Nothing has been able to slow down the men's basketball team lately. Entering Wednesday's showdown at Kent State, Buffalo had won four-straight games and seven of eight contests overall.
The winning streak came to an abrupt halt, however, as the Bulls (10-5, 3-1 MAC) fell to the Golden Flashes (11-7, 2-2 MAC) by the lopsided score of 89-54.
With the loss, however, the team did keep alive another streak: Buffalo has never won a game at the M.A.C. Center.
Head coach Reggie Witherspoon wasn't pleased with his team's lack of cohesiveness.
'Every team is a bad night away from being really poor,' Witherspoon said. 'I think we played bad for a reason. We didn't play together offensively. We didn't have good movement and didn't trust each other. Usually when there's a margin of defeat like this, it's a combination of things.'
Kent State combined a superb defensive effort with a near-flawless display of shooting to shut down the streaking Bulls.
'They played great tonight and we didn't play very well, offensively or defensively,' Witherspoon said.
Senior guard Rodney Pierce also saw his streak of consecutive games with 20-plus points come to an end at eight games. He scored just four points and went 1-for-8 shooting from the field. The star guard also turned the ball over six times and was nonexistent on the defensive end.
Kent State head coach Geno Ford attributed Pierce's lack of scoring to his team's defensive strategy that focused on shutting down Buffalo's leading scorer.
'We switched on ball screens with him, so it was probably eight or nine guys who ended up guarding him,' Ford said. 'When a player that's that good has a bad game, it's probably that they were just off. He didn't shoot the ball well.'
The Bulls did have solid performances from senior guard Calvin Betts and forward Max Boudreau. Betts scored 14 points and went 7-for-10 from the free throw stripe. Boudreau contributed a team-high 15 points off the bench as a reserve.
Chris Singletary lead the Golden Flashes with 18 points and six others scored in double digits. Anthony Simpson added 11 points and collected seven rebounds.
The first half started out slow as both teams combined for just 17 points over the first seven minutes. Buffalo shot a miserable 33 percent from the field, and Kent State shot 44 percent. With the game still in the balance, Betts swooped in for a layup to pull Buffalo within two points with 2:52 remaining in the first half.
Kent State responded with an 8-0 run to finish off the half, leading to a 34-24 halftime lead.
The second half belonged to Kent State as it hit 10 of its first 11 shots and began the half on a 22-10 run. Buffalo's attempt at a comeback never came to fruition as the Golden Flashes extended their lead to as many as 39 points.
Kent State put on a shooting display in front of the home crowd, hitting 74.1 percent of its shots from the floor and nailing 10-of-14 from 3-point land during the last period.
Kent State guards Tyree Evans and Randal Holt chipped in 11 points off the bench while hitting three 3-pointers each.
'We just came out and took their hearts,' Evans said.
Buffalo looks to bounce back from this loss as it travels to play Ohio (9-9, 0-4 MAC) on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
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