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Sports Recap

Published: January 6, 2005

Athletes of the Week

Calvin Cage of the men's basketball team scored a season-high 23 points in UB's 95-88 loss at Bowling Green. Cage hit four of UB's season-high 13 three-pointers in the game and added five rebounds off the UB bench. He started the week earning MAC East Division Player of the Week honors following an 18-point performance at Penn State on Dec. 21.

Brooke Meunier of the women's basketball team hit the winning three-pointer with 1:16 left to give the Bulls a 50-48 victory over East Carolina. Meunier tallied a team-high 17 points in the game, including the final five with a driving layup to tie the game and the three-pointer.

Basketball

MEN'S

Bowling Green 95, UB 88

UB had its four-game winning streak snapped by a red-hot Bowling Green squad, 95-88, on Sunday in Anderson Arena. The Falcons shot a sizzling 65.4 percent from the floor to win the Mid-American Conference showdown.

The Bulls, who shot 52.4 percent from the field, were led by Calvin Cage who netted a season-high 23 points, including four of the Bulls' season-best 13 three-pointers. Turner Battle and Roderick Middleton each scored 14 points and combined for seven of UB's 10 steals. Battle dished out a season-high eight assists and didn't commit a turnover. Yassin Idbihi also reached double-figures with 11 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

UB, playing its first game since Dec. 21, showed no signs of rust as it shot 60.7 percent from the floor and scored 47 points in the first half. The Bulls went ahead, 31-24, on a jumper by Cage with eight minutes left in the first half. However, the Falcons battled back to tie the contest, 42-42, with 2:56 to go. A Josh Almonson jumper gave Bowling Green a four-point lead with 37 seconds left in the half. Jason Bird drained a three-pointer as time expired in the first half to cut the Falcon lead to 48-47 at the break.

Bowling Green (7-2, 1-0 MAC) extended its lead to six points with 14:15 left in the second half. However, an alley-oop dunk from Battle to Mark Bortz capped an 11-0 UB scoring run to give the Bulls a 65-60 lead with 12:30 remaining in the contest. Bowling Green's Almonson, who finished with a game-high 26 points, hit a layup to give the Falcons the lead for good, 73-72, with 5:42 remaining. After Bowling Green extended its lead to four points, Cage nailed a trey, with 3:50 left, to cut the lead to one. However, the Falcons went 12-for-14 from the free throw line in the final 1:22 to seal the victory.

UB (7-3, 0-2 MAC) outrebounded Bowling Green, 37-24. However, turnovers told the story of the Bulls' demise as they coughed the ball up 23 times.

The Bulls will look to earn their first conference win of the season tonight at Central Michigan. UB will host Toledo at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Alumni Arena.

WOMEN'S

UB 50, East Carolina 48

A three-pointer by junior Brooke Meunier with 1:16 left on the clock broke a 47-47 tie, and UB was able to hang on for a 50-48 win over the visiting East Carolina Pirates Sunday afternoon in Alumni Arena. Meunier led three UB scorers in double figures with a game-high 17 points. The win moved the Bulls to 2-9 overall.

The Bulls held a 14-point lead at halftime, 30-16, and then went up by 17, 33-16, at the 17:15 mark of the second half. Freshman Stephanie Bennett hit a three-pointer at the 14:49 mark to make the score 39-24, but the Bulls' offense then went cold, allowing East Carolina to crawl back into the game. UB went 0-for-15 from the floor and 6-for-6 from the foul line over the next 12:40, and the Pirates used runs of 12-0 and 9-0 during the stretch, eventually taking a 47-45 lead on a three-pointer by Viola Cooper with 2:37 on the clock.

Following a Bulls' timeout, Meunier hit a driving layup at the 2:09 mark to tie the score at 47-47, and East Carolina then missed two shots before turning the ball over with 1:33 to play. Meunier's three-pointer gave UB a three-point lead, leaving the door open for the Pirates in the closing minute of the game. Jennifer Jackson missed back-to-back three-pointers before being fouled on her third attempt with four seconds to play. She missed the first shot, made the second and missed the third, setting the Pirates up for a final shot. ECU's Shanita Sutton grabbed the offensive rebound, but missed a layup under the basket as time expired, giving the Bulls the 50-48 win.

The Bulls shot 30.5 percent from the floor in the game (18-for-59), but just 17.9 percent in the second half (5-for-28). Bennett (12) and Belinda Gibb (10) also finished in double figures in scoring, and Gibb dished a career-high six assists. The Bulls committed fewer turnovers (14) than their opponent (23) for just the second time this season, and they scored 20 points off of ECU turnovers.

The Pirates outrebounded the Bulls by a 50-35 margin in the game. East Carolina finished the game shooting 31.0 percent from the floor (18-for-58).

Wrestling

Four Bulls take individual titles at UB Open

Sophomore Patrick Lloyd (149 pounds) and junior Garrett Hicks (184 pounds) took titles for UB to lead the squad as 11 Bulls grapplers placed at the UB Open held on Dec. 30 in Alumni Arena.

Redshirt seniors Kyle Cerminara (197 pounds) and Greg Thomas (285 pounds) also took individual titles wrestling unattached.

Lloyd scored a technical win over fellow UB teammate freshman Gus Manzur, who was wrestling unattached in the first round. Lloyd then beat Niagara County Community College's Larry Aceti, 6-3, in the semifinals and Ohio University's Aaron Gomoll, 6-0, in the finals to claim the title.

Hicks claimed the title with pins in his first two matches before beating The Citadel's John Dickerson, 9-3 in the semifinals and Central Michigan's Vince Didona, 6-0, in the finals.

Cerminara breezed to the finals with a pin against Morrisville's Alen Wheeler and a 10-2 win against Ohio's Nick Terbay. In the finals, the 2004 All-American won a hard-fought, 5-3 decision against Penn State's Joel Edwards. Cerminara, who earlier this year became just the third grappler in school history with 100 wins, now is second in school history with a 107-32 career mark.

Thomas took the heavyweight division, scoring a pin against Aaron Haak and then garnering decisions against Army's Nathan Thobaben and Ithaca's Brian Petti. The former junior college All-American took the title with a 7-4 win over Penn State's C.J. Wonnsettler.

Sophomore Mark Budd (133 pounds) and senior Cliff Smith (141 pounds) took second-place finishes. Budd lost in the finals to Penn State's Jake Strayer, 7-4, after collecting a pin and a 5-1 decision in his first two matches. Smith fell to Ohio's Albert Madsen, 12-2, in the finals. Smith beat Gardner-Webb's Chas Franz, 12-3, Ohio's Jim Fowler, 8-5, and Sal Lasceri, 12-2, to reach the finals.

UB wrestlers next will see action on Saturday at the Buckeye Duals at Ohio State. The Bulls will face Tennessee Chattanooga, Clarion, Northwestern and Northern Illinois at the event.