Basketball

Men's

Miami (Ohio) 71, UB 60

UB trailed by just one point at the half—27-26—but Miami shot a spectacular 65 percent from the field in the second half to down the Bulls, 71-60, in the first-round of the 2002 First Energy MAC Tournament on March 4.

Athletes of the Week

Kyle Cerminara of the wrestling team won the 197-pound weight class at the Mid-American Conference Championship and automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship, being held in Albany March 21-23. Cerminara, a freshman, scored a 3-1 win over Travis Kraft of Eastern Michigan in the semifinals and won the title with a 4-1 victory over Ohio's Joel Weimer. He was 3-0 in the championship meet and a perfect 5-0 In the MAC regular season. Julie Hibner of the women's softball team led the Bulls with a .615 batting average at the National Invitational Tournament in San Jose, Calif., getting at least one hit in each of the Bulls' five games.

UB ends its season with a 12-18 overall record and a 7-11 mark in MAC play.

Freshman guard Turner Battle, who earlier in the day became the first Bull ever to be named to the All Freshman Team, scored a game-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting to lead the Bulls. Battle was 4-of-5 from three-point range and grabbed four rebounds before fouling out with 23 seconds left in the game.

Wrestling

UB places fifth at MAC Tournament, Cerminara to go to NCAAs

Kyle Cerminara won the 197-pound weight class at the MAC Championship, earning him an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship, being held in Albany March 21. As a team, UB finished fifth out of the six MAC teams with a total of 30.5 team points.

Cerminara, a freshman, entered the MAC Championship as the top-seeded 197-pound wrestler, having posted a perfect 5-0 record in the conference's regular season. On Sunday, he advanced to the final by winning a 4-1 decision over Eastern Michigan's Travis Kraft. In the final, Cerminara scored a 4-1 decision over Joel Weimer of Ohio.

Ryan Bentley at 141 pounds and Garrett Bontempo at 184 pounds both placed third at the championships. Charlie Voorhees at 125 pounds and Bill Jacoutot at 149 pounds ended their collegiate careers with fourth-place finishes.

Swimming

Men's

Bulls finish eighth at MACs

UB completed the MAC Men's Swimming and Diving Championships with an eighth-place showing in the eight-team meet, scoring 113 points. Eastern Michigan took the team title with 777 points.

The Bulls picked up a strong performance from freshman Aviv Oren in Saturday's final day. Oren finished fourth in the 200 breaststroke finals in a school-record 2:06.31, and also established a lifetime best in the 50 freestyle preliminaries with a 21.79 clocking. He finished 21st.

Oren also was part of the Bulls 400 freestyle relay squad which finished seventh in 3:10.85. The squad—Oren, Jon Yarger, Tony Lizauckas and Kevin Kotowski—bettered UB's previous best by 1.07 seconds.

Baseball

West Virginia 4, UB 0; WVU 4, UB 0; UB 5, WVU 2

The Bulls opened the weekend series in Morgantown, W.Va., by dropping a 4-0 decision as West Virginia pitcher Billy Biggs threw a no-hitter. Biggs struck out 10 and allowed just a second-inning walk to UB catcher Brandon DiCesare.

On Saturday, UB split a doubleheader with the Mountaineers, dropping the opener 4-0 but earning a 5-2 victory in the nightcap.

In game one of the doubleheader, UB was shut out by WVU freshman Zac Cline on five hits as the Bulls stranded nine baserunners. They left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh to end the contest.

In the nightcap, UB starter Mark Garrard allowed a first-inning run before the Bulls rallied with single runs in the second and third innings to take a 2-1 lead.

The Bulls added to the margin in the fifth with three runs.

Softball

Arizona State 2, UB 0; Northern Iowa 5, UB 0; UB 3, San Jose State 2 (8); UNC Greensboro 6, UB 0; Syracuse 9, UB 4

UB opened play at the National Invitational Tournament in San Jose, Calif., with one win and two losses in opening-round pool play. The Bulls began the day with a 2-0 loss to nationally ranked Arizona State before falling to Northern Iowa, 5-0, and then defeating host San Jose State, 3-2, in eight innings.

Freshman Stacey Evans threw a five-hitter against Arizona State in the Bulls' first game of the tournament, but the Sun Devils got all the offense they needed in a two-hit, two-run third inning.

The Bulls gave up three runs in the first inning and two runs in the fourth against Northern Iowa. Just one earned run was charged to pitcher Andrea Sage, who threw the complete game and allowed eight hits.

UB closed the day with a 3-2 extra-inning win over San Jose State. The Spartans scored the first run of the game in the third inning, but the Bulls tied the score in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI-double to right field by freshman catcher Julie Hibner to score Breanne Nasti, who had led off the inning with a triple to right. San Jose State scored an unearned run in the top of the eighth inning to go ahead, 2-1, but UB answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning.

UB was eliminated from the tournament after suffering loses to UNC-Greensboro and Syracuse in the consolation bracket on Saturday.

Tennis

Women's

Akron 6, UB 1

The Bulls opened the MAC season with a 6-1 loss at Akron on Saturday. UB picked up its lone point by default at sixth singles.