Nobody ever said winning had to be pretty, but 40 minutes and 46 combined turnovers later, the Buffalo Bulls men's basketball team (10-11, 6-7 Mid-American Conference) amassed their 10th win of the season by defeating the reigning MAC champions on Saturday in Alumni Arena 75-66.
The Central Michigan Chippewas (4-19, 1-12 MAC) came into UB fresh off their first conference win of the season on Wednesday against Northern Illinois.
However, after shooting 36.7 percent from the field in the first half, Buffalo erupted for 45 points on 57.7 percent shooting in the latter 20 minutes to sustain CMU's disappointing year.
Led by Daniel Gilbert's 17 points, UB reached the ten-win mark, doubling last year's dismal 5-23 output.
The Chippewas low-post defense seemed to stifle UB's big men Yassin Idbihi and Mark Bortz, but the Bulls countered with 7-15 shooting from beyond the arc, including a career best 5-6 by sophomore guard Roderick Middleton.
"I'm not one to shoot a lot of three-pointers," said Middleton, who finished with 15 points. "But they were going under the screens and they were playing off me a little bit, so when I was open I just shot it."
With 7:31 remaining in the game and up 58-47, Middleton drained his fifth trey of the game to all but deliver the knock out punch and put UB by 14.
"He (Middleton) stepped up and made some big shots," said CMU head coach Jay Smith. "If he misses those, it's a different ball game."
Leading the way for Central Michigan was senior center Gerrit Brigitha with 15 points, while sophomore guard Kevin Nelson notched 14.
It was a tenacious effort by the Chippewas, who lost 92 percent of its offensive output from a year ago, including the Los Angeles Clippers first round lottery pick and 2003 MAC player of the year Chris Kaman.
And at times it was discernible that the Chippewas were trying to establish some sort of cohesiveness as a team.
"Central Michigan shot the ball extremely well in the second half and did a great job of hanging in there and fighting until the end," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "It's probably what we needed, although it's not what we wanted. We held our poise long enough to win. It was a good conference win for us."
Also, continuing to play well for the Bulls was sophomore forward Mario Jordan with 13 points, while Turner Battle added 14 and tallied five assists.
UB will look to hit .500 in overall standings and in the MAC at 7 p.m. on Wednesday when they travel to Eastern Michigan to avenge a Feb. 4 loss to the Eagles.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
