UB Women's Hoops to Welcome Ball State to Alumni Arena
1/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo, State University of New York women's basketball team will host Mid-American Conference opponent Ball State Saturday afternoon. The Bulls (8-7, 1-3 MAC) & the Cardinals (8-7, 4-0 MAC) will meet for the 21st time with a 1 pm contest in Alumni Arena.
The teams have met 20 times beginning with the inaugural game during 1998-99. UB won the first three, but the Cardinals lead the series, 12-8. Ball State won 10 of 11 from 2001-02 to 2009-10, though the Bulls have won four of the six played since. The Cardinals claimed the most recent matchup, 74-60, in the 2014 MAC Tournament Third Round ending UB's season.
Looking for their second conference win of the season, the Bulls have a field goal percentage of .363 and a free throw percentage of .680. UB, who leads the MAC in three-point field goal defense, blocks and steals, is averaging 65.1 points and 43.1 boards per game. Junior Mackenzie Loesing, who was named MAC Scholar Female Athlete of the Week and UB Female Athlete of the Week, paces UB with 13.3 points per game and 23 threes on the year. Senior captain Kristen Sharkey is averaging 12.5 points a game to go with 7.7 boards and 28 steals, while shooting a team-best .817 from the charity stripe. Sophomore Alexus Malone is posting 11.9 points and 7.9 rebounds a contest. She has six double-doubles and leads UB with 32 assists and 30 steals. Loesing and Sharkey add 28 steals each. Senior captain Christa Baccas is contributing 8.5 points per game to help guide the balanced UB offense. Sophomore Camera Miley has dished out 30 assists. Ranking second all-time at UB and 11th nationally among active Division I student-athletes with 216 blocks, Baccas has 28 to lead the conference. She pulls down a Bull-best 8.6 boards per contest.
Ball State has a league-leading 4-0 record in MAC play. Despite closing out 2014 and non-conference action with three consecutive losses, the Cardinals are outscoring MAC opponents by 99 points. BSU is averaging 24.8 points per game more than its conference opponents. For the season, the Cardinals are shooting .437 percent from the floor, .341 from the arc and .708 from the line. Ball State is being outrebounded by opponents, 37.4-34.3, though are leading scoring efforts, 65.2-60.0. Through four MAC games, Ball State leads the conference in seven categories: scoring defense, scoring margin, field goal percentage, three-point field goal defense, assists, turnover margin and assist to turnover ratio.
The game will air on ESPN 1520 AM with Sloane Martin on the call, while a live ESPN3 webcast will be available. Fans can also follow along with live stats or live tweets.
ESPN3 is available at no additional cost to fans who receive ESPN as part of their TV subscription through participating TV providers. ESPN3 is also available at no cost to US college students and US-based military personnel on computers connected to on-campus educational networks and on-base military networks.
