The University of Akron Athletics
University of Akron
Buffalo
Akron Captures Senior Night Win Over Buffalo, 78-69
February 28 | Women's Basketball
2012 MAC Women's Basketball Tournament Bracket
AKRON, Ohio – A clamp-down defensive effort in the final eight minutes of play propelled The University of Akron women's basketball team to a 78-69 win over Buffalo on Senior Night at Rhodes Arena Tuesday.
Akron trailed by as much as nine midway through the second half before shutting down the Bulls down the stretch to pull back for the win.
With the victory, Akron (13-17, 7-9 MAC) clinched the No. 6 seed and a home game in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament on Saturday (March 3). The tournament draw sees a rematch of tonight's game with Buffalo, as the Bulls earned the No. 11 seed. Tip off will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Rhodes Arena with a trip to the 2012 MAC Tournament second round at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland on the line.
Senior Ti'eshia Stubbs recorded her first career double-double to lead UA. Stubbs scored a career-high tying 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds. Taylor Ruper and Hanna Luburgh scored 17 points each, while Carly Young added 13 tallies. Senior Natasha Williams turned in a game-high eight assists.
The Zips dominated the glass, outrebounding Buffalo, 51-37. UA held a 19-12 edge in offensive rebounds and scored 15 second chance points. Luburgh and Young both turned in strong efforts on the boards, with 9 and 8 rebounds, respectively.
The Zips turned in a 41.7-percent (30-of-72) effort from the field and scored 25 points off of 18 Buffalo turnovers.
Buffalo (9-21, 4-12) was led by Brittany Hedderson's 16 points, while Nytor Longar tallied a 13-point, 14-rebound double-double.
UA used a 3-for-5 start from distance to take a 13-7 lead five minutes into the game. Ruper nailed back-to-back treys and Luburgh added her own from the right corner to pace Akron to the early advantage.
The Bulls answered back with a 16-4 run over the middle 5:11 of the half, to take a 27-22 lead with 7:00 minutes to go in the period. Jumpers by Luburgh and Ruper and a pull-up three by Kacie Cassell tied the game back up at 29-29 at the 5:06 mark
Buffalo would hit three treys of its own in the final 2:43 of the half and take a 41-35 lead by the halftime buzzer. UB shot 5-of-9 (.556) from three in the first period and were 9-of-19 (.474) from deep in the game. Stubbs and Ruper led Akron in the half with eight points each, as UA shot 42.9-percent (15-of-35).
Five straight points from Stubbs made it a 48-48 tie ballgame with 16:27 to play, but Buffalo promptly went on a 10-2 run - fueled by two more 3-pointers - to take a 58-50 lead.
Akron got back in the game via the fast break, and back-to-back transition buckets by Williams and Luburgh brought the Zips to within three at 62-59. After UB extended its lead back out to five on a Teresa Semalulu bucket with 7:52 to play, the Zips turned on the defense. Akron allowed a mere five points the rest of the game, taking its first lead, 66-64, since late in the first half on a Luburgh trifecta from the top of the key with 5:03 to play.
UA held the Bulls to just 1-of-8 shooting from the floor in the final 7:52 of the contest and got a clutch three from Ruper with 40 seconds remaining to give Akron a six-point advantage. Ruper then made 3-of-4 from the stripe to lock up Akron's seventh conference win of the season.
Zips Notebook: Ti'eshia Stubbs scored 18 points in a game for the second time in her career, also scoring 18 against Miami on Jan. 4 of this season. Her previous high rebounding total was nine, last accomplished against Central Michigan on Feb. 4. It was also the first career double-double for Stubbs ... Akron has won the rebounding battle in six of its last seven games, and are doing so by 7.4 rebounds per contest during that span.
