University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 3, 2005

Basketball

MEN'S

UB 68, Marshall 55

UB led wire-to-wire in a 68-55 victory over Marshall at the Cam Henderson Center on Feb. 23. It was the Bulls' 18th win of the season-tying the mark for most wins in the Division I era.

UB (18-7, 10-6 MAC) hit its first five shots and jumped out to a 12-4 lead. Turner Battle sparked the Bulls early, scoring 10 of his game-high 21 points in the first stanza. A jumper by Mark Bortz gave the Bulls a 24-13 lead with 8:32 left in the first half. Marshall charged back to cut the lead to 26-23 with 2:44 left in the half. However, UB closed the half on a 5-0 scoring run to take a 31-23 lead at the break.

Roderick Middleton quickly silenced the Thundering Herd second-half threat by nailing back-to-back three pointers and scored all 14 of his points in the second half.

UB dominated the glass, outrebounding Marshall, 41-29, including 19 offensive boards.

WOMEN'S

Miami (OH) 68, UB 50
Northern Illinois 61, UB 59

UB's Heather Turner put on a show with game highs of 24 points and 13 rebounds, but the Miami University RedHawks got a big second half from Nicki Motto and took advantage of UB turnovers to score a 68-50 win over the Bulls in Mid-American Conference action on Feb. 23 in Millett Hall.

The Bulls shot better than the RedHawks (40.8 percent to 34.3 percent) and outrebounded Miami by a 41-38 margin, but committed 21 turnovers to Miami's four The RedHawks scored 22 points off UB turnovers.

On Saturday, the visiting Northern Illinois Huskies erased a 10-point second-half deficit and charged back behind the play of Stephanie Raymond to earn a dramatic, 61-59, win over the Bulls in UB's last home game of the season. The Bulls suffered their seventh straight loss and fell to 4-22 overall and 2-13 in the conference.

The Bulls will open the MAC Tournament on the road on Saturday with an opponent and start time to be determined.

Indoor Track and Field

Thompson wins women's weight throw at MACs

The MAC Championships wrapped up Saturday at Central Michigan University, with the UB women finishing eighth in a field of 13. The UB men placed sixth among six schools.

Akron won the women's overall team title; host Central Michigan easily claimed the men's title.

Faith Thompson won the league's weight throw title, setting the MAC meet record with a heave of 64-8.50 (19.72m). The throw not only broke the previous league meet mark of 63-0.25, it also extended Thompson's school record by more than a foot, set the Central Michigan facility record and bettered her NCAA provisional qualifying distance. Thompson's toss was more than four feet better than second-place finisher Kristi Ford of Western Michigan.

Senior Jenny Koeppel had a pair of third-place finishes in her distance races. She turned in a 17:17.50 clocking in the 5,000-meter run and added a 9:47.55 showing in the 3,000-meters.

Several Bulls will head to Boston for next weekend's ECAC/IC4A Championships, slated for tomorrow and Saturday at Northeastern University.

Swimming

WOMEN'S

Brankovsky earns MAC Swimmer of the Year title, wins three races

UB concluded the MAC Championships on Saturday as senior Jennefer Brankovsky took her third individual title in as many nights. Brankovsky was named the meet's Most Outstanding Swimmer for the second time in three years, earned All-MAC first-team honors for the fourth consecutive year and was selected as the Senior Swimmer of the Year.

As a team, UB finished eighth in the nine-team meet.

Brankovsky broke her own school record in winning Saturday's 200-yard breaststroke in 2:17.26, bettering her own record of 2:17.98 when she won the event at the 2003 MAC Championships. On Friday, she defended her 400-yard individual medley title—leading wire to wire in the race—to win in 4:22.41. She opened the meet on Feb. 24 by regaining her 200-yard individual medley title from 2003 in 2:02.94, leading the entire race. All three finishes established NCAA 3B2 cuts meriting consideration for the NCAA Championship meet in West Lafayette, Ind., in three weeks.

UB had two championship finalists in the 200-yard butterfly on Saturday. Kahla Walkinshaw finished fourth in a season-best 2:05.43, while senior Janet Reynolds was eighth in 2:07.64 after posting a season-best 2:06.91 in the preliminaries. Walkinshaw also finished seventh in the 100-yard butterfly in 57.58 after a season-best 57.22 in the preliminary round as the fifth-fastest qualifier.

