With the clock to the Mid-American Conference tournament winding down, the men's basketball team seems to be in a rut.
The Bulls (16-11, 7-7 MAC) traveled to Ohio to meet conference rival Akron (19-10, 9-5 MAC) on Saturday night. The team could not top the Zips and dropped its second straight on the road, 69-60.
The contest marks the Bulls' fourth consecutive loss to a conference opponent. Head coach Reggie Witherspoon believes, however, that the team has been performing far above what its record shows, especially in the game against Akron.
"I told the team, we played better in [this game] than in some of the games that we won," Witherspoon said. "If you're here you can see it, but if you're not, you can look at the stat sheet and kind of tell. We come in and outrebound them. We played the second half with four turnovers in a physical game."
Although the team did perform well on the boards (outrebounding the Zips 32-26, including 10 offensive rebounds), it could not match that success in other areas of its play, most notably in its free-throw shooting.
The Bulls finished the matchup having only made half of their attempted shots from the line. The Zips did a good job of sending some of Buffalo's least experienced shooters to the charity stripe, with freshman forward Javon McCrea spending the most time there.
"[We] struggled at the line," Witherspoon said. "[Junior guard Zach Filzen] missed one, but those are guys who are trying to become better free throw shooters for the most part."
Senior guard Byron Mulkey, normally one of the team's top scorers, was held to just five points, shooting 2-of-11 from the field. Filzen contributed 14 points for the Bulls but was inconsistent, making only 38 percent of his shots. The performance was not without its milestones, as Filzen recorded his 95th 3-pointer of the season, breaking the Bulls' single-season record.
Although the veterans on the squad struggled, the younger members of the team stepped up in a big way. McCrea was the Bulls' top performer on the night, with his final stat line reading 23 points, three rebounds, a steal, and the Bulls' only blocked shot. Freshman guard Jarod Oldham came off the bench for 20 minutes to hit both of his shots, as well as a free throw.
Witherspoon also commented on sophomore forward Mike Clifford for his performance in the contest. Clifford played the majority of his time at the end of the game, relieving some players who began to get in foul trouble.
"[Clifford] is starting to show things that we have talked about, that we figured that he had in terms of mobility," Witherspoon said. "You come out and get some guys in foul trouble and it's nice to be able to go to the bench and contribute with good energy. He's still feeling his way through it. In other words, he's still got more ability than he's comfortable having in these situations."
With the positives from the bench, it would seem that there would be something more at work to prevent Buffalo from leaving Ohio with a victory. There are some instances where luck, however, becomes too much of a factor to overcome.
"A couple times there were leaks in what we were doing and they had a spot up shooter and he hits a shot," Witherspoon said. "A couple times the guy shooting was not the guy they wanted shooting on that particular play, and he knocks it down. We ran a couple plays that we normally run that are draw plays that were incredibly open and we got nothing."
The Bulls will need to find a way to turn things around quickly, as there are only two more games before the MAC tournament starts in Cleveland. Buffalo lost its previous matches against its final two opponents, but both contests were decided by three points.
The team will come home to Alumni Arena for its senior night to face off against Miami (Ohio) (15-14, 10-4 MAC) at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
E-mail: sports@ubspectrum.com
