No. 10 seed Buffalo outlasts Rutgers
Summer Hemphill scored 23 points as 10th-seeded Buffalo recorded an 82-71 victory over seventh-seeded Rutgers on Friday in the NCAA Women's Tournament Albany Region first-round game at Storrs, Conn.
Hemphill shot 9 of 14 from the floor and scored 12 straight points in the fourth quarter for the Mid-American Conference tournament champion Bulls (24-9), who advanced to face the winner of Friday's tilt pitting second-seeded Connecticut against 15th-seeded Towson in the second round Monday.
Senior captain Cierra Dillard scored 13 of her 20 points in the first half. Dillard, whose 25.4 point-per-game average was the second highest in the country, made four 3-pointers and Hanna Hall connected on three attempts to help Buffalo shoot 12 of 23 from beyond the arc.
Stasha Carey scored 20 points on 9-for-13 shooting from the field for the Scarlet Knights (22-10), who were making their 25th NCAA Tournament appearance but their first since 2015. Arella Guirantes had 14 points and Tekia Mack added 10 in a losing effort.
Hemphill capped her personal fourth-quarter surge with a layup following a steal from Dillard to give Buffalo a 74-69 lead with 3:59 remaining. Carey trimmed the deficit with a layup on the next possession, but the Bulls scored the final eight points of the contest.
Rutgers began the third quarter with a 9-2 run only to watch Buffalo answer with a 10-0 stretch of its own. Hemphill's layup gave the Bulls a 53-52 lead with 4:36 remaining in the session, but the Scarlet Knights regained the advantage before Autumn Jones drilled a 3-pointer to close the deficit to two at 61-59.
Rutgers exploited the interior of Buffalo's defense with a pair of driving layups by Guirantes and Carey to highlight a 17-4 run in the second quarter and seize a 43-38 lead.
The Bulls, conversely, went without a field goal for 5 1/2 minutes before Hall sank a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 43-41 at intermission.
--Field Level Media
