BUFFALO, NY — The RIT women's basketball team (7-0) defeated Buffalo State (4-4) 68-52 in a road battle at the BSC Sports Arena. The Tigers never trailed during the entire game, and end the first semester with their best start in program history at 7-0.
Sophomore
Tara Lynch (Green Township, NJ/Newton) dropped 33 points for the second straight game, tying her career-best and second-best mark in program history.
Jessica Glaz (Rockaway Beach, NY/Scholars Academy) also finished in double digits, adding 10 points, five assists and three rebounds.
Amanda Olsen (Glen Mills, PA/Archmere Academy) grabbed eight rebounds, in addition to four points and three assists.
Princella McCullough led the Bengals with 16 points and a game-high 18 rebounds. Taylor Graham had 15 points and three rebounds.
"I thought we came out strong at the beginning of the game, but we didn't play to our strengths for a good majority of the rest of the game," said head coach
Amy Reed. "We talked about the importance of defense and rebounding, and we took care of those two aspects. But we need to have better shot selection if we are going to continue to be successful."
The Tigers opened the game with stellar defense, taking the first quarter by a dominant score of 21-3. The three points allowed by RIT in the first quarter is the fewest points allowed by the Tigers since switching to the quarter-system last season. The Bengals chipped back into the Tiger lead, however, as RIT went into halftime with a 27-16 lead. Lynch had 12 points in the first half alone.
The second half was much closer, as the Tigers out-scored the Bengals 41-36 in the frame.
RIT shot 43.5 percent from the field, despite shooting just 20 percent from 3-point range. Buffalo State shot just 29.2 percent from the floor, and had a 21.7 percent mark from behind the arc. The Tigers out-rebounded the Bengals 46-43 and had 19 assists, compared to 12 by the Bengals.
The Tigers are off for the holiday break, and return to action next in their first Liberty League action of the season, at Rensselaer. That game will get underway at 2 p.m. on Dec. 30.
