Conference woes continue at Akron

A lack of discipline leads to early foul trouble, and early foul trouble leads to a long day for any basketball team, especially when that trouble involves your two leading scorers.

Senior guard Calvin Cage and junior center Yassin Idbihi each faced that very problem with two fouls apiece by the 10-minute mark Wednesday night, enabling the Akron Zips to pull away to a 13-point half-time lead and an eventual 75-61 victory.

With the exception of freshman guard Greg Gamble, the foul trouble continued for the Bulls' starters throughout the second half, shattering all hope of a comeback for Buffalo in the team's fifth conference loss this season.

The two teams combined for a total of 52 fouls on the night, but it was the timing and lack of a depth on the bench that hurt the Bulls, according to head coach Reggie Witherspoon.

"Foul trouble is a big-time struggle for this team," Witherspoon said. "We've dealt with some of that in the past years, but we were a deeper team so we could sometimes overcome that. We're not a very deep team right now, so it's incredibly difficult for us when we do that."

Although the Bulls (15-6, 5-5 Mid-American Conference) finished with 27 fouls to the Zips' 24, most of Akron's fouls came at the end of the game. The early foul trouble forced Witherspoon to change his game plan and adjust to the situation at hand.

"In the first half, we got way outside of our rotation," Witherspoon said. "We got into that early foul trouble and when that happens, we go zone. We've played more zone in the last two or three games than we have in the last two or three years."

The statistics for each team were very close by the end of the night as Buffalo out-rebounded Akron 28-24, shot 44 percent from the field compared to Akron's 49 percent, and tallied only 20 points off of turnovers in contrast to Akron's 28. The most lopsided statistical category was three-point field goals as the Bulls sank just 27 percent from three-point land and the Zips made half of theirs.

Witherspoon, however, said the statistics are misleading. He said that most of the numbers evened out toward the end of the game when the Bulls were already trailing by too many points.

"We had three offensive rebounds at halftime," Witherspoon said. "Some of the things that we had emphasized for this game were rebounding and being strong with the ball, but we had 20 turnovers. Most of their turnovers came really late."

Witherspoon added that despite some frustrating calls, his team still needs to rebound better.

"We have to go to the glass and we have to block out," said Witherspoon, who received a technical foul due to his reaction to a call. "I know there were some calls on some block outs, but we still have to do it. We have to take the ball inside early and we have to move better without the basketball."

The much-anticipated rivalry between Buffalo senior guard Roderick Middleton and his younger brother Cedrick of the Akron Zips (16-4, 9-1 MAC) made for the most interesting one-on-one match-up of the night.

Although the prospect of a heart-warming tale of brotherly competition was overshadowed by a very difficult night for the Bulls, Roderick finished with seven points, five rebounds, two assists, and one steal, while Cedrick compiled 12 points, one rebound, one assist and two steals.

With the second consecutive loss to a conference-leading team, Witherspoon admits that he has to start thinking about the confidence of his players, but also places strong emphasis on the players learning to adapt to the flow of any given game.

"We're really going to have to come out with a different mindset in order to be able to handle the adversity that comes our way," Witherspoon said. "We can't just go out and play and accept whatever happens."

With Bowling Green (8-12, 4-6 MAC) also suffering a loss on Wednesday, Buffalo managed to stay out of last place in the MAC East.

The leading record in the MAC remains a tie between Akron and Kent State (15-6, 9-1) as the Golden Flashes defeated Ohio (12-6, 6-4 MAC).

Buffalo plays its next game on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Alumni Arena against Miami (Ohio), who is currently 8-3 in the MAC with an overall record of 11-8.