University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: December 6, 2007

Football

Eight Bulls make All-MAC squads

Through the first eight years of playing football in the Mid-American Conference, UB had a total of seven players named to its all-conference team. UB last week had eight players named All-MAC after its record-setting 2007 season, which culminated in the Bulls earning a share of the MAC East Division title.

Davonte Shannon, a true freshman safety, became the first UB player to be named All-MAC First Team since UB’s entrance into the league in 1999. He was one of only three freshmen named All-MAC.

Trevor Scott, a senior defensive end; Jamey Richard, a senior center and anchor of the offensive line; and James Starks, sophomore running back, were named to the All-MAC Second Team. Starks earned second-team kudos for the second year in a row.

Kareem Byrom and Larry Hutchinson, both senior linebackers; Jeff Niedermier, a junior right guard; and Naaman Roosevelt, a sophomore wide receiver, earned third-team honors.

Niedermier and Richard are the first UB offensive linemen to earn All-MAC honors.

“This is a great day for the University at Buffalo football program to see this kind of recognition within our conference,” said head coach Turner Gill. “The MAC is a highly competitive league with great student-athletes and coaches. To see this kind of representation speaks to the efforts that our players and coaches put forth this season to earn the respect of our conference foes and to make our program one to be reckoned with now and in the future.”

The Reporter announced last week that Gill was named MAC Coach of the Year.

Basketball

MEN’S

UB 68, Canisius 59
UB 65, Tulane 51
UB 80, Evansville 61

Vadim Fedotov scored a career-high 17 points and pulled down a season-high nine rebounds to help lead UB to a 68-59 win over Canisius in Alumni Arena on Nov. 27.

The game was close early, with the Bulls holding a 22-20 lead with 7:31 left in the first half. However, the Bulls held the Golden Griffins without a field goal for the remainder of the half and a Jawaan Alston tip-in at the buzzer capped a 13-3 scoring run to give the Bulls a 35-23 lead at the break.

An Andy Robinson three-pointer gave the Bulls their largest lead of the game at 15 with 17:44 left. But the Griffs refused to give up, responding with a 10-1 run to cut the UB advantage to six points with 14:37 remaining.

Back-to-back threes by Sean Smiley and Calvin Betts extended the Bulls’ lead to 50-39 with 11:38 left, and they never looked back.

Prior to the game, both teams met at half court and held a banner that read, "Buffalo Loves Brian" in support of former Canisius basketball player Brian Dux, who was critically injured in an automobile accident in England.

Later in the week, Smiley came off the bench and scored a career-high 26 points to help lead the Bulls to a 65-51 win over Tulane on Nov. 29. The Bulls' sharpshooter shot 8 for 10 from the floor, including a perfect 5 for 5 from beyond the arc and 5 for 5 from the free throw line to lead all scorers.

Kevin Sims hit a three-pointer to give the Green Wave a 9-4 lead. However, that was Tulane's largest lead and it was short lived. A pair of Kambi Laleye free throws gave the Bulls a 13-12 lead and ignited a 17-4 run to extend the lead to 30-16 with 3:15 left in the half. Smiley drained his fourth three-pointer of the first stanza with nine seconds left to give the Bulls a 19-point advantage—their largest of the game. UB led, 37-20, at the half.

Tulane battled back and whittled the UB lead down to six with 8:39 remaining. However, following a UB time out, the Bulls regrouped and scored the game's next 12 points, capped by a Smiley jumper to take a 60-42 lead with 3:18 remaining.

All 11 Buffalo players scored in the game. Rodney Pierce had seven points and Greg Gamble had six points.

UB shot nearly 60 percent from the floor in an 81-60 win over Evansville in Alumni Arena on Saturday. It was the Bulls' third straight victory and head coach Reggie Witherspoon's 100th win at UB.

Six different UB players score eight points or more, led by Smiley with 14. The redshirt sophomore continued his hot shooting from beyond the arc, draining 4 of 5 three-point attempts. He has now hit 10 of his last 11 three-point shots.

The Bulls got off to a sluggish start and committed 10 turnovers in the first 13 minutes of the game. A jumper by Shy Ely gave the Purple Aces a 21-19 lead with 5:58 left in the half. With the game knotted at 23, the Bulls closed the half on a 14-5 scoring run, capped by a Smiley trey with six seconds remaining, to take a 37-28 lead at the break.

UB hit four straight shots to open the second half and a Max Boudreau jumper extended the UB lead to 15. The Purple Aces rallied to cut the lead to eight with 14:32 remaining, but Smiley's third three-pointer of the night extended the UB advantage to 50-39 and it remained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

WOMEN’S

Holy Cross 71, UB 57
UB 61, Niagara 42

UB fell behind early and was unable to come back, losing to Holy Cross, 71-57, on Nov. 27 in the Hart Center.

The Crusaders got off to a quick start, scoring the first 10 points of the game before senior Heather Turner hit a layup at the 14:23 mark of the first half. The Bulls fought back and cut the Holy Cross lead to five at the 4:02 mark on a layup from freshman Bridgette Kendricks, but that was as close as the Bulls could get as they trailed, 29-22, at the half.

Holy Cross came out firing in the second half and scored the first seven points to take a 14-point advantage. The Bulls then went on an 8-0 run, which was capped by a free throw from Turner. The Crusaders returned with a 7-1 run of their own to regain a 12-point advantage. The runs in the second half continued as UB went on a 12-4 run—capped by an Ashley Zuber three-pointer—and UB pulled to within three. UB cut the lead to three one more time on a conventional three-point play by junior Jamie Schiebner with 7:34 remaining. From there, Holy Cross ended the game on a 19-8 run.

