COLLEGE ROUNDUP (Nov. 15): UB basketball opens season tonight

Sports

November 14, 2008

Staff Reports The Niagara Gazette Fri Nov 14, 2008, 11:49 PM EST

The Buffalo men’s basketball team tips off the 2008-09 season tonight when it visits Youngstown State (7 p.m., WECK 1230).

Coach Reggie Witherspoon’s Bulls are an experienced squad. Twelve players return from last season’s 10-20 squad, including the top eight scorers, and all five starters.

Niagara Falls native Greg Gamble, one of the team’s four seniors, is expected to start at point guard tonight, relegating Niagara-Wheatfield graduate Byron Mulkey to the bench.

The Bulls open the season with three straight road games, and will be without last season’s top scorer, Andy Robinson, for each of those games. Robinson, another senior, was suspended for attempting to use the Web site Facebook.com to get another student to write a term paper for him.

Rodney Pierce, the former Hutch Tech start who played point guard for most of last season, will likely fill in at shooting guard during Robinsons’ absence.

The Bulls defeated Youngstown State 95-82 in last season’s BracketBuster contest. Robinson scored 26, while Mulkey had 18 points and five assists. Gamble had eight points and five assists from the small forward position.

UB plays at Canisius on Tuesday, and heads to Evansville next Saturday, before playing their first game at Alumni Arena on Nov. 25 against Niagara.

Men’s Soccer

NU, UB seasons end

The Purple Eagles were eliminated from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship tournament Friday by losing 3-0 to Loyola, the No. 6 team in the country. Niagara(11-6-3) outshot the undefeated Greyhounds 11-4 in the first half.

The Bulls saw their quest for a Mid-American Conference championship end with 1-0 loss to Northern Illinois. UB (12-4-4) was looking to return to the MAC championship game for the third straight year.

On Thursday, several Purple Eagles were honored by the MAAC. Matt Durand, Billy Gustafson and Levi Tesch were named first-team all-conference while Anthony DiBiase was voted to the second team. Carl Haworth was named MAAC rookie of the year, and Michael Pass (Lockport) was named to the all-rookie team.

Eric Brodfuehrer (Kenmore East), Zach Scholla, John Fiutowski, Desmond Betteto, Jordan DeRoy, Ryan Fagen and Matt Hynes were named to the all-academic team.

Women’s Basketball

Michigan State routs NU

The Spartans, runners-up in last season’s women’s NIT, took a 10-0 lead and never looked back, beating visiting Niagara 116-50 in both team’s season opener.

The Purple Eagles forced 10 first-half turnovers and went 10-for-10 at the free throw line. But they were out-rebounded 53-25, leading to a 26-8 disadvantage in second-chance points. Jaclyn Konieczka led Niagara with eight points.

“We played against a very skilled and physical team tonight,” coach Kendra Faustin said. “It was a tough opponent to open the season against and I hope we can learn from this game.”

Niagara’s home opener is 1 p.m. Sunday against Oakland.

Women’s Hockey

Niagara loses conference opener

The Purple Eagles dropped their first College Hockey America contest Friday, 2-1, at Robert Morris. Ashley Riggs gave Niagara (1-9-1 overall) an early 1-0 lead that put the senior forward into second place on the school’s all-time scoring list. Niagara outshot the Colonials 39-22.

Wrestling

NCCC goes 1-1 at dual meet

In their first dual-meet action of the season, the Trailblazers defeated ranked foe Lincoln (Ill.) 29-17, then lost to Tryne, a four-year college from Indiana. Jared Lemke won both of his matches on the day.

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