University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 9, 2006

Basketball

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UB 80, Ball State 72 (MAC tournament

UB held off a feisty Ball State squad, 80-72, in the first round of the First Energy Mid-American Conference Tournament on Monday night in Alumni Arena. With the win, the Bulls advance to Cleveland for the third straight year and will face top-seeded Kent State tonight.

Early on, it looked as if the Bulls were going to run away with the contest as a steal and break-away dunk by Mario Jordan gave UB a 41-21 lead with 3:40 left in the first half. Calvin Cage hit his fifth three-pointer of the first half to put the Bulls ahead, 44-25, late in first stanza before settling for a 44-28 lead at the break.

Ball State guard Skip Mills scored a career-high 38 points to single-handedly get the Cardinals back into the game. A Mills jumper with 11:32 remaining cut the UB advantage to 52-48. The Bulls responded, and after a pair of Jordan free throws, Roderick Middleton drained back-to-back three-pointers to extend the UB lead to 12.

With the Bulls leading 62-50 with 6:32 left, Ball State made one last charge and a 13-4 scoring run sliced the UB lead to 66-63 with 4:18 remaining. Cage made eight straight free throws to help hold off the Cardinals. With the Bulls ahead, 77-72, with 32 seconds remaining, Yassin Idbihi put an exclamation point on the victory with a breakaway jam.

WOMEN'S

Kent State 73, UB 59
Toledo 70, UB 58 (MAC tournament)

The first season of the Linda Hill-MacDonald era came to an end Saturday afternoon as the Bulls fell to Toledo, 70-58, in Alumni Arena in the first round of the MAC Championships.

The Bulls will take into the off season their best record (10-18) since 2002-03. The 10 wins equal their win total from the previous two years. The Bulls will return all but one player next season.

With the victory, the Rockets move on to the MAC quarterfinals to meet Western Michigan.

In the first half, UB had a hard time stopping Savannah Werner, who scored 25 of her game-high 31 points in the opening 20 minutes of play. Toledo went on a 13-0 run in the first half, taking a 37-24 lead into the locker rooms.

UB came out firing in the second half, going on an 18-5 run and tying the game at 42 on a three-pointer by senior Brooke Meunier. In fact, at the 7:34 mark of the second half, the Bulls took a one-point lead on a three-pointer by Stephanie Bennett. But that lead was short-lived, as Toledo went back on top, scoring seven of the next nine points in the game. The Bulls weren't able to capitalize on some opportunities and Toledo hit its foul shots at the end to leave with the victory.

The Bulls were led by three players in double figures, including 16 points from Meunier, who played her final game in a UB uniform. Flynn Pyykkonen notched her first career double-double with 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Sophomore forward Heather Turner also recorded a double-double, her third straight, recording 14 points and 11 rebounds. Eight of Turner's boards were off the offensive glass. Bennett finished with a game-high seven assists.

UB ended the regular season in Alumni Arena on Feb. 28 with a 73-59 loss to Kent State. The Golden Flashes used a 10-0 run to start the second half and forced 18 UB turnovers to earn the victory.

The Bulls got some good news on Monday when the 2006 All-MAC and All-Freshmen teams were announced by the league office. Turner, the 2004-05 MAC Freshman of the Year was named to the Third Team All-MAC, while Jamie Schiebner was named to the All-Freshman team.

Wrestling

Budd, Sherrell, Cerminara earn NCAA bids

Two weeks ago, it would have been hard to predict. Senior Harold Sherrell dropped a 3-1 sudden-victory decision to Slippery Rock's Matt Burkholder. Maybe the 220-pound heavyweight's Cinderella Story that led him to a 30-win season had ended.

Sherrell's Cinderella story may be just beginning. He pinned Kent State's Jermail Porter in the MAC Championship finals Saturday afternoon for his 35th win of the season at the 4:23 mark of the match, giving the long shot his first MAC title.

The Bulls, led by a record-tying seven placewinners and champions Sherrell and junior Mark Budd (133 pounds), pulled a little bit of a Cinderella story of their own, finishing third with 60 points, ahead of 24th-ranked Northern Illinois. It is the highest finish for the Bulls since joining the MAC in 1998-99.

Budd claimed his first MAC title with an injury default against Eastern Michigan's Phillip Plowman.

Senior Kyle Cerminara (197 pounds) came up on the short end once again, 7-5, in his rematch with top-ranked Wynn Michalak of Central Michigan. The second-ranked wrestler in the nation, Cerminara did receive an NCAA wild card bid.

At 184 pounds, senior Garrett Hicks closed out his career in style, beating Ohio 's Brian Cesear, 8-0, for third-place. Hicks finishes the season, 24-12.

Three other UB wrestlers-senior Cliff Smith (141 pounds), sophomore Dana Gingerich (149 pounds) and sophomore Mickey Moran (165 pounds) placed fourth after dropping third-place matches on Saturday.

Budd, Cerminara and Sherrell will hit the mats at the NCAA Championships on March 16 in Oklahoma City.

Indoor Track and Field

Bulls wrap up regional championships

UB's indoor track-and-field teams completed action at their respective regional championships in Boston on Sunday. At the women's ECAC Championships at Northeastern University, the Bulls scored three points on Sunday to raise their two-day total to six points and tie for 32nd place in a field of 50 scoring teams. The UB men competed in the IC4A Championships at Boston University, scoring four points on Sunday to total 14 points and tie for 21st among 51 scoring teams.

