Despite some scares the Bulls take care of Cornell

Its been several years since the Buffalo Bulls opened up 2-0, and at times it looked like Cornell might extend that streak of 1-1 starts. While the Big Red were behind pretty much the whole game they managed to close several double digit UB leads before the Bulls finally pulled away late in the second half.

Mitchell Watt was the early hero, of Buffalo's first ten point Watt scored eight and assisted on the other two. It was that effort that powered Buffalo to a 12 point lead early in the first half. Than Cornell switched to a 2-3 zone that completely shut down the Bulls offense.

Once the Big Red started running the zone the Bulls shut down. Through the next six and a half minutes ub would go 1-5 from the floor and turn the ball over an embarrassing seven times. That let Cornell pull pull within two 24-22 tie before UB rattled off a quick 5-2 run at the end the half.

After going 2-9 from beyond the arc and going nearly six minutes without scoring the Bulls were lucky to start the second half with a lead.

They would quickly extend that lead, once again to double digits and once again Cornell would get hot and not the game back up. But each time the Big red closed a big lead they fell cold. With the final surge late in the second half Cornell committed enough fouls to put Buffalo into the double Bonus.

The biggest surprise, and the difference maker in this game, was the quality work done at the charity stripe by the Bulls. UB shot just under 82% from the line. Javon McCrea who had struggled at the line during his freshman season was 5-6, Mitchell Watt was 5-5 and Jarod Oldham was 6-8.

The 20 turnovers, five by McCrea, is something that UB Needs to work on, this is not the kid of performance that will beat some of the better teams on our schedule, speaking of which up next..