Marshall falls again

The Thundering Herd women's basketball team suffered a 54-49 setback Thursday night as it fell to Buffalo at Cam Henderson Center, losing its 15th consecutive Mid-American Conference game.

"It's disappointing. We had a great game plan coming in," said Marshall Coach Juliene Simpson, whose team fell to 6-12 overall and 0-7 in the conference. "To hold the No. 2 team in the conference to 54 points when they're averaging more is very good. Unfortunately, we didn't see the win."

Marshall junior forward Yashico Stevens scored her 100th field goal of the season with 13:10 left in the first half.

Stevens is the first Marshall player to score 100 field goals in her first season since Kristina Behnfeldt and Lisa Mason did it in the 1996-97 season.

"I'm really happy," she said after scoring 10 points against the Bulls, who improved to 15-4 overall and 5-3 in the conference. "I really didn't know that I did it."

In its last seven games, Marshall outrebounded its opponents by 14 boards and continued that trend by pulling down 36 rebounds to Buffalo's 35. Marshall freshman center Amy Reed had a team-high 10 boards.

That did not stop Buffalo center Tiffany Bell from scoring 21 points and grabbing six rebounds.

"We just thought about last year when we came in here and didn't play very good," Bell said, referring to Buffalo's 76-59 loss to Marshall last season. "We felt like we owed them so we came in here and did what we had to do."

The Thundering Herd took an early 3-0 lead on a 3-pointer by junior guard Toni Patillo, but would not lead again as the Bulls took a 4-3 lead on a Bell layup three minutes into the first half.

Although Marshall had 11 free throw attempts in the first half, it converted only six of them.

After leading by as many as 10 points, the Bulls took an 8-point lead at halftime.

In the second half, Marshall was able to tie the game at 41-all before a 9-1 Buffalo run. Although Marshall pulled within three with 27 seconds left, the Bulls netted two free throws to secure the win.

The Herd plays host to Akron at 2 p.m. Saturday.