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Jan. 25, 2003
BUFFALO, N.Y.-On a night when the shooting inside of the University at Buffalo's Alumni Arena was as chilly as the blustery Buffalo winter outside, Miami University's women's basketball overcame season lows in points and field goal percentage to earn its first back-to-back wins since November, defeating the Buffalo Bulls 50-45 in a key MAC East Division clash.
Tied just 6-6 by the second media timeout at 11:59, neither team was able to generate much offense in the early going. Behind six straight points by Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe, however, Buffalo began showing signs of life at the 10-minute mark and surged to a 14-11 advantage by 8:09.
Sparked by five points from Beth Roederer over the next two minutes, the RedHawks turned the tide, scoring 10 unanswered points and holding the Bulls without a field goal for nearly six minutes while building a 21-14 advantage with 3:38 remaining in the half. An Erin Lawrenson 3-point field goal ended UB's scoring drought at 2:21 but could not prevent Miami, which shot just 29 percent from the floor, from going into the half with a 23-17 edge.
Behind two quick buckets from Kim Smith, Miami expanded its lead to nine points early in the second half, but Buffalo rallied behind McMeeken-Ruscoe, who scored the Bulls' first 11 points of the half and closed to within one point, 29-28, with 14:12 to play. Miami recovered quickly and rebuilt its lead to five, but with 7:59 remaining Buffalo was back within one point at 37-36.
The RedHawks once again expanded their lead, scoring five straight points and holding the Bulls without a basket for nearly four minutes, but Buffalo answered with another rally, trimming Miami's advantage to two with less than three minutes to play. Behind two free throws from Cusick and a Cindi Merrill layup, Miami pushed its advantage back to six points, and the RedHawks led 48-42 with less than 30 seconds to play.
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Buffalo's Erin Lawrenson trimmed Miami's edge with a trey at 0:15, but Cusick buried two free throws on Miami's next trip down the floor and the RedHawks held on for their ninth straight regular-season win versus the MAC's East Division.
Kim Lancaster was the only RedHawk to reach double digits, totaling 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Roederer added nine points for Miami, which shot a season-worst .298 from the floor. The RedHawks forced 21 Buffalo turnovers to just 13 of their own and also blocked seven Bull shots. Miami also won the battle of the boards, 38-36, and collected 13 offensive boards. McMeeken Ruscoe led all scorers with 21 points.
Miami, which improved to 9-8 and 4-2 in the MAC, continues a rugged stretch of MAC play Tuesday night when it hosts Eastern Michigan University-one of only two MAC teams head coach Maria Fantanarosa has not beaten during her Miami coaching career-at 7 p.m. in Millett Hall.
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