With the Bulls down by two with seconds left, Turner Battle grabbed a defensive rebound and sprinted up court. The Bulls fans raised their voices, expecting more heroics from Battle.
But time ran out on the Bulls and their senior captain, who could not get a shot off amid a flurry of Ohio Bobcats.
With the 92-90 loss in Alumni Arena, UB fractured a three-game winning streak and a five-game home winning streak in front of 3,416 zealous fans. Buffalo dropped to 13-6 overall and 6-5 in a tight Mid-American Conference East race, while Ohio improved to 11-7 on the season and 6-4 in the MAC.
"(Ohio) was as good as we thought they would be, they were better than we were tonight," said UB head coach Reggie Witherspoon. "We had trouble getting stops, we had trouble with them off the dribble and they debilitated every area of our game."
Poor free-throw shooting and the inability to make defensive stops throughout the game, especially down the stretch, largely overshadowed a career night turned in by Battle. The senior point guard was the game's high scorer, complementing his career-high 29 points with eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Mindful of the caliber of play Battle is capable of, Ohio head coach Tim O'Shea was admittedly nervous that Battle's offensive prowess would extend through the Bulls' final offensive possession.
"(Battle) is one of those players that can get a shot pretty much anytime he wants," said O'Shea. "We crowded him, it's tough with 4.4 (seconds) left, to go the length of the court and score off the dribble. That's tough, it's hard to do."
After a frenzied final minute of play and down by five with 13 seconds left in the game, Calvin Cage drained a long range shot to bring the crowd to its feet and the Bulls to within two.
"It wasn't that we weren't making shots, I think we shot 70-percent in 3's in the second half. That wasn't the issue, we couldn't get stops, that was the problem," said Witherspoon. "They were very, very good and that wasn't a surprise to me. I knew we would have to play extremely well to beat them in a close game."
Fouled on the subsequent possession by Roderick Middleton, Ohio's Terren Harbut took to the line. After missing a duo of free throws, Battle seized the defensive board with 4.4 seconds on the clock and dribbled the length of the court. He was unable, however, to get a shot off before time expired.
"I looked at the clock and it was 4.4 left. After he missed the free throw, I looked up and it was two-point-something seconds left or so, and I tried to go in but the shot came right after the buzzer," said a gloomy Battle after the game. "They told us to attack any kind of way that we could once we got the rebound or if he made the basket and that's what I tried to do and unfortunately it came up short."
After the Bulls won the opening tip, Yassin Idbihi scored the first hoop of the game on a Battle feed. With both teams pushing the pace, a gritty, physical battle ensued with the Bobcats winning by as many as nine points early in the first half.
UB began to feel the flow, however, challenging Ohio with a 10-2 scoring run. Daniel Gilbert brought the Bulls to within one, connecting on a lay-up on a backdoor scurry off a pass from Mark Bortz with a lengthily 13:13 left to play in the first half. Gilbert's hoop set the score at 18-17.
The second stanza of the first half featured 11 lead changes, with both teams posting almost identical statistics at the conclusion and with the score tied at 41. Entering the locker room at the intermission, both the Bulls and the Bobcats owned 53.3-percent shooting percentages on 16-for-30 shooting from the field. Additionally, each team shot a decent 5-for-10 from long range and 4-for-6 from the free-throw line.
The Bulls shot nearly 67-percent from 3-point range for the game, led by Battle's career-best 5-for-6 performance. Jason Bird had another strong game for the Bulls, finishing the night with 15 points while Gilbert was the only other Bull to reach double figures in scoring, netting 12 points and four assists.
Offensively speaking, Buffalo had a rough night in the paint, with its big men Idbihi and Bortz only combining to score 17 of the Bulls' 90 points. Despite gathering a team-high 10 rebounds, Bortz shot a sub-par 3-for-7 from the charity stripe.
"I thought we deserved to win this game tonight," said O'Shea. "Any MAC coach that wins a close one on the road, if he's honest with himself, has to feel a little bit fortunate and I certainly feel that way tonight."
The Bobcats' full-court press proved effective, as Ohio's defense ran away with 13 steals on the night, while forcing the Bulls into 16 turnovers. OU also had five players reach double figures in scoring, led by Sonny Troutman's 21 points. Leon Williams scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to post a double-double for the Bobcats, while Jeff Halbert chipped in with 17 points and Harbut contributed 14. The 92 points posted by the Bobcats are the most the team has scored in a game this season.
"The hardest thing to do on the road is score because you go into somebody else's building and in basketball not every building is uniform," said O'Shea. "Typically this has been a touch place for us to shoot the ball and tonight to put up 92 points on the road is really extraordinary. Our shots were really falling tonight."
The Bulls will commence a two-game road trip with a game at Miami on Saturday and another at Western Michigan on Tuesday. Buffalo currently sits at third place in the MAC East while Kent State, Akron and Ohio are in a three-way tie for second place with a 6-4 record. Miami (Ohio) leads the MAC East with a 7-2 conference record.
"We know its going to be difficult going into these places," said Bird, who has been an offensive threat for the Bulls as of late, scoring 35 points in the last two games. "We put ourselves in a position where these are must wins for us. We have to buckle down and go in there and play our style of basketball."
