Bobcats burst Bulls' bubble

If college basketball games were 20 minutes long, UB would be sitting pretty in the Mid-American Conference East Division.

The Bulls would also likely have their sights set on a first round bye to Cleveland, as well as the possibility of earning additional national attention with regards to an NCAA Tournament berth.

However, the Bulls faced the Ohio Bobcats for 40 minutes last night, and the final score read 90-77, Ohio. The Bobcats crushed any hopes the Bulls had for a first round bye in the MAC Tournament.

Ohio fans were relentless, chanting "overrated" at the Bulls, a team that many picked to win the MAC East and make a run for an at-large bid to the big dance.

Buffalo (18-8 overall, 10-7 MAC) came out strong, sinking 3-pointers, blocking shots, and utilizing opportunities in the paint and on fast breaks. UB would go into halftime leading the Bobcats 38-37.

The Bulls found themselves up by just a single point, after taking a lead of as many as 10. UB would hold its lead for only 40 seconds in the second half and would never get it back.

"The start of the second half we were awful," said head coach Reggie Witherspoon. "Energy wise and intensity wise, we got stagnant and they took advantage of it. We responded well but too late."

Ohio (17-9, 11-6 MAC) took charge out of the locker room, making five shots from beyond the arc in the first five minutes of the second half. The Bobcats' offensive surge was led by freshman Jeremy Fears. Fears, who was 16 percent from 3-point land before Wednesday night's game, sank six treys en route to his game-high 33 points.

"They shot great," said Witherspoon. "They had been shooting it terribly leading up to today. They hit some shots with us on them but we gave them too many looks where they weren't guarded."

Ohio's point total would also be boosted by another freshman, Leon Williams. Williams contributed 22 points and a game-high 14 rebounds for the home team, completing his third straight double-double.

"What happened is they got hot and they hit the threes. We never recovered. We just didn't have the right intensity for the first seven or eight minutes of the second half," said Witherspoon. "They were very, very aggressive and we were stagnant and it left us with poor shots."

Buffalo's efforts were led by senior point guard Turner Battle, who scored 16 points - including a 3-pointer with 3:31 to go in the second half - to bring the Bulls within five.

Yassin Idbihi brought down a team-high nine rebounds and also contributed 13 points. Coming off the bench, juniors Mario Jordan and Roderick Middleton were the other UB players to score in double digits, chipping in 12 and 10 points, respectively.

"I thought we had a pretty good effort rebounding the basketball," said Witherspoon. "We didn't convert enough of them but we went to the glass hard. Twenty-three offensive rebounds, that's a lot. It's unusual to lose a game and have less turnovers and more rebounds. To lose it by this margin shows how hot and how well they shot the ball."

Along with their hot shooting, Ohio played a zone defense and capitalized on Buffalo's offensive weakness, shooting the Bulls right in their Achilles heel in front of a home crowd of 5,216 in Athens, Ohio.

Buffalo's bench, a clutch part of recent wins, outscored the Bobcat bench 30-5. Along with starter Battle, bench players senior Mark Bortz and junior Calvin Cage statistically round out the top three scorers of the team. However, Bortz and Cage combined for a total of only eight points in the Convocation Center.

"We had just a few guys that didn't bring their intensity today and that hurt us," said Witherspoon. "I think we had guys who played pretty hard for the entire game and I think that's why we got so many rebounds. But we had a few guys that didn't have the intensity that they normally have."

UB now looks to bring its intensity home for its last game of the regular season this Saturday. The Bulls will face the Akron Zips in Alumni Arena.

The last time these two teams faced off, the Zips were victorious in Akron by a final score of 75-59. UB shot just 33.3 percent from the field, including a very poor 12.5 percent from the land of plenty.

Buffalo was able to out-rebound the Zips by a 48-36 margin, but they were unable to convert their rebounds into points on the other end of the floor.

The Bulls had the lead for nearly 12 minutes in the first half, but the Zips were able to take over from that point on and the Bulls could not keep up.

In that game, Yassin Idbihi led the Bulls in scoring with 12 points, but Romeo Travis and Darryl Peterson scored 21 and 20 points respectively for the Zips.

UB will have to control those two and also improve on their poor shooting if they want to send their seniors off on a high note.

Additionally, Roderick Middleton gets his revenge on his younger brother, Cedrick Middleton. In the previous match-up between the two, Cedrick outscored Roderick six points to three.

The game will be preceded by a tribute to the four senior members of the team: Battle, Bortz, Daniel Gilbert and Jason Bird. Tip-off, which was originally scheduled for 2 p.m. has been moved to 4 p.m. to accommodate the fact that the game is being aired locally on WNLO.