No. 11 seed Buffalo crushes USF in NCAA first-rounder

USF's women arrived in the Panhandle for their NCAA Tournament opener bent on proving they were under-seeded.

They proved to be underwhelming instead.

Flummoxed by Buffalo's suffocating man-to-man defense and dead-eye 3-point accuracy, the sixth-seeded Bulls (26-8) were embarrassed, 102-79, in Saturday's opening round at Tallahassee's Donald L. Tucker Civic Center.

"We make no excuses. We got beat by a better team today," Bulls coach Jose Fernandez said. "That's what sports is all about, and that's what this tournament's all about."

It was the second consecutive first-round exit — in the same building — for the Bulls, whose collective emotions ranged from disappointment to disgust at being seeded sixth in the Albany (N.Y.) Region.

Instead, it was Buffalo's Bulls (28-5) who appeared woefully under-seeded.

The MAC Tournament champion, Buffalo became the first team not named Connecticut to score 100 on USF since FAU in December 2001. Trailing 20-11 after one quarter, Buffalo ended the first half on a 25-9 surge for a 43-38 halftime lead, and never relented.

Highlighting the surge: an 11-2 run in the final 1:23 of the half, during which three different Buffalo Bulls made 3-pointers.

For the game, the lower-seeded Bulls shot 51.9 percent (14-of-27) from 3-point range, with junior guard Cierra Dillard (36 points) finishing 7-of-13 from behind the arc. Buffalo also hit 22 of 24 free throws.

"They definitely hit a high percentage from the floor, especially from the (3-point line)," said Bulls senior Maria Jespersen, who ended her career with her 30th double-double (23 points, 11 rebounds) "We fought… like we could, but it is hard when they make shots like that."

On the other end, Buffalo, which entered the tournament ninth in Division I in 3-point percentage defense (27.0), held the Bulls to seven treys in 23 attempts (30.4 percent) and forced 16 turnovers. They also out-rebounded USF, 25-16, in the final three quarters.

"It's almost like when they did miss, they got a loose ball, they got an offensive rebound," Fernandez said. "Or they didn't miss and we came down the floor and came up empty."

Buffalo's triumph, its first in NCAA Tournament play, came less than 48 hours after its 13th-seeded men's team shocked Arizona, 89-68, for its first NCAA triumph. It marks the first time both of a school's teams recorded their first NCAA wins in the same year since Georgia in 1983, according to ESPN.

"Buffalo was really, really good," Fernandez said. "They were special tonight."