Men's jumper Roy Richards won his second long jump title in as many. Richards led the event from start to finish, posting a winning mark of 24-5.50 (7.45m) on his sixth and final jump on the day. He earned All-East honors. Richards won the Mid-American Conference title in the event last weekend with a school-record mark of 24-9.75 (7.56m) to earn a provisional slot at next week's NCAA Championships.

The UB women posted a school record in the distance medley relay. UB finished sixth in 11:33.11, cutting more than five seconds off the old mark set earlier this season. The UB foursome of Kate Kohout, Stacy Downer, Mary Veith and Jen Jezorski earned all-region honors.

On Saturday, the UB women picked up a sixth-place finish by Jessica Lister in the pole vault. Lister cleared 12-3.50 (3.75m). The UB men were paced by a sixth-place finish by Dan McKenna in the mile. McKenna finished the race in 4:10.74, bettering his qualifying mark of 4:11.81 set in Saturday's heats. The Bulls also picked up an eighth-place finish from Rayshon Higgins in the triple jump. Higgins, in his only legal jump, cleared 47-6.50 (14.49m) to tie with Albany's Kamar Elliott. Lister, McKenna and Higgins earned All-East honors.

The Bulls placed four members of the squads on the Academic All-MAC teams announced by the league Monday morning. They are Babaseyi Olaleye, Bryan Weinstein, Jezorski and Kohout.

Swimming

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Bulls finish fifth at MAC Championships

The Bulls finished the MAC Championships in fifth place, posting 259 points. Miami (Ohio) broke Eastern Michigan's string of six consecutive team championships, scoring 888.5 points to hold off the Eagles' 881.

Freshman diver Cassidy Lynch placed fourth in the one-meter competition on Thursday night for UB's highest finish of the night. Lynch scored 287.50 points in the six-dive championship round after scoring a total of 281.60 in the afternoon's preliminary round. He was three-tenths of a point shy of placing third.

Junior Luke Adams placed fifth in the championship finals of the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:53.72. He also finished seventh overall with a time of 52.86 in the 100-yard backstroke on Friday.

The UB relayers also had strong showings. The Bulls finished fourth in the 200-yard medley relay and fifth in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Baseball

UB 8, Marshall 7
Marshall 10, UB 9
Marshall 20, UB 3
Marshall 13, UB 7

Jacob Rosenbeck's grand slam in the seventh inning gave UB a 7-5 lead and Dan Quinn's eighth-inning homer dealt the final blow on Friday afternoon as the Bulls beat Marshall, 8-7, at University Heights Field. Sean McWilliams and Steve Geltz combined to strike out five batters as they picked up the hold and the save, respectively.

After the wild win in the series opener, the Bulls tried to complete another come-from-behind win, but fell short, 10-9, in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday. In the second game, Marshall kept the thunder rolling with a 20-3 win to complete the sweep.

On Sunday, a two-run home run from Quinn in the top of the fifth inning brought the Bulls to within one run, but Marshall, buoyed by a three-run home run from Brendan Murphy, took the win, 13-7.

Softball

UB 9, Boston University 4
Illinois State 11, UB 0
UB 4, Harvard 3
Michigan State 5, UB 1

UB split four games last weekend in the Plant City (Fla.) Invitational, defeating Boston University and Harvard, but losing to Illinois State and Michigan State.

Against Boston University, UB took the 9-4 victory with a complete game, six-strikeout effort by junior Sophie Barstad. Freshman Erin Zilka recorded three RBIs as in a 3-for-4 day at the plate. Marcy Hansen drove in two runs with a single and sophomore Laura Kor also provided a RBI for the Bulls.

The Bulls then fell to a red-hot Illinois State team, 11-0. Freshman Dana Carter made her pitching debut, pitching the fifth and final inning for the Bulls.

Carter got her first collegiate win and Zilka hit her first career home run in the Bulls' 4-3 victory over the Harvard Crimson on Sunday. Kor added 3 RBIs For UB.

In the final game of the tournament against Michigan State, Barstad picked up her first loss of the season and the Bulls were held to just one run in the 5-1 decision.

Tennis

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UB 4, St. Bonaventure 3

A tiebreaking singles victory by Albert Alant propelled UB to a 4-3 win at St. Bonaventure Saturday night. The Bulls evened their dual meet record to 4-4 with the victory over the Bonnies.

Alant needed to win two tiebreakers over Victor Lecina in the number five singles match to claim the win for the Bulls. Alant won the first set, 7-6 (7-2 in the tiebreaker), but dropped the second set, 6-1, to set up the climactic third set. Again Alant was forced into a tiebreaker by Lecina and prevailed, 7-3, to give UB the match.

WOMEN'S

UB 7, Niagara 0

UB defeated Western New York rival Niagara, 7-0, Sunday afternoon in women's tennis action at the Village Glen Tennis Center. The Bulls improved to 6-1 overall.

UB's Kristen Ortman, teamed with Natalie Dean as the Bulls' number one doubles duo, earned the 50th doubles triumph of her career-the most in the Division I history of the women's tennis program-with an 8-4 victory over Danielle Grenier and Julianne Prokopich.