It is generally believed among the college basketball faithful that the genuine college basketball season begins with the commencement of league play. Everything prior to conference play is seen as a fine-tuning that serves to remove the kinks within a team before league games are played.
The Mid-American Conference tipped off conference play this weekend with three conference games showcasing six teams, including the UB Bulls, who lost to Western Michigan, 70-53.
Miami (Ohio) 83, Ball State 75 (OT)
In a game that was closer than the score indicates, the Miami RedHawks defeated the Ball State Cardinals, although they needed an overtime period to do so.
Chet Mason scored 21 points and Danny Horace contributed 20 points and 17 rebounds to lead the RedHawks. Miami held the lead for almost the entirety of regulation, until there was just 3:52 left in the second half. Ball State got a three pointer from Skip Mills and the Cardinals took a 59-58 lead. The lead went back and forth for the rest of regulation and Ball State found themselves down by two with little time left on the clock. Ball State's Michael Bennett hit a lay-up with just one second left on the clock to tie the game at 67 and send the contest into overtime.
After Ball State tallied the first score of the overtime period, Miami got a lay-up and a three pointer on two consecutive possessions to take the lead for good.
Northern Illinois 66, Akron 58
The Huskies were carried by a 15-point effort from Zach Pancratz as they led going into the half and kept that lead for the majority of the game.
At halftime, the NIU lead was just four points, but the Huskies were able to get a strong second half from their offense and double that lead by the end of the game.
Akron's high scorers were Darryl Peterson and Cedrick Middleton with 11 and 10 points respectively.
Ohio 90, Navy 55
In non-conference action, the Ohio Bobcats had four players score in double digits against the Midshipmen. Leon Williams scored 16, Diamond Gladney and Sonny Troutman added 12 points apiece and Terren Harbut chipped in with 10.
The Bobcats owned the paint, scoring 46 points down low as compared to Navy's 18.
For the Midshipmen, David Hooper went 3-6 from three-point land to score 15 points to lead the team.
Bowling Green 59, Detroit Mercy 53
Bowling Green's John Reimold hit six three pointers and scored 28 points to lead the Falcons to a tight six-point victory over Detroit Mercy. The Falcons went into the final five minutes of the second half with a hefty lead over Detroit Mercy, but the Titans were able to chip away at the lead to decrease the Falcons' advantage to two points with less than one minute remaining on the clock. To close out the game in crunch time, the Titans' Ben Green missed a three-point attempt and Detroit Mercy could not get the ball back.
The Titans were led by a 14-point effort from James Thues.
UAB 81, Marshall 78
The only Mid-American Conference team to lose to a non-conference opponent this weekend, Marshall lost a heartbreaker to Alabama-Birmingham. UAB was down going into the final minutes of the first half, but used pressure defense to keep the Thundering Herd close, and ultimately tied the game at 40 going into halftime.
Coming out of halftime, the Blazers went on an 8-0 run and didn't look back. The Thundering Herd was unable to tie the game, and failed to take the lead again.
Demario Eddins of UAB led all scorers with 18 points on the night.
Central Michigan 66, Rochester State 56
The Chippewas used a 13-point effort from Kevin Nelson to defeat the Warriors of Rochester State College.
Rochester cut the CMU lead to three points with just under nine minutes left in the game, but the Warriors failed to get any closer.
Derek Evans led the Warriors in scoring with 15 points while Scott Ode chipped in with 12 points.
Central Michigan shot 51 percent in the first half of the game to take the lead, which they maintained for the rest of the night. The Chippewas held onto the game despite a 25 percent shooting performance in the second half.
