Rising to the Top

Down. Up. Down. Up.

Those are the directions of the roller coaster ride the Buffalo Bulls men's basketball has been on this season, as they lost their first three games to go 0-3, won the next five and then dropped the next six to go to 5-9.

But, most recently the Bulls have been on one of their positive streaks - a three-game winning one - and look to continue their success at 7 p.m. tonight against the lowly Eastern Michigan Eagles (7-10, 2-7 Mid-American Conference).

UB (8-9, 4-5 MAC) is coming off of a thrilling 84-75 victory against the Ball State Cardinals, where they blew up in the second half for 52 points, while shooting 8-12 from downtown.

With a win tonight they will even both their overall and MAC records at .500. before Saturday's showdown at 2 p.m. against the Marshall Thundering Herd.

Junior Point Guard Turner Battle, who was named MAC Player of the Week for the Eastern Division on Monday, comes into Wednesday's match up averaging 14.2 points per game and 3.3 assists per game on the season.

Those numbers may be impressive, but he has also averaged a gaudy 23 points per game with 6.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists over the past two games.

That pretty much explains being named the MAC East Player of the Week.

Buffalo's game plan against the Eagles should include a heavy dose of Battle along with some board crashing. That recipe has been an extremely successful one on the Bulls latest streak, and has brought the team to a new level.

Head coach Reggie Witherspoon hopes to exceed at that level against the Eagles.

"Rebounding is something we have been working hard to get better at," said Witherspoon. "It is a job on the basketball court that is never done. We need to continue to improve everyday."

Eastern Michigan has struggled in conference play with a 2-7 record and they will enter Alumni arena coming off a 75-55 loss at Western Michigan on Saturday. Although that loss may seem lopsided, UB was beaten even worse by WMU, 84-54

This will be the ninth meeting between both schools as Eastern Michigan leads series play 5-3. Buffalo won the last meeting against the Eagles at home last season 90-66.

John Bowler leads the Eagles in scoring at 13.7 points per game, with an average of 7.9 rebounds per game as well.

Witherspoon has his team believing that with hard work, another win will come their way at home on Wednesday.

"I feel like this team can continue to win," said Witherspoon. "There are no free wins. If we bring our hard hat every game, there is a very good chance of many more wins to come."

Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. tonight in Alumni Arena.