Bulls Advance to Championship Game With Dominant Win Over Akron

Friday, March 11

Cleveland, OH

12:30pm

24-8,16-4MAC

Akron

17-11,13-7MAC

Akron

Buffalo

Photo by: Hudson French

Bulls Advance to Championship Game With Dominant Win Over Akron

3/11/2022 3:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CLEVELAND, OHIO – The University at Buffalo women's basketball team outscored Akron by 26 in the second half to defeat the Zips 82-43 in the semifinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The Bulls have now held back-to-back opponents to under 50 points.

Junior guard Dyaisha Fair put on a show as she led all scorers with 28 points to go with five rebounds, six assists and four steals. Freshman Georgia Woolley also showed out as she scored 20 points while adding three rebounds and two steals and senior Adebola Adeyeye also scored in double figures with 13 points and added eight rebounds.

It was a battle early on before Adeyeye powered up for two and Fair came up with a steal and scored on the fastbreak to put UB up 9-6 at the first media timeout. Woolley drained a triple a couple possessions later and then Dominique Camp got going as she knocked down a three of her own from the top of the key to put the Bulls up by seven. Fair put the exclamation point on an 8-2 UB run with a deep three at the buzzer to give Buffalo a 20-12 lead at the end of the first.

The Zips opened the second quarter on a 7-2 run before Woolley got a transition floater to drop to put the Bulls up 24-19 at the 7:28 mark. Fair sliced to the basket for a layup and Adeyeye followed with an offensive rebound putback on the next possession to cap a 6-0 run and give UB a 28-19 lead at the media timeout. The Bulls offense slowed three-plus minutes before Fair took her defender off the bounce and got back-to-back pull up jumpers to drop to cap a 10-2 run and put UB up 32-21 at the break. The Bulls held the Zips scoreless for the final 4:08 of the first half.

It was a back-and-forth affair to start the third quarter before Hemphill hit Woolley with a great dump off pass for an easy layup and then Camp spotted up for a triple to give UB a 41-29 lead and force an Akron timeout at the 6:43 mark. The Bulls continued to attack as Fair hit a skip pass three and Woolley got a pull up jumper to fall plus the foul to cap an 8-0 run and put UB up 49-31 at the 3:47 mark. Fair continued to heat up as she drained another three with a defender in her face to extend the run to 11-2 and later, Woolley followed by slicing to the basket for a layup off glass while the UB defense held the Zips to 1-of-10 shooting down the stretch to give the Bulls a 55-37 lead at the end of the third.

The Bulls opened the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run on a pair of buckets from Adeyeye and Fair to take a 63-39 lead and force an Akron timeout at the 7:45 mark. Buffalo extended the run to 16-2 on buckets by Jazmine Young, Woolley, and Adeyeye to go up 75-41 with just over five minutes to play and that was more than enough to secure the victory.

Buffalo dominated the paint, outscoring Akron 46-16 inside, while also maintaining a 44-33 edge on the glass, including scoring 13 points off 15 offensive rebounds. The Bulls also scored 22 points off Akron turnovers and added 17 fastbreak points.

"I'm so proud of our team," said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. "No one cared who got the credit. Whoever was open shot the ball, we flew around and deflected passes and played great defense and when they made a mistake, they raised their hands. The perpetual state of optimism we had from the beginning to the end was contagious. We have one more to go but we are going to enjoy this one today."

Up next, Buffalo will face Ball State in the championship game at 11am on Saturday.