Bulls Win Fifth Straight, Dominate Akron 76-59 on Wednesday

Wednesday, January 19

Buffalo, NY

7:00 PM

11-4,5-0MAC

Akron

7-5,4-2MAC

Akron

Buffalo

Bulls Win Fifth Straight, Dominate Akron 76-59 on Wednesday

1/19/2022 9:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

BUFFALO, NY – A balanced offensive attack and stifling defense powered the University at Buffalo women's basketball team to a 76-59 win over Akron at Alumni Arena on Wednesday night. With the win the Bulls improve to 11-4 overall, including 8-0 at home, and 5-0 in league play.

The 5-0 start to MAC play is the best in program history since the Bulls joined the conference in 1998.

Buffalo was led by junior guard Dyaisha Fair who scored a game-high 20 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists. Adebola Adeyeye recorded her second double-double of the season, tying a career-high with 16 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. Loren Christie also recorded a double-double with 11 points and a season-high 13 rebounds and Georgia Woolley scored in double figures for the ninth time in 10 games with 17 points. Summer Hemphill narrowly missed out on a double-double with eight points and nine rebounds.

The teams traded baskets early on, before Woolley and Hemphill scored on back-to-back possessions to give the Bulls an 8-7 lead at the first media timeout. Dominique Camp and Fair scored their first points of the game out of the media to give UB a 15-11 lead and later, Adeyeye crashed the boards and converted the putback to give the Bulls a 17-15 lead at the end of the first.

Adeyeye and Fair scored on UB's first two possessions of the second quarter and later, Christie tracked down her miss and converted on the second chance layup and Fair sliced to the basket for two to put UB up 25-17 and force an Akron timeout at the 6:06 mark. The Bulls continued to attack with a 7-0 run out of the timeout, capped by a Woolley step-back triple, to give the Bulls a double-digit lead at the four-minute mark. Akron scored on two straight possessions to cut the UB lead to four, but Woolley ran the floor for a transition bucket and Fair scored six points in less than a minute to give the Bulls a 41-30 lead at the half.

Hemphill knocked down a jumper on UB's first possession of the third quarter and later, Woolley found Adeyeye who rim ran for two straight buckets to give UB 47-33 lead and force Akron timeout at 7:52 mark. Adeyeye continued to heat up as she knocked down a pair of baseline jumpers to put UB up 53-39 at the 4:39 mark. The Zips answered with a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 55-48 with just under a minute to play and would score again at the buzzer to trim the Buffalo lead to eight at the end of the third.

It was a back-and-forth affair to start the fourth quarter before the Bulls turned defense into offense forcing five Akron turnovers to break the game open with a 12-2 run and take a 70-55 lead and force an Akron timeout at the 3:49 mark and the Zips would get no closer than 15 the rest of the way as Buffalo secured the victory.

"Tonight was really fun," said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. "We don't have a go-to player, we have a go-to team. The way Summer led without scoring, the way Dominique distributed the basketball, the way Loren came off the bench and dominated the boards, we had 30 rebounds amongst our big's, and Dyaisha added 20. I'm excited about where we are going. We are not where we want to be, but we are on our way somewhere special."

The Bulls dominated the glass 50-31 and, in the paint, where UB scored 52 points. The 50 rebounds and 52 paint points are the second-most by Buffalo this season. UB also scored 23 points off 16 Akron turnovers and dominated the fastbreak category, outscoring the Zips 19-2 in transition. Buffalo is now a perfect 56-0 over the last five plus seasons when holding their opponent to 59 points or less.

Up next, Buffalo hits the road for a pair of games, beginning with clash between the league's unbeaten teams at Toledo on Saturday. Tipoff at Savage Arena is set for 2pm.