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Sports Recap
Kyle Cerminara of the wrestling team became UB's all-time victories leader, winning the 197-pound weight class at the Las Vegas Invitational.
Brooke Meunier of the women's basketball team averaged 18 points and 6.5 assists in UB's two road victories against Lafayette and Niagara, as the Bulls snapped a 19-game losing streak on the road.
Basketball
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UB 85, Fresno State 69
UB 68, Niagara 59
UB scored a pair of wins to improve to 6-1 on the year—the best start since the 1958-59 season. The Bulls defeated Fresno State, 85-69, in Alumni Arena on Nov. 30, then traveled to Niagara, where they knocked off the Purple Eagles, 68-59.
UB jumped out to an 11-0 lead against Fresno State and never looked back. The Bulls were led by Mario Jordan, who scored 21 points and pulled down nine rebounds, and Calvin Cage, who notched 20 points and a career-best eight assists.
The Bulls shot a season-best 53.7 percent from the floor, including 57.7 percent in the second half. UB was clutch at the free throw line, shooting 24-for-25 (.960). Cage was perfect at the line, hitting a career-best eight free throws.
At Niagara, Cage shot 6-for-7 from beyond the arc to notch 22 points and lead all scorers.
UB, which never trailed in the game, went up by 13 with 1:57 remaining in the first half. However, the Purple Eagles scored the final eight points of the period to cut the UB advantage to 32-27 at the break.
Niagara closed the gap to two points early in the second half. But back-to-back three-pointers by Yassin Idbihi and Cage quickly extended the UB advantage to eight points.
The Purple Eagles whittled the lead down to three points with 5:51 remaining. However, Cage struck again with his sixth three-pointer of the night to put the Bulls ahead by six. Niagara couldn't get any closer as UB converted its free throws down the stretch to pull away for the victory.
WOMEN'S
UB 66, Lafayette 56
UB 68, Niagara 45
UB earned a pair of road victories last week and snapped a streak of 19 consecutive losses away from Alumni Arena. The Bulls used a 16-1 run to defeat Lafayette, 66-56, on Nov. 30 in the Kirby Sports Center. UB then traveled to Niagara, where an impressive second-half performance lifted the Bulls to a 68-45 win over the Purple Eagles.
Against Lafayette, senior Brooke Meunier led the Bulls with 19 points and recorded a career-high seven assists. Stephanie Bennett and Heather Turner also recorded double-digit point totals, notching 13 and 10 points, respectively, for head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald's first victory at UB.
On Saturday, UB opened the second half with a 22-5 run to defeat Niagara before a sold-out crowd of 2,400 in the Gallagher Center. The win marked the first time since the 2002-03 season that the Bulls have won back-to-back road games and the 23-point margin of the victory was the largest for UB since it defeated Akron, 73-47, on Jan. 5, 2002.
Wrestling
Cerminara wins Las Vegas Invitational title
UB wrestling assistant coach Jeff Catrabone said he wanted senior Kyle Cerminara to dominate on the road to become Buffalo's first Las Vegas Invitational champion.
That's exactly what the 197-pounder did on Saturday, as he allowed Cornell's Jerry Rinaldi, ranked 10th in the NWCA/InterMat/NWMA poll, only three escapes while earning a 5-3 win in the championship.
The win caps off a historic weekend for the 2004 All-American, as he also set a school record with his 114th career win in the second round of the tournament on Friday night, passing Gary Cooper's mark of 113 career wins set from 1998-2003. The tournament title also stretches Cerminara's season-starting win streak to 19 matches, just five shy of John Stutzman's school record of 24 straight wins set in 1996-97.
Cerminara is ranked fifth in the NWCA/InterMat/NWMA poll.
UB finished with 48.5 points en route to a best-ever finish of 16th in the 52-team field.
Junior Mark Budd, sophomore Mickey Moran and senior Harold Sherrell each advanced to the round of 16 before losing their first match and settling into the consolation bracket.
After a consolation bracket 5-2 win against Wisconsin 's Zach Tanelli, Budd (133 pounds) fell to the Division II's eighth-ranked Brett Allgood of Nebraska-Kearney, 9-4. The tournament run ended for Moran (165 pounds) with a 6-3 loss to Old Dominion's Nelson Gosnell. Sherrell (285 pounds) was knocked out of the tournament by Hofstra's Jon Andriac with a 3-0 decision.
The Bulls will travel to Erie, Pa., for the War at the Shore against the USA Today/NWCA/InterMat's 22nd-ranked Edinboro tomorrow. Edinboro finished fourth at the Las Vegas Invitational.
Swimming
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Lynch sets diving records at Akron meet
UB finished sixth at the SummaCare Invitational, hosted by the University of Akron, over the weekend. St. Bonaventure won the team title.
Freshman Cassidy Lynch scored a pair of diving victories, sweeping the one- and three-meter competitions and setting meet and facility records in both events.
WOMEN'S
Sorg captures backstroke title at SummaCare Invitational
UB competed in the SummaCare Invitational last weekend, finishing seventh of seven teams. Illinois State University won the title.
Freshman Rachel Sorg won the women's 100 backstroke title in 58.62, holding off four other swimmers who finished within three-tenths of a second. The winning time also established a new season-best for Sorg. She reached the finals with the third-fastest preliminary time in the event, a then-season-best 59.24.
Sorg also placed ninth in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:06.55, exactly two seconds better than her previous season-best.