For the sixth time in their last seven meetings, the Buffalo Bulls defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies on Tuesday night. Buffalo used spurts of 8, 12, and 15-point runs to cruise to a 89-81 victory.
The win snapped Buffalo's nine-game losing streak, and a streak of 19 road losses in a row. The victory was Buffalo's first Mid-American Conference victory of the season, and its first road victory since a win over Temple in November of last season. It was the Bulls' first road victory since a win over Western Michigan during the 2006 season.
Going into Tuesday night's game, Andy Robinson scored 22 points in each of the Bulls' last two contests. The junior guard earned that total in the first half, scorching the Huskies in the first 20 minutes shooting 6 of 7 from three-point land on his way to a strong first half. Robinson finished the game with 35 points on 8 of 10 shooting from three-point land.
Buffalo head coach Reggie Witherspoon liked that Robinson was not hesitant to shoot the ball when he was open, saying, "What Andy has to do...[is] be willing to shoot it. He's catching himself now."
Following Robinson's lead, the Bulls (7-14, 1-8 MAC) scored a season-best for points in the first half against a Division I opponent, on its way to a 46-35 lead at halftime. The Bulls scored 47 points in the first half in their first game of the season, but this was against Division II opponent, Ohio Valley.
Northern Illinois (5-16, 2-7 MAC) came into the game leading the MAC by averaging 17 turnovers per game. In the first half against the Bulls, the Huskies turned the ball over 18 times, helping Buffalo rush out to a 15-0 run to make the score 17-8. This run was after the Huskies started the game on an 8-2 run. The Bulls scored 19 points off turnovers in the first half. The Huskies turned the ball over 29 times in the game, leading to 35 Buffalo points.
Sophomore forward Max Boudreau had a career-high 15 points, with six rebounds and two blocked shots. This was Boudreau's third straight game with at least 10 points. Sophomore guard Rodney Pierce had scored 44 points over the Bulls last two games, but scored a sole point against the Huskies. Pierce had a team-high 6 assists. Sophomore guard Sean Smiley chipped in 10 points with two three-pointers.
Also in double digits for the Bulls were sophomore forward Calvin Betts with 11 points and a team high seven rebounds, and sophomore guard Byron Mulkey who had 10 points, three assists and no turnovers.
Jarvis Nichols attempted to lead the Huskies back into the game with a 10-0 run in the second half that chopped the Buffalo lead to 15. He led the Huskies with 22 points in the game. After two free throws by Jake Anderson, The Huskies cut the lead down to 11 with less than two minutes to go in the game. After a Betts free throw, and four quick points from the Huskies, the Buffalo lead was narrowed down to eight, 85-77, with 46 seconds left in the game. This was the game's smallest the lead since Buffalo was up 17-10 in the first half.
"We wanted to close it down better, particularly defensively....we struggled in that area tonight and we have to get better," Witherspoon said. "Offensively we moved the ball better....we had a lot of scoring."
A Betts rebound off of a missed Pierce free throw sealed the game for Buffalo, after the Bull made one free throw to make the score 87-77 with 21 seconds left in the game.
Buffalo will now return home for five consecutive home games at Alumni Arena. The Bulls will next play Sunday against Toledo at 4 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
