PSU women look to turn tables on Bengals, Devils

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February 3, 2012

TIM PULSIFER Press-Republican The Press Republican Fri Feb 03, 2012, 02:23 AM EST

PLATTSBURGH — It's crunch time as Plattsburgh State's women's basketball team hosts Buffalo State this evening and Fredonia Saturday afternoon in a pair of key SUNY Athletic Conference matchups at Memorial Hall.

The Cardinals (7-11, 4-8 SUNYAC) lost to both the Bengals and the Blue Devils on the road Jan. 20 and 21.

Despite those earlier results, Plattsburgh has reason for optimism heading into this weekend.

They've been a very different team at home this season.

Plattsburgh has won just two road games, both non-conference, all year long. At home, it's been an entirely different story, with the Cardinals winning five of seven games.

Even in defeat, Plattsburgh has, for the most part, looked pretty impressive on its home floor.

The Cardinals' home losses have come at the hands of conference co-leader Oneonta and Cortland, by just a point, last weekend.

"It's definitely been a factor, not only for us," coach Cheryl Cole said. "It's just a fact, that it's tough to win in this league on the road. I think everyone is just more comfortable, you're more motivated and the fan support is great. It's just a combination of a lot of things."

The fact that the games are at home will likely help, but the Cardinals will also need to apply some lessons learned learned from their earlier meetings if they are to be more successful this time around.

Each opponent presents a very different set of challenges for Plattsburgh.

Buffalo State (16-2, 9-2) has been solid from top to bottom all year and is currently tied with Oneonta atop the conference standings.

Unfortunately for the rest of the SUNYAC, a potential top seed in the upcoming playoffs should prevent any kind of letdown for the Bengals, starting this weekend.

Bianca Smiley (13.1 points per game), Staci McElroy (12.4 ppg) and Barb Kiliszek (10.6 ppg) lead an extremely well-balanced offensive attack for.

"In my opinion, Buffalo is the most complete and balanced team in our conference," Cole said. "They are big and talented and have a lot of depth. That Number 41 (Smiley), in particular, is definitely a very good post player and someone we will have to find a way to slow down."

That said, Cole has reason to believe her team can hang with one of the conference's elite teams.

"We played them very tough and on their floor, I think, that was huge for us," Cole said. "I was very proud and very happy with the way we played them down there. We rebounded the ball very well and did a lot of good things. I think we really showed what we were capable of in that game.

"Hopefully with some of the adjustments we made and playing at home on senior weekend, we can reverse things against them this time around."

Fredonia doesn't have the same kind of size.

"Fredonia is a smaller team than Buffalo physically but, boy, do they work hard," Cole said. "The first time we played them, we came out flat and they simply were more aggressive than we were, outworked us and deserved to win the game. That game, we just didn't play to our strengths and got beat.

"Hopefully we will remember how that felt and can get a better effort on Saturday. First things first, though. Right now, our focus is on Buffalo."

Jamie Warren and Nicole Calbi are each averaging more than 11 points per game for the Blue Devils (8-9, 4-7).

Plattsburgh is eighth in the conference standings, right behind Fredonia. Eight teams make the SUNYAC playoffs.

"This will be our last full weekend at home and a couple of very critical conference games for us, as far as how we are going to finish the regular season," Cole said. "Hopefully, we can rise to the occasion in front of our home crowd and take care of business."