Senior Day shellacking

"19" is the magic number for Buffalo Bulls-Ohio Bobcats men's basketball games.

It was by this amount that Ohio came back from trailing against Buffalo in the 2005 Mid-American Conference Championship game, and was the same total that the Bulls beat the Bobcats in last season's home game.

The third occurrence came last night as Buffalo, for the second year in a row, beat Ohio in Alumni Arena, by 19, this time by a score of 84-65.

Buffalo (12-18, 4-12 MAC) pounced on the Bobcats (18-12, 9-7 MAC) early, opening up a double-digit lead just seven minutes into the game. The Bulls led by as many as 17 in the period, before finishing the half up 43-27.

Ohio came out strong early in the second half, scoring five straight points to pull within 11 of the Bulls. This would be the closest the Bobcats would come the rest of the way.

Over the next ten minutes the Bulls pulled away. Emphatic dunks by sophomore guards Andy Robinson and Greg Gamble sent the crowd to its feet as the Bulls made a 24-10 run over the next ten minutes to eventually open up a 25-point lead.

Robinson, along with freshman point guard Byron Mulkey stole the show from the seniors, each setting new career highs.

Mulkey finished with 14 assists, the most by any Bull since 1995 and the most assists recorded by any player in the MAC this year. Buffalo recorded 28 assists on the night compared to just seven by the Bobcats.

Robinson recorded a new career high with 25 points on 8-12 shooting including 5-7 from three-point range.

"Everybody needs a microwave, and not just in the kitchen, Andy heated it up today pretty good for us, and we have been in need of that," said Bulls head coach Reggie Witherspoon.

The night did not belong only to the youngsters. Seniors Yassin Idbihi, Parnell Smith, Darwin Young and Barnard Onyenucheya were sent off in style before family and friends at their last home game with the Bulls.

"Obviously senior night is a very emotional night. The only time that it hasn't been a very emotional night was the year Turner, Mark, Danny and Jason were juniors and we didn't have seniors," Witherspoon said. "I said to that team the same thing I said to this team, and that is that senior night is not just for the seniors. The first time I said that was Turner's freshman year... What made it special I think was the respect that they have for the seniors, and the respect that they have for the good teammates that they have."

Idbihi and Smith helped Buffalo dominate play inside, as the Bulls were able to out rebound the Bobcats 43-20. Idbihi finished with 10 boards to go along with 18 points. Smith followed with ten rebounds of his own to go along with 13 points.

With the 18 points scored Sunday night, Idbihi became the fourth leading scorer in Buffalo history and third all time in rebounding. He is the only Bull to finish his career with more than 1500 points and 800 rebounds.

"It felt really great. It kind of hit me that this was my last home game during warm ups, just before they introduced our parents and everything," Idbihi said. "I just kept telling myself that I was not going to go out with a loss, I was just determined to win the game tonight."

Hot shooting and precision passing propelled the Bulls to their early lead. Buffalo shot 53 percent from the field including 6-13 from three-point distance compared to Ohio's 38 percent mark.

The victory could not have come at a better time for the Bulls. With the MAC tournament beginning in Cleveland this Wednesday, the Bulls needed the momentum going into their first round match up against Central Michigan Wednesday afternoon.

"It showed the potential that we have, and how good we can play," Idbihi said. "We're going to try to get the momentum of this game into the tournament. This win proves to us that there is no team in the MAC that we can't beat. If we play the way we played tonight, the sky's the limit."