Lighting up the Flash

It was a tale of two halves on Tuesday night in Alumni Arena, as the UB men's basketball team overcame a slow and sloppy start to score a convincing 77-66 victory over the visiting Kent State Golden Flashes in an important Mid-American Conference match-up.

"This was a hard fought Mid-American Conference game against a great nationally respected opponent," said head coach Reggie Witherspoon. "We fought hard in the second half."

Senior point guard Turner Battle led the Bulls' offensive charge. The star guard carried the brunt of UB's scoring load on his shoulders, pouring in 18 of his game high 22 points in the first stanza, essentially keeping the game within reach for the Bulls.

"(Battle) is the best competitor in the league. He's the best floor leader and I would say he leads his team better than anyone in this league," said Kent State head coach Jim Christian. "He's probably worth his weight in gold for that, for the intangibles that he brings."

Despite Battle's first half offensive aptitude, the Golden Flashes lit up the basket, shooting 62.1 percent from the floor, while leading by as many as 11 points in the first half.

The Bulls, meanwhile, failed to find any semblance of offensive flow, sinking just 48.3 percent of their shots on a 14-for-29 shooting performance. Entering the locker room at the half, the bereaved Bulls found themselves losing to the Golden Flashes, 43-34.

"I was upset at halftime. Not so much with how we were playing, but with how hard we were playing, I think we needed to play harder," said Witherspoon. "We were playing like it was the first round of a fight and we were trying to feel our way out, and they were playing like they were going for a knockout in the first round and we were taking all these blows, and not giving any back. We needed to be aggressive and that was the thing that really bothered me the most."

Aggressively chipping away at Kent State's lead while collecting stops on the defensive end, the Bulls pushed the pace in the second half and forced the Golden Flashes into five quick turnovers.

With the Golden Flashes noticeably focusing much of their defensive pressure on Battle, other UB athletes were able to step up.

"The second half I guess (Kent State) made some adjustments," said Battle. "(Kent State) helped on me a little more, and my teammates picked it up."

Connecting on virtually all of their shots, the Bulls' comeback was sparked largely due to the potent long-range proficiency of junior guard Calvin Cage. With Battle enjoying success in distributing the ball, Cage sparked the Bulls comeback, scoring all of his 12 points in the game in the second half.

Mark Bortz brought Buffalo to within a bucket on a free throw to set the score at 48-46 with 14:29 remaining in the second half.

"Coming out of halftime we weren't happy. We were getting out-rebounded, out-played, out-hustled and outworked in every aspect of the game," said Bortz, who ended the night with 13 points and four rebounds while shooting 5-for-8 from the floor. "It was going to start with our defense and then our offense started to come."

After Kent State failed to score on its next possession, Battle tied the game on the Bulls' next possession, situating the score at 48 apiece on a jumper off a Daniel Gilbert pass.

"With Turner, I have come to expect to be amazed, he's always like an explosion waiting to happen," said Bortz of his teammate. "Just the amount of control he brings to the game and to our team, it's just one of those things that is irreplaceable."

After four subsequent lead changes, a Mario Jordan lay-up - created from a Yassin Idbihi steal, and a full-court heave from Battle - allowed the Bulls to take a 65-64 lead with 4:47 left in the game.

Never looking back, UB offensively dominated the Golden Flashes throughout the last four minutes of action, embarking on a 12-2 scoring run, good for the 11-point victory.

Before continuing MAC play, the Bulls will travel to Fresno, CA to take on Fresno State on Saturday in part of ESPN's highly-touted Bracket Buster Saturday. Buffalo will return to competitive MAC action on Feb. 23 in a game against the Marshall Thundering Herd in Huntington, W.Va.