Bulls Edged At Northern Illinois, 64-63

Saturday, February 1

DeKalb, IL

1:00 pm

13-7,4-5MAC

Northern Illinois

6-13,2-6MAC

Buffalo

Northern Ill.

Bulls Edged At Northern Illinois, 64-63

2/1/2020 3:23:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

DeKalb, IL – The University at Buffalo women's basketball team dropped a close contest at Northern Illinois, 64-63, on Saturday. With the loss the Bulls fall to 13-7 overall, 4-5 in league play.

The Bulls were led by a pair of freshmen in Dyaisha Fair who scored a game-high 23 points to go with five rebounds and three assists and Elea Gaba who turned in a solid performance on her birthday as she scored 15 points to go along with five rebounds.

Northern Illinois opened the game on a 5-0 run before Fair and Theresa Onwuka converted on back-to-back buckets to cut the lead to one, but the Huskies would answer with another 5-0 run to take a 10-4 lead at the first media timeout. Sophomore Adebola Adeyeye provided a spark off the bench as she powered up for an offensive rebound putback to spark a 6-0 UB run to tie the game at 10 at the 3:24 mark. The Bulls would extend the run to 12-2 and take a 16-12 lead at the 1:03 mark, but Gabby Nikitinaite would hit a transition three to cut the lead to 16-15 at the end of the first.

The Bulls would open the second quarter on a 9-2 run, led by five points from Fair, to take a 25-17 lead at the 7:06 mark and they would lead 25-18 at the media. Hanna Hall came alive out of the media as she went on a 7-2 run by herself to give UB a 32-20 lead at the 2:54 mark but the Huskies closed the half on a 7-0 run to cut the UB lead to 34-27 at the half.

The two teams would trade baskets to start the third quarter before Fair curled off a screen and hit a three from the top of the key to put the Bulls up 42-34 at the 5:48 mark. A 5-0 NIU run cut the lead to three but Fair stopped the bleeding with a spot up triple on the next possession to put UB back up by six at the two minute mark and Buffalo would take a 51-43 lead at the end of three quarters of play.

Back-to-back three's by the Huskies to start the fourth quarter would cut the UB lead to 51-49 at the 8:28 mark but Gaba would continue to stay aggressive as she would hit a baseline jumper and Onwuka made a great pass to Adeyeye on the block for two as UB would regain the lead 57-56 at the media timeout. And an-one bucket and a free throw by Mikayla Brandon would give NIU a 57-59 lead but Fair would answer with a triple from the wing on the other end and later would convert a pull up floater in the lane to put UB back up 62-59 with just under two minutes to play. Nikitinaite would hit her fifth three pointer of the game to cut the lead to 63-62 and later, Ally May would knock down an eight-footer to give NIU a 64-63 lead with 4.9 seconds remaining and the Bulls were unable to convert on their final possession as the Huskies held on for the win.

Adeyeye finished two rebounds off her career-high with 12 boards on the afternoon while Hall added nine points and Onwuka chipped in eight points and eight rebounds.

Buffalo now has a week off before returning home to host Toledo on Saturday, February 8, at 2pm.