Women’s basketball set to face MAC East rival Buffalo

By Katie Lynn

(Nick Karebian / Western Herald) Senior Tiera DeLaHoussaye sneaks a pass past Eastern Michigan’s De’Ja Wills in the Broncos home victory last Wednesday. After a week off, the Broncos hit the road for a Saturday match-up against Buffalo.

Western Herald

The Western Michigan University women’s basketball team is hoping to win its second conference game on the road on Jan. 31. WMU will  attempt to do so against Mid-American Conference East opponent and host the University at Buffalo.

Western Michigan is 1-5 in the MAC and 5-13 overall. With a win against the Bulls (4-15, 0-6 MAC) the team will look for a confidence boost for the remainder of the season.
“We need to come out strong, and have a lot of confidence,” junior forward Jenny Loney said.

The Bulls are going into this match up against the Brown and Gold without a win in the conference this season. With losses to both Kent State University and Central Michigan University so far, Buffalo has a lot in common with Western Michigan.

If they expect a win, the Broncos are going to have to be prepared to cover the Bulls leading scorer, Kourtney Brown. Brown currently averages 15.6 points per game and has 296 total points overall this season.

The Brown and Gold will also need to be prepared to cover Rachelle Matthys, Buffalo’s leading three-point shooter. She has made 31 three-pointers this season and enters Saturday’s game with a 37.3 percentage from behind the arc.

The Bulls may have some strong offensive players, but  the Broncos do as well. Tiera DeLaHoussaye is the Broncos’ leader on the court, recording 45 steals, good enough for second all-time in Bronco women’s basketball history. She also leads the Broncos with 13.4 points and 254 total points scored this season.
This game could end up in either team’s favor, but the Broncos have been looking for a win on the road since Dec. 22, when they won its last game away from University Arena. This may be their chance to finally show the conference that the Brown and Gold are a team that opponents can not look past.

“If we play like we did against Eastern [a 76-67 win over Eastern Michigan University on Jan. 21], with the same energy, and limit our turnovers, we will do a lot better against Buffalo,” sophomore forward Brenna Bankston said.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Jan 29 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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