see their names among some of the program's all-time greats, as four different Bulls entered the top 15 of multiple single-season record lists. A second-team All-MAC honoree, Loesing finishes with 16.3 points per game, thirteenth among all players in a season, and her 473 points are the ninth most. Sharkey also entered the top 15 in points for a season, with her 441 ranking fourteenth. Capping off her career year which culminated with a spot on the All-MAC third team, Sharkey also is in the top 15 for field goals made (tenth) and free throws made (fifteenth). Loesing is tenth in field goals made, third in field goal attempts, tenth in free throws made and seventh in three pointers attempted.
Gupilan finished the season with 137 assists, the seventh most for a single season. She ends her career as a Bull with 360 assists, the sixth most all time.
The team still has an outside chance at a postseason tournament bid, but will have to wait for more word. With the 17-13 final record, the team clinches the first season above .500 since 2002-03 and the most wins since that season as well.
Next season, the team will return 82 percent of its scoring and also welcomes back four players who missed significant time due to injury that includes Rachel Gregory, who averaged 10.7 points and 6.3 rebounds as a freshman in 2012-13. The Bulls will lose three key seniors, with Gupilan, Jenna Rickan and Cherridy Thornton all finishing their careers at UB.