The Bulls snapped a two-game losing skid with a strong defensive effort to take a 61-42 victory over Niagara Saturday in the Gallagher Center. Schiebner had a career-high 19 points and 16 rebounds as the Bulls improved to 4-3.

Niagara scored the first basket of the game off the opening tip off, but the UB defense left the Purple Eagles scoreless for the next nine minutes. Both teams struggled to find their scoring touch in the opening half, but the Bulls were able to maintain a double-digit lead throughout the second part of the half and led, 22-12, at halftime.

UB opened the second half on a 16-5 run and reached its largest lead of 21 on a three-point play from Turner at the 14:55 mark. Niagara fought back and cut the lead to nine before UB ended the game on a 14-4 run. The Bulls cemented their lead by hitting their last 10 free throws, including six straight from senior guard Stephanie Bennett.

Swimming

Men’s and women’s teams compete in Zippy Invitational

UB’s swim teams posted impressive results at the 2007 Zippy Invitational, hosted by the University of Akron. The UB women finished second of 11 teams in the three-day meet. The UB men placed sixth among the nine squads with 892.5 points. Nearly every swimmer posted a season-best mark in at least one event during the competition.

Sophomore Andrea Lehner had an impressive weekend, scoring three individual wins and was part of two relay victors. On Friday, Lehner set a new meet record in winning the 200-yard individual medley in 2:04.37. She also helped the Bulls to a new school and meet record in the 200-yard freestyle relay, teaming with Sam Palma, Meghan Lafferty and Jessie Koltz to finish in 1:35.33, cutting nearly a second off the previous meet record (1:36.25) and more than a second off the old UB mark (1:36.47 set in 2002). On Saturday, she shattered the school mark in winning the 100-yard backstroke in 56.27, eclipsing Inger Rooneem's 1998 UB backstroke mark of 56.83 and the meet record of 57.34. Lehner also led off the Bulls' victorious 200-yard medley relay team that narrowly missed setting another school record. The foursome of Lehner (backstroke), Ashley Schaffert (breaststroke), Palma (butterfly) and Koltz (freestyle) finished in 1:46.20, just four-hundredths of a second shy of the UB school record set in 2000. Lehner also took the grueling 1,650-yard freestyle on Sunday in 17:08.78, eight seconds better than Ohio’s Stacey Huber (17:16.53).

UB’s divers also had a strong showing over the weekend. Michael McDowell broke his own meet mark on the three-meter board, scoring 335.65 points for his six dives in the final round to eclipse the mark of 332.40 he posted at last year's meet for the pool and meet record. It is the third consecutive year that a UB men's diver has set the pool record. Cassidy Lynch set the record at the 2005 event. McDowell also broke Lynch’s meet mark to win the one-meter event with 303.05 points. Meili Carpenter also scored a victory for the Bulls, taking the women's one-meter diving event with a six-dive total of 283.45 points in the finals. She placed second on the three-meter board on Saturday night with 264.45 points in her six dives, second to Akron's Kathryn Carter (319.60).

On Sunday’s final day of competition, the UB men were buoyed by a pair of victories. Connor Vander Zalm cruised to an easy win in the 1,650-yard freestyle in 16:20.52, winning the race by more than 30 seconds over Xavier’s Sam Gray and cutting 29 seconds from his time in the event in the UB meet against Ball State on Nov. 10. Zach Ruske won the 200-yard backstroke final. Ruske, who was the fastest qualifier on Sunday morning with a season-best 1:51.54, won the title in 1:51.59, almost two seconds ahead of St. Bonaventure’s Jim Wood.

The Bulls will take the month of December off to concentrate on final exams and training. UB is next in action on Jan. 11 at Binghamton.

Wrestling

Bulls find rough going at Las Vegas Invitational

UB completed its run at the 26th Annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational tying for 43rd among 50 scoring teams. Five Bulls recorded victories at the prestigious tournament. Dana Gingerich, John Cummings and Mike Ragusa each earned multiple wins for the Bulls.

In the 149-pound weight class, Gingerich registered his first win in the first round of wrestlebacks with a pin at 46 seconds. Gingerich pinned Sam Allen of Utah Valley State to advance to the second round of wrestlebacks. In that round, Gingerich earned another decisive victory, scoring a 13-3 major decision over Tim McGoldrick of North Idaho. Gingerich fell in the third wrestleback round, 3-1, to Anthony Constantino of Columbia. Gingerich finished with a 2-2 record.

Cummings also scored victories for the Bulls at 157 pounds in wrestleback action. Cummings’ first victory was a close, 3-2, decision over Devin Velasquez of Cal State-Fullerton. He won again in the second wrestleback round against Alex McKinney of Missouri Valley by a 7-1 decision. Cummings’ run ended in his third wrestleback, when he fell to Hofstra’s Jon Bonilla-Bowman by a 7-5 decision. Cummings had a 2-2 record in Las Vegas.

Ragusa was dealt a difficult draw when he faced the nation’s top-ranked wrestler in Division II, Larry Wilbanks of Western State, in the first round. Wilbanks won the bout by a 12-9 decision. Ragusa then posted two straight victories, first over Mikal McKee of UNC Greensboro by a 2-1 decision and then 5-2 over Shawn Hart of Northern Colorado. Ragusa fell again in the third round of wrestlebacks to James Williamson of Missouri 4-2.

The Bulls will return to the mats Dec. 15 when they return to Alumni Arena to take on Appalachian State and Bloomsburg at 9 a.m. in dual-meet competition.