Fair Scores 30, Bulls Lead Wire-to-Wire in 88-72 Win Over Miami (OH)

Wednesday, February 26

Buffalo, NY

7:00 pm

15-11,6-9MAC

Miami (OH)

11-16,4-11MAC

Miami (OH)

Buffalo

Fair Scores 30, Bulls Lead Wire-to-Wire in 88-72 Win Over Miami (OH)

2/26/2020 9:36:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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BUFFALO, NY – Powered by a 30 point effort from freshman guard Dyaisha Fair, the University at Buffalo women's basketball team won their second straight game, leading wire-to-wire in an 88-72 win over Miami (OH) on Wednesday night at Alumni Arena.

Fair was one point shy of her career high, scoring 30 points to go along with five rebounds, three assists and five steals. Senior guard Theresa Onwuka recorded her fifth double-double of the season, scoring 22 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. Junior Marissa Hamilton also had a breakthrough performance, scoring 11 points, including 3-of-7 from behind the arc, to go with four rebounds and three assists.

The Bulls got off to a hot start, opening the game on a 9-0 run, including four points in transition, to force an early Miami timeout at the 7:28 mark. Buffalo would extend the run to 18-0, capped by a steal from Fair who found Adebola Adeyeye for the transition bucket. Miami would finally get on the board at the 4:34 mark to jumpstart a 6-0 run, but UB would maintain a 20-8 lead at the end of the first.

The eight first quarter points were the second fewest given up by the Bulls in a quarter this season.

Buffalo would extend their lead to 17 early in the second quarter on a second chance layup by Keowa Walters to take a 27-10 lead at the 7:56 mark. The two teams would trade baskets from there before the RedHawks put together a mini 4-0 run to cut the UB lead to 33-22 at the media timeout. Miami would extend the run to 9-0 to pull within six at the 2:31 mark but Hamilton would stop the bleeding as she drilled a corner triple off the assist from Fair to spark a 5-0 run and Buffalo would take a 42-29 lead at the half.

Buffalo shot 47% from the floor in the opening half, including 5-of-9 from behind the arc. The 42 points first half points were the most scored by the Bulls in the first half since they scored 42 points at San Jose State in November.

The Bulls extended their lead back up to 17 early in the third quarter to take a 49-32 lead at the 8:04 mark. Later, Miami would cut the UB lead to 14 but the Bulls responded with a 7-2 run, capped by a Fair pull up jumper and an Onwuka fastbreak bucket to take a 55-38 lead and force a Miami timeout. Kenzie Schmitz knocked down a three for the RedHawks out of the timeout but Hamilton answered with a triple of her own on the other end off of the offensive rebound and assist from Aireal Dickson and UB would go up 58-43 at the media timeout. Miami would chip away again, cutting the lead to 12 at the 1:56 mark, but the Bulls would close the quarter on a 4-0 run to take a 67-51 lead at the end of the third.

The two teams would trade baskets to begin the fourth quarter as Buffalo maintained a 76-59 lead at the final media timeout. The Bulls would take their largest lead of the game, 81-59, on an and-one by Onwuka at the 4:09 mark and the RedHawks would get no closer than 15 the rest of the way.

Buffalo dominated the rebounding battle 42-26 and the battle in the paint 48-28 while shooting just over 50% from the floor on the night. The Bulls scored 16 points in transition and cashed in 12 second chance points off of 18 offensive rebounds. The 88 points scored were the second-most by UB this season.

"We beat a good team today who has been battling hard in the conference and for us to play that decidedly for the entire game that's a credit to our team understanding defense and playing as a unit," said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. "When you have to guard Tessy, Marissa, Ade, Hanna and when you have to play us one-on-one, Dyaisha can do some pretty special things."

Buffalo opens a two-game road trip with a rematch with the Ohio Bobcats in Athens on Saturday, February 29, at 1pm.