BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Western Michigan women's basketball team suffered a 72-67 loss in its final game of the 2022-23 regular season at Buffalo on Saturday, March 4 at Alumni University.
Western Michigan concludes the regular season with a 12-17 overall record and a 7-11 mark in Mid-American Conference Play. In the battle of back-and-forth scoring, the WMU women's basketball team was unable to birth a spot in the MAC Tournament this season. Meanwhile, the Bulls improve 12-15 this season, with a 7-11 mark in league play to push toward the first round of Tournament play where they will face the No. 1 seed, Toledo.
Saturday's contest was the final one in the Brown & Gold for Bronco seniors
Emily Flannery,
Abby Voss, and
Maddie Watters.
Taylor Williams was one of three Broncos to score in double-figures, as the New Baltimore, Mich., native tallied 15 points on the day. Williams' 15 points and 11 rebounds posted her tenth double-double on the season. She is the 28th player in Western Michigan program history to reach the 1,000 career points milestone.
Junior
Hannah Spitzley led Western Michigan in scoring for the afternoon with a game-high 18 points. She went 7-of-18 from the floor, 4-of-11 from the three-point range and added a game-high seven assists.
Offensively,
Maggie Stutelberg shot 50 percent from the field and drained five three-pointers to register 15 points. Stutelberg registered 50 percent from the arc and tallied three assists, and one steal. Five more Broncos combined for 19 points on the day.
Both teams came out firing as Buffalo jumped out to a 7-2 lead, thanks to jumpers from Jazmine Young, Zakiyah Winfield, and Re'Shawna Stone. Western Michigan would counter with a pair of layups and a jumper to trail, 11-8. WMU added two sunken three-pointers with 2:20 to play to trail by two points into the second.
UB opened the second quarter by scoring 10 of the first 13 points, six of them coming from Winfield. The two squads traded the next 22 points as the Bulls held a 39-30 advantage at intermission.
WMU and Buffalo again went head to head scoring 22 points each in the third. Western Michigan shot 9-of-21 from the field, 4-of-12 from deep, while Buffalo shot 9-of-16 from the field, 2-of-5 from beyond the arc, and 2-of-3 from the line.
Western Michigan drained back-to-back three-pointers by Stutelberg and Spitzley in the final stretch to close the lead to 61-52. The Broncos would continue the fight until the last minute going 4-of-13 from the field, 3-of-10 from deep, and 4-of-8 for 50 percent from the line. Despite their best efforts, the Broncos came up short after several failed attempts to connect a saving bucket.
