On Friday night, men’s basketball (13-7, 3-5 MAC) finished their game one point shy of a win over the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Minutemen (13-8, 4-5 MAC). The Bulls put up a fight in the second half to return from a 20-point deficit, but ended with a 67-68 loss. UMass is making their Mid-American Conference (MAC) debut this season after coming out of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
After trading points in the early minutes of the game, UMass took off and began to dominate; even scoring 15 consecutive unanswered points. UB head coach, George Halcovage, in the post game press conference attributed these early struggles to a lack of “physicality” and explained that as the game went on the Bulls were able to match the Minutemen on that front. Although the first half was rough for the Bulls, sophomore guard Daniel Freitag and junior guard Ryan Sabol were involved in almost every point scored and continued to be persistent at the rim.
As the Bulls began the second half, they picked up pace. In the final quarter, they brought the deficit to just five points. With 7:37 left in the game, the Bulls would take their first lead of the night after a 3-point shot from Sabol. With efforts from senior forward Noah Batchelor, Sabol and Freitag, the Bulls held onto their lead until the clock struck nine seconds. With just moments left in the game, UMass scored the 3-point shot that would solidify their win and be the last time the ball went into the net that evening.
What ultimately put the nail in the coffin for the Bulls was their percentage from the free throw line, making just 50% from the line. Despite the tough loss, Sabol led the team in scoring with 27 points and also accumulated five assists.
The Bulls next fixture will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 27 in Bowling Green, OH, against MAC opponent Bowling Green State University (13-7, 4-4 MAC). The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Ciah Courtney is the senior sports editor and can be reached at ciah.courtney@ubspectrum.com.
