Shaking off a controversial foul call, senior forward Isaiah Adams scored a layup for UB (4-25, 2-14 MAC) to cut Toledo’s (18-11, 12-4 MAC) lead to 48-49 with 12:43 left in the second half before the Bulls collapsed in a similar fashion to their loss against Kent State last Wednesday.
UB fell 79-85 to the Toledo Rockets on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Arena. The loss was UB’s 25th of the season, just the second time in school history the program has lost that many games. The only other time that happened was in 1991-92, when the Bulls lost a program-worst 26 games while part of the East Coast Conference (ECC).
During Toledo’s 12-0 run after the layup from Adams, the Bulls turned the ball over five times in 3:43 minutes of game time. The turnover battle hurt UB throughout the game, as the Bulls coughed up the ball 17 times and allowed the Rockets to score 24 points off those takeaways. Toledo’s “kill shot,” a run of 10-0 or more, was the 24th that Buffalo has conceded this season, according to EvanMiya.
“One thing is that we have to clean up the turnovers,” head coach George Halcovage said. “I think being minus-15 in the turnover column for us was probably the difference in this game.”
Senior forward Sy Chatman led the team with 25 points, while grabbing 10 rebounds for a double-double as he went 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Adams racked up 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists in an all-around effort. Sophomore forward Zaakir Williamson added 10 points and four rebounds off the bench.
“Nothing changes for us,” Halcovage said. “We just have to keep understanding that our goal is to be the best basketball team that this team can be by the end of the year, and I thought today was a step in that direction.”
UB stayed with Toledo to start the game, knotting the score at 13 on a pair of Williamson layups inside the paint. From there, the Bulls remained close behind the Rockets, tying the game at 29 thanks to an and-one from Chatman. Moments later, Adams slammed home a fastbreak dunk to take the lead before the Bulls gave up a Toledo run to go into halftime down 33-37.
The start of the second half was much of the same, with both teams getting physical as multiple offensive fouls were called. After UB gave up the “kill shot” to Toledo, the Bulls responded to make it 63-58 with 6:43 left to play. UB made it interesting down the stretch, but never got closer than six points as the Rockets hit some clutch free throws to put them away.
The Bulls will next face the Ohio Bobcats (17-12, 11-5 MAC) at home on Tuesday. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.
Henry Daley is an assistant sports editor and can be reached at henry.daley@ubspectrum.com
Henry Daley is an assistant sports editor at The Spectrum. His work has featured on other platforms such as Medium and Last Word on Sports. Outside of the newspaper, he enjoys running and watching sports (when he’s not writing about them).
