Monday's Scoreboard
Buffalo 80, James Madison 64
IUPUI 73, Ball State 49
Stories Courtesy of MAC Sports Information
Buffalo 80, James Madison 64
Box Score
HARRISONBURG, VA – Behind career highs of 24 points and eight three pointers from senior Hanna Hall and a game high 29 points from sophomore Dyaisha Fair, the University at Buffalo women's basketball defeated James Madison 80-64 in the season opener at the Atlantic Union Bank Center on Monday.
Fair, who was named a preseason All-MAC first team selection, led all scorers with 29 points to go along with six rebounds and nine assists. Hall set career-highs in points (24), three pointers made (8) and field goals made (8) while also grabbing five boards. Freshman Cheyenne McEvans also scored in double figures with 12 points in her first game as a Bull.
Hall got going early, making her first three shots from behind the arc to give the Bulls a 12-4 lead at the 6:31 mark. Fair would then start to heat up as well, putting together a 5-0 run by herself to force a JMU timeout and give the Bulls a 17-7 lead at the first media timeout. The offense would continue to click as the Bulls took advantage of a three minute JMU scoring drought to rip off a 16-4 run, including the first career bucket for McEvans, an and-one from Adebola Adeyeye and the fourth triple for Hall, to take a 33-11 lead at the end of the first.
The Hamilton, Ontario native picked up right where she left off to start the second quarter, knocking down a three off of a JMU turnover, to give the Bulls a 38-11 lead in the early going. The two teams would then trade baskets before Fair got a step back three to fall from the top of the key and then converted the steal and score force a third JMU timeout and put UB up 47-15 at the media timeout. McEvans drained a three from the corner off the feed from Fair to help UB hit the 50-point mark with 3:56 remaining and she would hit another one two minutes later before Fair banked in a floater off the glass at the buzzer to give the Bulls a 57-24 lead at the half.
Buffalo shot just under 49% from the floor in the opening half and 45% from deep while also scoring 20 points off of 16 JMU turnovers. The 58 first half points were the most scored by UB since they scored 61 against Central Michigan on February 16, 2019.
The Dukes would start the third on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 14 and force a UB timeout at the 7:54 mark. Hall stopped the bleeding as she drained her sixth three of the game to give UB a 60-33 lead at the 7:17 mark and the Bulls would maintain a 60-39 lead at the media timeout. After a 10-0 JMU run, Hall knocked down a corner three off the pass from Fair to put UB back up by 20, but the Dukes would close the quarter on an 8-0 run to cut the Buffalo lead to 12 at the end of the third.
JMU would open the fourth on a mini 4-0 run to cut the UB lead to eight before Hall drained yet another three to put the Bulls back up by 11 at the 8:48 mark. Later, Fair would get a bucket off the glass and the foul to give UB a 70-57 lead with just over six minutes to play. After back-to-back JMU buckets cut the UB lead to 12, Fair hit the corner triple to give UB a 79-64 lead at the 2:30 mark and that would be enough to seal the victory for the Bulls.
Buffalo returns to action on Thursday, December 3, as they travel to VCU to take on the Rams at 5pm.
IUPUI 73, Ball State 49
Box Score
MUNCIE, Ind. -- The college basketball season is a long one. It's not how you start, but how you finish. And one thing about Brady Sallee's teams at Ball State is they are almost always in the mix at the finish.
Sallee believes this version of the Cardinals will be contenders, too … even if Monday's home opener didn't appear to show it. His short-handed Cardinals fell to defending Horizon League champion and this year's preseason favorite IUPUI, 73-49, at Worthen Arena.
BSU dropped to 0-2 on the young season, while IUPUI – coming off a 23-8 campaign last year – improved to 2-0.
Ball State faced the challenge in the post of defending IUPUI's Macee Williams, the two-time Horizon League player of the year. Williams scored 20 points in the first half on the way to a game-high 28 on 13-of-17 shooting.
She helped IUPUI up a double-digit lead midway through the second quarter after a tight first frame. The Jaguars controlled things from there.
"Austin (Parkinson) has done a heck of a job with that program," Sallee said. That's a good basketball team we just played … Impressed with their players and the system even before we played them. Macee Williams is as good of a post player as we'll see all year."
