Burke
The University at Buffalo women’s basketball team, coached by Abington Heights graduate Becky Burke, rang in the New Year by extending its unbeaten start to 12 games while opening Mid-American Conference play with an 81-55 victory over Central Michigan.
The Bulls never trailed on the way to their largest victory in a conference game in its three seasons under Burke.
Buffalo is outscoring opponents by an average of 80.2-55.2.
The Bulls hoped to carry that momentum into a Jan. 5 meeting with Kent State in a rematch of last season’s MAC Championship Game.
“Thankful to be 1-0 in conference play,” Burke said, according to a story on the school’s athletic website. “Really proud of our team for executing the game plan to perfection. We played hard today defensively and that’s always our goal.”
Buffalo improved from three wins to 10 in the MAC between Burke’s first two seasons. Last year’s team was picked to finish eighth in a preseason poll of coaches, wound up fourth in the regular season and advanced to the MAC Championship game on the way to 19 wins and a berth in the WNIT.
The Bulls were 12-16 in her first season.
In her previous stop, Burke’s University of South Carolina Upstate team posted 22 wins, its most since becoming a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I team.
Earlier, she started the program at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona and led the University of Charleston in West Virginia to a Division II national tournament appearance.
Following a Class 4A State Player of the Year selection at Abington Heights, Burke went on to the University of Louisville where she started in the national championship game as a freshman.
