There are glimmers of really good basketball that come from the University at Buffalo women's

team. For stretches of the game, the Bulls seem poised and aggressive.

But that confidence fades at times. Playing hard but not always smart, going full speed but

not consistently finishing plays — Buffalo has struggled to find its groove.

The learning curve continued Saturday afternoon as the Bulls dropped a 65-55 decision to

Temple in front of 686 at Alumni Arena.

While the offense had some difficulty with execution, the defense for Buffalo was

impressive. In its first three wins, Temple had averaged nearly 71 points a game, shooting

43.5 percent from the field.

The Bulls held the Owls to just 34.9 percent (22 of 63) from the field. UB also forced 22

turnovers, had 12 steals and blocked four shots.

"We executed the defensive game plan for 40 minutes," Buffalo coach Linda Hill-MacDonald

said. "I'm really pleased with that. It shows the players trust the plan and have done their

preparation. They did a great job knowing the game plan and the [other team's] personnel. When

you've got that commitment from a team, it goes a long way."

Junior Bridgette Kendricks emerged as a key player on the defensive end for the Bulls. She

had four steals to go along with seven rebounds and seven points. Kendricks played at the top

of the Bulls zone and the combination of her long reach and athletic skills gave Temple

trouble in the half-court set.

"I love being at the top [of the zone]," Kendricks said. "I don't want to play too loose,

but I love being at the top and getting a steal. ... In the 1-2-2 defense we definitely had

them scrambling a bit. Our defense was well run. Sometimes we didn't get out to that

three-pointer shooter but that's communication on our part."

It was the three-point shooting of junior Shaqwedia Wallace that stymied the Bulls in the

second half. Wallace was 4 for 9 from three-point range in the second half to finish with 22

points. Her back-to-back three-pointers gave Temple its largest lead, 47-34, with 10:24 left

to play.

"Last year she came off the bench and was that spark for us knocking down threes,"

second-year Temple coach Tonya Cardoza said. "This year, she's in the starting lineup and we

need her to score more. In our last game she took only five shots. ... She's not going to

force anything. She doesn't take bad shots, but sometimes you have to take a bad shot. You

need to shoot the ball. And the fact that she took some bad shots and stuck with it and pushed

through is what we need her to do."

Temple returns to Western New York for an Atlantic 10 Conference game with St. Bonaventure

in Olean on Jan. 30.

The Bulls are the road for their next three games and return home to face rival Canisius on

Dec. 5.