"Betts rebounds, puts Buffalo in MAC semifinals"

The men's basketball team got their revenge against Kent State on Thursday.

A week ago, the Bulls went into the M.A.C. Center and lost a heartbreaker to the Golden Flashes in overtime. Thursday afternoon's Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinal match up at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland provided the Bulls with an opportunity to avenge that loss.

And that's exactly what Buffalo did.

A steal by senior guard Andy Robinson with five seconds left sealed the deal for the Bulls (20-10, 11-5 MAC) as their thrilling 65-62 victory over Kent State (19-14, 10-6 MAC) lifts them into the MAC Semifinals for only the second time since joining the conference in 1999.

With Kent State inbounding the ball on their offensive end, Robinson snuck in to steal the inbounds pass. Before falling out of bounds, Robinson threw the ball off Golden Flashes senior guard Al Fisher to give the Bulls possession of the basketball. Buffalo was able to run out the clock and celebrate the victory.

"It was a slugfest. They through some haymakers but we fought through," said head coach Reggie Witherspoon. "When momentum shifted to the opposition, we stayed focused and determined. They never got down."

The win put Buffalo into the MAC Semifinals for the first time since the 2004-05 season when they advanced to the MAC Championship and the first time the program has won 20 games in a season since the 2005-06 campaign. The Bulls' winning effort prevented Kent State from clinching their 11th straight 20-win season.

Despite an off-game from All-MAC guard Rodney Pierce, the Bulls advanced with some help from a familiar face. Calvin Betts finished with 11 points and a career-high 18 rebounds, including six on the offensive end. The performance earned Betts his fourth double-double of the season.

Buffalo's successful start this season was partly due to the effort of Betts, but the junior forward hit a rough patch during the latter parts of the regular season, most obviously when he failed to score in last week's game against the Golden Flashes. The Bulls are now 11-3 when Betts scores in double figures.

"I was just trying to get back to my old self," Betts said. "Earlier this season if I started missing shots, my confidence would drop. I didn't think about the last [Kent State] game and just tried to be effective."

Betts could not have picked a better time to come out of his funk as Pierce, Buffalo's leading scorer and a first-team All-MAC selection, struggled from the floor on Thursday. Pierce shot 3-for-15 against the Golden Flashes and scored just seven points.

Along with Betts, freshman forward Titus Robinson came through early, scoring nine of his 10 points in the first half. Junior forward Max Boudreau also produced, coming off the bench to give the Bulls 13 points in 25 minutes of play.

Robinson's fellow freshman, forward Mitchell Watt, scored eight points and collected four rebounds in only 15 minutes on the court.

Witherspoon was pleased with his freshmen's ability to give the team some quality minutes in their MAC Tournament opener.

"It's an unusual situation for the freshmen. We're just trying to get them to stay determined," Witherspoon said. "Sometimes they try hard not to make mistakes. We just tell them to keep the energy level high."

As well as the Bulls played on offense, their defensive effort was the difference in the victory. Kent State's Fisher, last year's MAC Player of the Year, was held to just nine points on 2-for-14 shooting. They also forced the star point guard to turn the ball over four times.

Kent State was led by Chris Singletary. After sitting out a one-game suspension for punching an opposing player on Sunday, Singletary scored 13 points. His aggressive play was missed by the Flashes when he fouled out with 4:37 remaining.

Buffalo will be back on the Quicken Loans Arena court Friday night to take on the Ball State Cardinals (14-16, 7-9 MAC) at 7:30 p.m. In their match up in February, the Cardinals took advantage of a poor shooting Buffalo shooting performance to capture a 53-51 victory on their home court in Muncie, Ind.

"They're a tough team," Witherspoon said. "We'll have to come out with a lot more energy and toughness than we did at their place."