A grand night for Cage

Standing at the foul line with less than six minutes to play and Buffalo down by two to Ball State, Calvin Cage let the basketball fly from his fingers as if it were any other shot.

But by the time the ball had sunk through the net, Cage was a new member of an exclusive 13-person club: UB players who have scored 1,000 career points.

"I had no idea how close I was," said the senior guard. "It was a total shock to me."

Cage's following free throw tied the game at 53 on the way to another Bulls home win by the score of 75-64. Another Cage shot, a three from the top of the arc with 4:36 to go, gave Buffalo the momentum to carry the lead to the finish.

The crowd of 4,010 was made aware of Cage's accomplishment during the next timeout and honored the Capitol Heights, Md. native with a standing ovation.

"It's a good feeling," Cage said about reaching the 1,000-point plateau at home. "I can't say enough about our fans. It was great to have them back. It was kind of dead around here without them."

Ball State head coach Tim Buckley took his hat off to Cage in the press conference after the game.

"I know one thing, if I was going into a gun fight in the Old West, I'd want to take Calvin with me because he is a gun slinger," Buckley said. "He's a guy that has no conscience of what the time is or what the score is. I've seen him break some people's backs here over the past few years with just making some good shots."

Cage, however, was reluctant to get too excited about the points, emphasizing the team's achievements over his own.

"I'm happy that I scored over 1,000 points but as long as we continue to win, that's all that I'm concerned about," Cage said.

Despite his modesty, Cage's performance has a lot to do with that of the Bulls. He contributed four assists and 21 points, setting his career mark currently at 1,006.

The silent star of the night was junior center Yassin Idbihi. Idbihi made his way to a double-double with game-highs of 23 points and 12 boards, including a rebound and a put-back following a missed free throw by senior forward Mario Jordan to increase the Bulls' lead to four late in the game.

"The guy that was boxing me out weighs 210, 215 pounds so what I try to do is push him under the basket because I didn't want to go over him because that would have been my fifth foul," Idbihi said. "I just pushed him under the basket with my body and I created some space."

The Bulls (13-3 overall, 3-2 Mid-American Conference) continued to space themselves from their competition, as they made two of three field goals and all eight free throws to close the game as the Cardinals (4-9, 0-5 MAC) were only able to add six points to their score.

Ball State is winless in the conference but the team didn't make the trip from Indiana in vain. Skip Mills, BSU forward, led his squad with 20 points while freshman Maurice Acker scored a double-double 10 assists and 15 points. Acker has had to fill the void left by junior Peyton Stovall, who entered the year as the top-returning player in the conference in three-point field goals, scoring and field goal percentage. Stovall is out for the year with an ACL injury.

UB had vacancies of its own to be filled.

Freshman guard Greg Gamble spent the game relegated to the end of the bench in a warm-up jacket and jeans due to an academic issue.

According to Bulls head coach Reggie Witherspoon, his return is dependent upon paperwork - all that would be said on the issue - that could arrive any day, probably before Saturday's game against Central Michigan. Junior Darwin Young got the start in his place and scored two points in 18 minutes.

Witherspoon also said that junior forward Parnell Smith, who has been out for the past three games with an ankle injury, is also hopeful to return before Saturday night. Junior Andrew Atman started for the second game in the row Wednesday night, playing for 12 minutes, nabbing two rebounds and blocking two shots.

The Bulls are set to face the CMU Chippewas, regardless of who is available, at home at 7 p.m. on Saturday.