If there's a perfect visual to describe the men's basketball team's 80-63 loss to Tulane (6-3) on Wednesday night, it would be Victor E. Bull shooting himself in the foot.
The Bulls (6-3) fell to 2-3 away from Alumni Arena on the season, showing difficulty defending and handling the ball. Buffalo committed 31 personal fouls, two technical fouls and turned the ball over 18 times.
On top of this, Buffalo head coach Reggie Witherspoon was not happy with the officiating.
"This was a very strange night, I'll say it that way," Witherspoon said. "When you see Yassin Idbihi pick up a technical foul it's a strange thing. Some of the things that happen when you're on the road, they're just inexplicable. I don't know how to explain it."
Buffalo was no better shooting the ball and shot only 30 percent from floor, 18.7 percent in the second half. They hit only 18 shots out of the 60 they attempted in the game, including four of 16 from three-point range.
Part of the reason for the Bulls' poor shooting was a very good defensive effort on the part of Tulane. The Green Wave, who came into the game averaging six blocks a game as a team, finished with 12 blocked shots on the night. Three players finished with three blocks each, despite Tulane's tallest player being six-foot eight-inch forward Kory Castine.
"Their interior defense was good," Witherspoon said. "We didn't respond very well. We didn't come out with the type of energy we were going to have to have to be successful, but take nothing from them. Their interior defense is very good."
Buffalo led early, 5-4, after a jumper by senior forward Yassin Idbihi, but Tulane quickly went on an 8-0 run and led the Bulls comfortably until a mini-run by sophomore freshman Andy Robinson brought Buffalo within one, 24-23. Over the next nine minutes, Tulane stretched their lead to 11 and the Green Wave headed into halftime leading 42-31.
Tulane kept Buffalo in the game thanks to poor free throw shooting, as they made only 59 percent of its shots from the charity stripe.
The Bulls came out of the gate in the second half looking to cut the lead down. Robinson brought the lead down to nine with a lay-up. After two free throws by senior forward Parnell Smith, the Bulls were within six, 47-41, at the 17:10 mark.
However, the Bulls did not make a shot from the field for over seven minutes until Idbihi hit a jumper at the 9:58 mark.
The closest Buffalo would come after that would be 10 points with three minutes and 15 seconds left.
Idbihi led the Bulls in scoring with 19, 14 of which came in the 2nd half. The senior forward also grabbed seven rebounds and had a block and a steal. Robinson reached a career-high with 18 points, but 14 of them came by the nine-minute mark of the first half.
Freshman guard Kevin Sims led the Green Wave in scoring with 21 and also had six rebounds and three assists.
Despite the loss, Buffalo was able to give its younger players valuable minutes. After freshmen guard John Boyer and forward Max Boudreau checked into the game at 4:44 of the first half, Buffalo's lineup consisted of four freshmen and one sophomore. Boyer and Boudreau joined freshmen guard/forward Calvin Betts and forward Kambi Laleye and Robinson. With that lineup it was the first time all season four freshmen had been on the court at the same time.
"We had so many guys with fouls," Witherspoon said. "We had Greg Gamble with two, we had Parnell with two, we had Yassin with two and I did notice that we had four freshmen in the game but there was really nothing we could do about it. I think that's obvious to everybody. It's really painful when we go on the road and I think that everyone knows that if we get the front-line guys in foul trouble then we're playing guys who are six months removed from being in high school."
Nevertheless, Witherspoon sounded somewhat pleased with the freshmen effort given the circumstances.
"I like how they responded," Witherspoon said. "They gave a pretty good effort. They're just not ready yet to perform in this type of environment but they gave what they had."
Buffalo's next game is at home against the No. 2 nationally-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN Regional. Tip-off is at 4 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