Divers Ashlee Burton and Kimberly LaHaye finished seventh and eighth, respectively, on the three-meter board.

MEN'S

Bulls take 12th at ECAC meet

UB finished the ECAC Championships in 12th place among 24 scoring teams, picking up strong performances in the final two days of competition. The Bulls posted 82.50 points in the three-day meet at the University of Pittsburgh after starting slowly with just 10 points after the first day.

Sophomore Luke Adams registered a pair of career-best swims in his races to lead the Bulls over the weekend. Adams finished sixth in the 100-yard backstroke in 52.53 on Saturday, after turning in a career-best 52.32 in the qualifying heats. He came back Sunday with another sixth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke in 1:53.25 after lowering his career-best in the event during the preliminaries with a 1:52.69 clocking.

Senior Geoff Wells posted the highest finish at the meet, tying for second in the 100-yard breaststroke.

The Bulls will compete in the MAC Championships, which open today at Miami University

Tennis

WOMEN'S

UB 7, Niagara 0

UB rolled to a 7-0 non-conference victory over local rival Niagara University at the Sportsplex in North Tonawanda Friday night. The Bulls are now 3-1 in dual matches.

The Bulls secured the doubles point to open the match, taking two of the three contests. UB swept the singles contests without losing a set.

The Bulls next will be in action on March 12 at Mercyhurst.

Baseball

Kentucky 4, UB 3 (10)
Kentucky 10, UB 7
Kentucky 11, UB 9

UB opened the 2005 baseball season with a three-game series at Kentucky, dropping all three but giving the Wildcats all they could handle.

In the opener, it was UB's pitching that did most of the dazzling, constantly working out of trouble. When Kentucky (6-1) fought back from a 3-1 deficit in the fifth inning, it began a string of close, but not close enough scenarios for the Wildcats, who left the bases loaded in the fifth, sixth and ninth innings without pushing across the winning run. In the end, though, the Bulls played with fire one too many times, as Billy Grace singled home the winning run after three Wildcats loaded the bases with walks in the tenth inning to win, 4-3.

On Saturday, Kentucky used 10 runs in the first four innings to cruise to the win. Even that proved difficult, though, as UB scored five runs in the final three innings against three Kentucky relievers to bring the game within three runs.

On Sunday, the Wildcats once again staked themselves to an early lead and held on, taking an 11-4 lead into the ninth. But the Bulls fought back, loading the bases for junior James Kingsley, who singled to set up a grand slam from junior catcher David Amaro.

The Bulls will head south again this weekend for a three-game weekend series at Georgia Southern.

Softball

UB 3, Central Connecticut State 1
Houston 6, UB 3
Northern Illinois 3, UB 0
Central Connecticut State 5, UB 0
Houston 5, UB 0

After getting rained out at its first scheduled tournament at Arizona State two weekends ago, UB finally got the 2005 campaign under way this past weekend at the Marriott Hobby Airport Invitational, hosted by the University of Houston.

On Friday, the Bulls had a strong showing in their debut with a 3-1 win over Central Connecticut State, marking the first time since the 2000 season that the Bulls earned a win in their season opener. UB then fell to host Houston, 6-3, in its second game of the day.

The Bulls had one game on Saturday in a rain-shortened schedule, falling 3-0 to fellow MAC member Northern Illinois.

The Bulls then suffered two tough, 5-0, losses on Sunday to conclude the tournament. In their first game of the day, the Bulls ran into a hot pitcher in Houston's Carla Kennimer who threw her second straight no-hitter. Kennimer recorded her first career no-hitter against Northern Illinois on Friday in Houston's 5-0 win over the Huskies. In their final game of the day and the tournament, Central Connecticut State got revenge on the Bulls with a 5-0 win to give UB a 1-4 record.

Freshman Lacy Schneider led the way for the Bulls with a .333 batting average (4-for-12), a .667 slugging percentage, one double, one home run, one run scored, three RBIs and a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in 18 chances.